A Frustrating Day and a Faithful God

Well, this past week (like any week) has had its ups and downs, and I've certainly learned a lot about the culture - and myself. But I'm going to break my blogging trend and just tell you about one day, Wednesday, which felt like the longest (and in some ways, most frustrating) day of my life. Now to preface this story, the day ended well and nothing really went wrong, it was just a seemingly infinite series of little culture clashes and frustrations.

The day began well with a good day of classes, then I walked back from the university to meet Cacho and go pick up a package my parents had sent me. This is where the culture clashes began, and I soon experienced firsthand the fact that Argentina is a high context culture (that is, a lot of things are assumed from context rather than said explicitly). First, Cacho assumed that when he said "Let's meet at Cabildo and Juramento to take a bus to go get your package", I would understand that to mean "Actually, let's meet two blocks away from that corner where the bus stop is that we'll use." Of course, I had never used that bus stop, so I stood waiting at Cabildo and Juramento until Cacho came and found me 20 minutes later. Second, Cacho assumed that I would know that getting my package involved at least a 30 minute train ride downtown, a possible hour (or longer) wait for my turn to find my package, and hoping my package made it through customs. All the while I had been thinking that I would only have to run to a corner post office and grab the package - I guess that's what I get for assuming.

Well, this whole time I'm looking anxiously at the time because I had told Victoria I would meet her at 6 o'clock to walk to the movie theater where the youth group was going to see Avatar. After running back to my house and dumping my package, I hastily took a colectivo to where I was meeting Vic, got off at a slightly wrong stop, and showed up about 5 or 10 minutes late. We began to walk (quickly) to a movie theater we had never been to, hoping that the streets we thought we could take didn't randomly stop or go in a wrong direction. After one slightly wrong turn, we  reached the mall that held the theater, asked where it was, and arrived at the theater to find....absolutely no one from the youth group. After much deliberation, we decided we'd try to buy a ticket and hope to find the youth group already inside the theater. Of course, we had to ask where to buy a ticket, at which point we encountered another aspect of the culture - if you ask for help, people won't tell you they don't know, even if they don't. So, an eager-to-help couple told us the wrong line which we stood in for ten minutes until (fortunately) we spotted Pablo and the other Grace girls.

Then it got even better - Pablo told us we were all in the wrong theater. He had assumed (and thus told us) that we would being going to the theater in Dot, when in actuality the youth group was meeting at a different mall - and since it is a high context culture, he hadn't asked and the others hadn't specified. By then it was too late to make it to the other theater or watch the 3D version at our theater, so we decided (after much discussion and indecision) to watch the non-3D, Spanish version of Avatar that started a little later. At this point, I tried to text Cacho to tell him I'd be getting back later...and I found that for some reason, my cell phone currently won't send texts or make calls. Awesome.

In the end, we grabbed some dinner, watched the movie (which was good even with the Spanish dubbing), and got back to our houses with no problem, but by then I was absolutely brain-fried, frustrated, and exhausted. Here's an excerpt from my journal that night: "Today was a really long day and I'm exhausted, in a bad mood, and frustrated. So many little things went wrong today...It's times like this I can't wait to go back. It's times like this I feel like I just want to curl up in a ball and cry or sleep for a few days. It's times like this I'm dying for a hug from someone back home  - or at least just to talk to someone and hear it's all going to be okay. But I know it's times like this I have to depend on God, I have to turn to Him to be my comfort, my energy, my joy. Lord, I've got nothing left. Will You fill me up?"

And He did. He gave me words from Isaiah reminding me of His glory, His light that shines on me, and that my delight is in Him. He gave me rest and opportunities to unwind the next couple of days, and an awesome weekend of worship at youth group and church (more on that in my next blog). And He gave me the encouragement of videochats with my boyfriend and my parents, and both times they prayed for me and pointed me back to His faithfulness, love, and power.

After this day of culture clashes and frustrations, I'm certain of two things. First, my life will never be free of frustrating times - not here in Buenos Aires and not when I return. Second, and so much more important, God is so faithful through all the frustrations, culture clashes, and exhaustion, and He uses those times to draw me closer to Him.