FAQ: visiting America?

Q: What is the best thing about visiting America?

Sure the wide variety of food options is fantastic, we do miss that when we are away. However, that isn't the best thing about visiting America. Not for this American living outside of our home country. The best thing about going home for me, was the ability to communicate, the ability to read, and the ability to understand. I know that at the end of many days I am exhausted and it isn't just the work load. It is that I am constantly trying to communicate, read and understand a language that is not my mother tongue - that I am only just learning. It takes a lot of energy to get through a day like that. It takes a lot of effort. The minute I got off the airplane in Atlanta and could understand the loudspeaker announcements, and easily read the signs, and strike up a conversation with anyone around me...at that moment I felt a burden lift. Ahhh, relief.

At the airport I actually found the interaction with the airline staff pleasant while reporting our lost luggage, because I didn't have to figure out how to explain all of this through broken words due to a limited vocabulary, using actions or pictures to fill in the gaps. I was simply able to say, "Our bags didn't arrive. They look like this. You can send them to this address." I expend less energy when I am able to communicate.

I also have a new found appreciation for the struggles of those who go through life illiterate. I am motivated to learn Portuguese partially so I can read the notices posted at our apartment. I often joke that at this point it could say they are fumigating at noon tomorrow, but we would be clueless because of our inability to fully understand the local language.

Once in Cambodia we had a group of folks over to play games. It was people from different countries, but they were all English speaking countries - America, Australia and England. One of the attendees prayed over our meal and said, "God, thank you for the opportunity to be in a room with people who speak English." Amen to that!!

I found my limited ability to understand Portuguese very irritating during the recent distrubances. The international news was hardly reporting the problem or events. The Embassy updates were outdated by the time I received them, I often read them and thought, "tell me something I don't already know." The best source for information was chatter on the street and the local news...all of which was in Portuguese. I would stare at the screen and strain my ears to pick up whatever I could. When the president spoke on the first night of rioting, I wanted desperately to understand his words as they would be very crucial to the outcome of events. I could not understand.

I called a colleague after the speech to ask what the President said. She laughed and said, "Sheri, no one knows what the President said." So, it ended up being one of those empty, political, pedantic speeches...but I still wish I could have understood the words.

So, count your blessings when you are able to greet a stranger and have them understand. When you can strike up a conversation while waiting in a public line. When you can read road signs, a newspaper, or an announcement posted in a public place. It is even a blessing to sit in a restaruant and be able to eavesdrop (listen in) on other conversations. In our daily lives, these things elude us. I did not realize the amount of energy spent as a result, until I returned home and suddenly the obstacle was removed and I was able to read, communicate and understand.

I have a deeper understanding of how effective the strategy of God was in Babylon by simply confusing the language of people.

Have you ever felt like a foreigner in a foreign land?

Sheri