Bubbles. I like bubbles, especially my personal bubble. I
enjoy having my own space to do things and don’t care for it when my bubble is
penetrated by an outsider. This past week my bubble burst in ways one could
never imagine. Our bus ride from Santo Domingo, DR to San Juan, DR was on a
very small bus, my knees were jammed into the seat in front of me and in order
to stop my feet from falling asleep, I had to attempt to stand up in my seat
every few hours. Upon arriving in San Juan we were notified that about 35 girls
would be staying in one house. It was a somewhat decent size house and for the
most part I still had a little personal space. Only a few times was it invaded
by teammates who wanted to chat. Then when we found out we were going to be
ministering to people in the mountains and it would be just my team of 7. I was
a pretty happy camper J because I knew my bubble would once again be able to
expand, as we would be staying in tents. Then came our van ride to the Arroyo
Cano. Not bad for our first van ride. A little uncomfortable as Tim, Nate and I
sat in the back, but my bubble was still somewhat in tact. My tent has been
great over the past few days and everyone is obeying the rules that when you
are in your tent you are not to be disturbed unless it is an emergency and by
no means are you allowed in a tent unless you have been invited.
Now comes the van ride when my bubble was burst and I
realized that I have no rights to my own space. Three of us needed to go to San
Juan to get some medicine and supplies. On our van ride back we knew there was
a good possibility that it would be full. Now by American standards full for
this van would have been 12 people and that would have still been a little
cramped. We started off with about 15 which soon grew to 18 after a few stops,
then they decided more people needed to get on and wanted to put another person
in the back with the ‘Americanas’ making the total inside the van 19. So this
younger Dominican proceeded to make his way to the back of the van, crawling
over people in the process. Bekah and I looked at each other and knew this was
about to get interesting. This little Dominican smashed his way into the seat
pushing us as far as we could possibly go to the sides so he was on the seat. I
had one arm out the window and Sammie did as well on the other end of the seat.
My knees were jammed into the makeshift seat in front of me and I was extremely
uncomfortable. It stayed this way for close to an hour. I am beginning to
notice that people around the world are much smaller than Americans and that
this world seems to be made for them and not people over 6 feet tall.
This was when I realized that I really have no right to my
own space. Our rights are simply things made up by people in higher powers and
can be taken away. This year I have no right to my own space, especially on any
transportation because shoving another body into the bus means another 50-100
pesos. I also have no right to hot showers, electricity, variety in my food and
many other things I am sure I have yet to realize. But really, rights are just
things people tell you that you have. Do you really think God gives a flying
flip about the right to showers and electricity? I hope that through this
process of giving up my rights that I draw closer to God and the things that
really matter to Him, because that’s all I want to care about.
