Coming back to the States has been an adjustment in many ways. Shopping at the grocery store every two days, instead of every two weeks, for example. The other day, Ryan went to the store with the kids. I called him 30 minutes later to add something to the list, and was amazed that he was already at the grocery store, almost done with the shopping. It used to take him an hour and a half to get to the store in Haiti! Other things we've had to adjust to are the amount of meat we consume here (ounces and ounces more than we did back home in Haiti), the speed of service at restaurants (no need to bring a boardgame with us anymore to play while we wait on our food), and the amazing existence of child care at church (no more taking turns staying home with the kids while the other adult attends service).
The kids have had to adjust to television. They used to watch videos in Haiti, but now it's cable tv. They love having so many different types of shows to watch, but they were very frustrated by commercials at first. They would say, "Turn the show back on!". Now, they are used to them, and I've even heard them sing along ("cruncha muncha, cruncha muncha, fritos on my sub"). They still don't quite understand that tv is scheduled and any one particular show cannot be loaded up whenever they want to view it, like their videos back home were. The kids are also adjusting to different food (cheese sticks and strawberries instead of laughing cow cheese and mangoes), but the staples of bread and peanut butter remain the same.
Living in the South now, I've had to adjust to a few different expressions. People down here like to "put it up" instead of put it away. They also like to "feel of it" instead of just feeling it. There are countless other words that I'm learning to use -or refusing to use- like saying "tee tee" in reference to anything bathroom related (Tee Tee is my name, OK?). One thing I wasn't expecting, though, is a change in lingo in the Stateside Christian community as a whole. When I left the States in 2001, people loved other people. Now, people prefer to 'love on' others. "Oh," they say, "Did you go down to Haiti to love on those poor, sick folks?" Nope, just tried to love them. Loving on them sounds scary! What if my love was too heavy and crushed them? Back in 2001, people talked about things. Now, people speak to things. "This is going to speak to the area of my life that most needs improvement," they'll say. "Huh?" I'll reply. This new lingo doesn't just involve clever use of different prepositions, either. There are hip nouns and adjectives now, like "intentionality", "missional", and "capacity building". When a missionary was asked what they did back in 2001, he might say something like, "I'm a medical missionary in Haiti." Now, he may respond with, "I am involved with missional living and capacity building with intentionality, and I strive to speak to the felt needs of the underprivileged with a focus on sustainability and impactful initiatives." Eh? I'm sure he's doing great things, but I have no clue what they are!
