Saturday Night Live

9/23/09

It was Sabbath evening and I did not feel like I had experienced a day of rest. We girls had already held the kids’ Sabbath school, helped out with church, and put on another afternoon program that went until about six. Needless to say, when the Bible workers announced that they were planning a church social for the evening, I was not overly excited. With nothing but a huge amount of visits to look forward to early the next morning, all I wanted to do was crawl into bed after working on lesson plans. All of us girls felt the same, but knew it would be irresponsible if we did not help out. Our leader, Aletha, suggested that all of us make at least a ten minute appearance. The rest of the girls headed out, but I lingered in the room trying to come up with any excuse to put off joining in the festivities. The loud music and laughing was not enticing at all. Pasting a smile on my face and trying to exude large amounts of energy sounded absolutely draining. Finally, I sucked it up and went into our larger building, pajamas, glasses, and all, with every intention of sticking around for no more than my required ten minutes.

When I got into the main room, I was quickly shoved into the current game, which I understood nothing of. I found out very quickly though that it was merely a simple game where when different songs were played, one would find a partner and do a specific thing, like skipping around for a minute, and then switch partners. Being white, I very rarely got to sit on the side to catch my breath, and without choice was forced to continue on with the games. I found that the games were all very pointless, but the people were having a blast, and after getting involved, I found myself having fun too on top of getting a good work out! By the end of the evening I really felt like it had actually been a fun Saturday night, almost the equivalent of hanging out with my friends in the States! And that is when it hit me, I was really beginning to feel like the people that I have been working with down here were truly becoming my friends.

It was a wonderful thought, because often I get frustrated with how distant and different I feel from the people here. The cultural differences can seem insurmountable. I definitely have many days when I get tired of people laughing at all of my actions or my Cassajana (Spanish). At times, I feel like I am nothing more to these people than mere entertainment or a person to manipulate in order to get things that they don’t normally have access too. But, it is at these times that I try look back to this last Saturday night, or the volleyball game I was invited to play in, or a good conversation I had during a house visit, or the kisses (on the cheek of course :)) that I receive after every program that we hold. It is these experiences that keep me going and remind me that, yep, maybe I am no longer with my family and friends from the States, but that my efforts are not in vain, and that I am creating new and unique friendships here as well.





(The gringas seen above are Aletha, our newest addition to our group and Mindy)