We took off on the plane from India to Romania with a lengthy lay over in Istanbul, Turkey, and this is where it started. The realization that we were no longer in a 3rd world country. Every person that walked by was well dress in what must be the latest fashion, some even sporting major brands like Louis Vuiton,
Ed hardy, Prada etc.. Every second person was using some sort of high tech, state of the art electronic device, and all were walking with a hurried purpose. The prices of food and drinks were double if not triple of what we had just experienced the last 9 months and no one seemed to care. I was overwhelmed!
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We landed in Bucharest, Romania. Loaded up a van and started to head through the city to our ministry site. I was having a hard time proccessing everything that was happening. We were back driving on the right hand side of the road, everyone was obeying the traffic laws and I hadn’t heard a single horn yet. There were open fields of lush green grass being precisly manicured by a lawn care service and playgrounds with parents lined up on benches as their children screamed and laughed. People out running, rollerblading, and walking their dogs on the newly paved walkways. There was no garbage lining the streets and clogging the gutters, cars drove by with only one person in them, and children in car seats. I was experiencing major culture shock and I honestly didn’t know how to respond.
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I had expected that once I got home I would notice the things that I had taken for granted for most of my life and be thankful. Never did I think that I would react the way I did, and we are not even in America or Canada yet.
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It made me realize just how different our lives have been for the last 9 months but also how quickly we can adjust to different ways of life. I had become quite used to always carrying my own toilet paper, using a squatty potty, taking bucket showers, holding in my scream as we barely avoid an accident for the 6th time that day, wearing very plain but practical clothing, getting internet only once a week, hand washing my own clothes and sleeping on my 1in’ thick mattress. As we were arrived in Bucharest I found myself wanting to buy all new clothes of the latest fashion, getting annoyed when my internet, that I have access to everyday, drops the signal , and complaining that the tea water at breakfast wasn’t quite hot enough.
I find myself struggling, trying to find a balance.
