It's Fancy in Here

I've spent the last three months of my life here; in the Dominican Republic. I expected that after living here a while I would become acustomed to the culture and lifestyle. However, the other day it struck me...like one of those "ah hah" moments.....I'm living a new normal. It's kind of funny how and where it happened. The other day I went to Santiago with a few friends. Santiago is a large city and has a few American restuarants, so we had planned on eating dinner at Chilis. We were at Chilis, eating chips and salsa, like any ordinary American would, I was looking around the restuarant and said to my friends, "it's fancy in here." The words just barely left my mouth and I realized....I realized what I had said and what it meant. My outlook on life is definately far different from what it use to be. Honestly, how many of you have been at Chilis, Applebee's or any other well known American restuarant chain, looked around and thought to yourself...it's fancy in here? Even if you had thought that, I guarantee that you didn't think much of it, and moved on to the next thought that came into your mind. I know that up until a few days ago I had never thought or said those four words about a restuarant that we so often take for granted. I realize that I'm living a NEW normal, partly because I'm in a different country and culture and mostly because God is at work in me, changing the way that I think and act.

Walking through a bario is normal...it's a new normal. My Jr. high school was in a very bad neighborhood, which we called the bario. I remember driving past the houses on my way to school thinking, "those homes are ghetto." Now, I walk through neighborhoods where homes are built from slats of wood and the roofs consist of a thin sheet of tin. Fences are lined with barbed wire and dirty children play barefoot in the street, but it's not ghetto, it's just the way they live. It's normal.

My friends and I go up the mountain and just hang out, looking out over all of Jarabacoa. We buy food, go out to the "campo" (country) and cook over an open fire. We chop down a bunch of green bananas with a machette and boil them (they taste like potatoes). We hang out after school while one of the mothers cleans. We talk all the time.....we laugh all the time. We ask each other questions; questions about life. We listen to music. We hang out in the park; just to hang out. We don't spend a lot of money to have a good time...we spend a lot of time together to have a good time. That's normal.

I haven't watched television in three months. Back home a good friend of mine doesn't watch televison either, but has a t.v. so his family can watch movies together. I always thought that must be a hard sacrifice, but now I see the value in that discipline. Sure I miss being able to sit down and watch some television, but more than that I miss the time I wasted in the past watching televison when I could have been reading my Bible...spending time with family and friends...playing guitar...thinking...living. That's normal.

Now, I have more free time and I use it to read more...... pray more......study God's word more......to appreciate more......live more......listen more......to sit back and take it all in......MORE. Because of this I hear God more........I experience God more........I understand more......I grow more.
This is normal.

I know that when I go home and I sit in a restaurant or in a regular American home I'll think to myself.....It's fancy in here.