{"id":8993,"date":"2023-09-01T18:44:33","date_gmt":"2023-09-01T22:44:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/delp\/?p=8993"},"modified":"2023-09-01T18:44:33","modified_gmt":"2023-09-01T22:44:33","slug":"culture-shock-in-the-vitamin-aisle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/delp\/?p=8993","title":{"rendered":"Culture Shock in the Vitamin Aisle"},"content":{"rendered":"

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In the mission world, we talk about culture shock a lot.\u00a0 You have probably heard people talk about it, people who have been overseas for a while, or maybe not even that long and then go back to their passport country and realize something is different.\u00a0 We left the U.S. over 13 years ago now, but that doesn’t mean we still don’t have culture shock either coming back to Ecuador from being in the U.S. or vice versa.\u00a0 There is usually something that makes it known either consciously or subconsciously that makes us tell ourselves,\u00a0 “we’re not in Kansas anymore” or “Houston, we have a problem”!\u00a0 It can be simple things like being able to flush toilet paper or drink water out of the faucet or not hearing Spanish, but only English in the background all the time.\u00a0 In Ecuador, it is usually only Spanish and that is easy to not need to be aware and overhear or eavesdrop because our brains (because it is our 2nd language) can tune it out.\u00a0 But when we are surrounded by only English all the time, it is like circuit overload because we understand EVERYTHING in all of the conversations around us and because our brains aren’t used to it, we struggle tuning it out!\u00a0 Another thing is going to Walmart or Target and just being surrounded with so.many.options!\u00a0 The pop aisle has two whole aisles of decisions!\u00a0 The chip aisle has so many Dorito choices!\u00a0 The candy aisle, WOWZA!<\/p>\n

Sometimes, it is bigger things like tough conversations or explaining ourselves over and over why we speak Spanish or that hard word, HOME, that always comes up when we are stateside (this would take a whole other blog to discuss), but safe to say that the U.S. rarely feels like home to us because our home is in Ecuador.\u00a0 Anyway, there is always culture shock for us.\u00a0 This year going back to the States, for me (Kim), it was the vitamin aisle!\u00a0 I know that may sound a little crazy, I admit it sounds crazy.\u00a0 But I was specifically looking for a couple of different vitamins for the kids and then for Joel and I!\u00a0 I literally sat there for over 30 minutes trying to find what I needed, but to no avail.\u00a0 Throughout our time I ended up going to multiple different vitamin aisles only to be overwhelmed to the point of tears at the amount of options from Melatonin to Probiotics to multivitamins and everything in between.\u00a0 Vitamins here in Ecuador are a hot commodity, but also a very expensive one, something the majority of people can’t afford, but that we know can be so beneficial.\u00a0 Even just standing in the aisle made me realize I was so fortunate to be able to have the choice of SO many vitamins.<\/p>\n

Why do I even tell you this seemingly meaningless story of my vitamin aisle culture shock?\u00a0 It is a reminder to be thankful for choices, simple things like vitamins and also to remember to pray for missionaries when they are traveling between different cultures.\u00a0 If they cry unexpectedly, give grace because it likely is way deeper than you know.\u00a0 If you have no idea what to say to missionaries, sometimes it can be easier to choose to talk to someone you know better, but most missionaries and especially missionary kids want to be seen.\u00a0 Ask them about their life, what is hard, what they love, what are favorite things about the country where they serve?\u00a0 Most of us will love telling you and most of us want someone to acknowledge the hard part of coming back to our passport country.<\/p>\n

Report This Post<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the mission world, we talk about culture shock a lot.\u00a0 You have probably heard people talk about it, people who have been overseas for a while, or maybe not even that long and then go back to their passport country and realize something is different.\u00a0 We left the U.S. over 13 years ago now, … Continue reading »<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14012,4099,42,4074],"tags":[24662],"class_list":["post-8993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-home","category-home-assignment","category-ministry","category-reflections","tag-reflections"],"yoast_head":"\nCulture Shock in the Vitamin Aisle - Delplog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/delp\/?p=8993\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Culture Shock in the Vitamin Aisle - 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