Just ONE THING!

Well, here it is...my first and surely not my last rant about life here! I have faced some challenges along the way this past month and have tried to be honest in my blog about life, while trying to maintain (and sometime fight for) the positive side of the situation. But, tonight I just want to say:

"Why can't just ONE THING be easy?!"

Before we left New England and even on our way here we saw so many amazing things happen that were so effortless we knew grace was being passed our way. Several times as I marveled at how we dodged this bullet or that (i.e. - having a place to stay after we left our apartment, getting a copy of our car title the day we shipped or car, not having to pay double the fee for our overweight luggage) and I thought to myself how God must be giving us some extra grace to store up faith we are going to need on the other side of this journey. Well, sure enough. As easy as things were leaving the country, they have been that complicated as we have gotten our life going here. I mean, thing after thing after thing.

Now, I don't want to be a complainer. There are millions of people who have it a LOT worse than we do. Actually, millions of people here in this country that are in worse shape than we are. We are living amongst the top 5% of the population in terms of standard of living. And, I don't want to take anything we have for granted (although, I know I have several times in the past couple of weeks). It's just that everything is SO complicated here! It takes so long to get anything done.

If you want to go to the supermarket chances are it will take you 30 minutes to get to the market because you will be stuck in a traffic jam for no other reason than drivers at the nearest intersection do are not following any of the rules and have clogged the intersection causing a stand still. Once you are at the supermarket it will take you 15 minutes to find a parking place in the garage and another 10 minutes to walk into the mall, wait for the elevator and actually enter the grocery store to begin shopping. Translate this experience into any other errand you are trying to run and you get the idea why it is so hard to get any of your errands done in one outing.

We called to have our phone installed the week before we moved in knowing it would take them a few days to get out here. After several calls and visits to the phone company, they FINALLY came today, spent 30 minutes hooking it up only to tell me that the phone line, that already had a dial tone, wouldn't actually work until the afternoon AND the internet connection they had just installed wouldn't work until tomorrow. That means that it will have taken us two weeks from start to finish to get our phone/internet working.

The cable company told us yesterday they would put a rush on our order and come out today. That didn't happen. I bet Eric it wouldn't be until Monday.

But, the thing that pushed me over the edge today was a power outtage we had. Our power went out this morning and the electric generator for the apartment complex kicked on (see I told you were have it a lot better than most here). After 30 minutes the generator stopped and the electricity went out again. I thought that maybe the generator died and figured it was one of the routine power outtages that happens here figuring it would come on in a couple of hours or so and went on with life. Later in the afternoon I happen to notice that a neighbor's Christmas lights were on and I wondered if maybe they had an "inversor" or something that gives them extra power when the electricity is out. I called downstairs to my sister-in-law's to find out if they had electricity and they did. So, I called Eric, because I didn't know what to do at this point and all of our food in the fridge and freezer was getting borderline warm. I'll skip some of the details, but apparently when the power came back on it came back in everyone else's apartment but our's and when we called the electric company, guess what they said....just guess.

"We'll be out to fix it tomorrow morning."

I don't believe it for a minute. I don't want to lose faith in people, but I don't believe anyone who tells me they are going to be here "tomorrow"anymore. Remember the story about how our washer broke and the guy told us he was going to come back "tomorrow"? Well, that was three days ago and he hasn't come back to fix it.

I've been told by Eric's family and a couple of friends that I have been spoiled with the way service works in the US. I have to admit it's a hard habit to break when you are expecting someone to do what they say. That sounds sarcastic and funny, but I really mean it. I think I just need to get over it and not expect people to show up "tomorrow", BUT also not get livid about it when they don't, because that is what is starting to eat me up inside.

So, I'm trying to make sense of all of this, and here's what I've come up with that drives me crazy about this new country I am trying to call home. This country is stuck in between. They are not a third world country really, and yet they are not a developed country either. I am sitting in my apartment with these beautifully tiled floors and rich hardwood cabinets and doors, typing on my computer while I am "borrowing" the wireless internet connection from my sister-in-law, waiting for our 140 channel cable to be hooked up. We set the table with our best linens and dishes while dressing up to eat lunch everyday. Women regularly get their hair styled at the salon where they also get regular manicures and pedicures. And, yet there are some serious problems that don't seem to ever change, like not enough electricity to go around. Or, not only is the water not clean enough to drink, but not everyone has access to running water. People pay people to do all kinds of jobs that seem superflous to me, like the guy who gives you a ticket when you enter the FREE parking garage and the other guy who takes the ticket from you when you leave. Or, the person who stands at the door of a store and puts a check mark on your receipt without even glancing at what you have bought. You can literally pay someone for anything small or large you would like done here. I know that many of these jobs are available so that people can work and help to decrease the unemployment rate, which is pretty high at 15%, but the lack of meaningful work for people contributes to a mentality that I can't quite figure out. It just seems like there is a disconnect.

I really don't want to offend my new culture. I am learning and I am trying. It's just hard sometimes to make sense of it all, because some of the answers to these situations seem so easy to me. But, I am a guest of this country. I chose to come here. I need to learn how to adapt. I know I will eventually. And, I DO like it here. I like that I paid someone $24 to color my hair yesterday and $10 for the best pedicure I have ever had last week.

I just don't like it here today. Give me my lights, someone, please!!