It all started when I needed to air out my wet tent.
The most logical solution for this task was to hang it on the clothesline over the balcony across from our door. Attempting to open the patio area, I left with a door handle in my hand – a sopping wet tent, and no way of retrieving the other end of the door handle now buried inside the locked door.
My secondary strategy – or plan B – was to drape my tent along the banisters in the stairwell. This seemed like a brilliant plan – however much to my surprise, five minutes later we heard a knock at our door. A large man was standing there. “Oooh no what do I do Kayla?” I asked, “There’s a really big man there!” Quickly I pulled my thoughts together and opened the door. He immediately shook his finger at me and pointed to my tent on the banister – “No, No, No!” he said and motioned for me to follow him and the little woman beside him.
We walked down a few flights of stairs into mystery basement room where they showed me a special clothesline. I thanked them in every language I knew – still getting nowhere close to Czech, but they understood and put me and Shawndell right to work carrying cardboard boxes to a second mystery basement room. The small lady gave me a side hug squeezing my neck in her arm – she was small in stature, but great in strength.
After this, the landlord (a.k.a-big man outside our door earlier) and the small lady brought us upstairs and attempted to communicate what we were supposed to do with the key to the mystery basement room. Apparently I was to keep this key – and all would be well. The small lady shushed me by placing her finger over her lips and invited Shawndell and I into her house. “How kind this lady is!!” I thought to myself. She motioned something to us with her fingers and mouth – I assumed she was giving us some sort of chocolate or treat and was pretty excited – until she insisted we sit at the table and opened up her liquor cabinet. Pulling two shot glasses from the cabinet she poured Shawndell and I piping glasses of vodka. All the color drained from my face as I thought over and over and over again, “Not okay! Not okay! Not okay!” I thought to myself. “Think Christy, think! How are we going to get out of this situation”?
My creative mind went to work immediately. The lady slipped out of the room for a moment – at which time I proceeded to dump a portion of the shot into one of her plants. Shawndell tired to pour hers back into the bottle. She returned with her husband and two more glasses. Then she proposed a toast and motioned for us to drink. We hesitated and decided to give ourselves one more round of charades in hopes this would deter us from having to consume this gift from our neighbors.
Shawndell mentioned we were just babies and couldn’t handle the stuff. They laughed. I thought Shawndell was brilliant and proposed to our friends that we were perhaps pregnant. They laughed and did not believe me. The lady insisted once again that we take these shots – showing us that it would tingle from head to toe. I was not okay…and wondered why and how I’d gotten myself into this situation. I began to weigh out my options – and realized quickly this lady was not letting us leave her house without drinking these shots, in any manner other than plowing her and her husband over to get to the door. That would be rude, so I opted out of that option and considered my alternative – drink the stuff. I reached for her empty glass – and insisted that she let me pour half the shot into hers. Shawndell did the same into the husband’s cup – and there we sat, with two ½ full shot glasses of vodka — praying the stuff would evaporate – and quickly realizing it wasn’t. “Drink, drink” they insisted. Taking a deep breathe – I felt like I was going to puke…and thought “dear world race, thank you for cultural situations I cannot talk/explain myself out of.” Looking at Shawndell – my nervous laughter began to overtake my ability to speak. “I…I…I…I…to Jesus. Dear Jesus, please turn this into water as I drink it.”
3, 2, 1…insta-burn…down my throat and chest. It sure did tingle, just like the lady promised – and I couldn’t believe what had just happened. You see this story is more than simply an awkward situation – where I had to drink a shot of something I’d never drank before/wanted to drink before – it was a moment where I had to put aside myself and consider the woman offering me what she had. What if this was the most precious thing she could give me ? If I left and refused it – what if it brought rejection upon her that was completely unnecessary/uncalled for?? – just so I could save some face (with whom, I don’t know…but the thought was there).
I’ve worried at different points in my life about letting people down – not measuring up to expectations – and always longing to be set apart. Part of what has defined me in the past has been my religious devotion to certain practices like doing/not doing things for the sake of “someone told me to/not to”. I don’t plan on re-doing this situation anytime soon — but in this moment I cannot help but think that the Lord truly has a sense of humor – and even though this situation was tough and unexpected – He was beside me the entire time – He’s always had me and has never left me + he never will. He’s got me…and crazy things will come and go – but that the end of the day, it’s about my life exposing the LIGHT and LOVE of Christ throughout the nations.
Today I am reminded of the famous PLC toast my pals in college used to do with our mentor over juice, cocoa or sparking cider, “To the King…and to all His thirsty servants.”
