Learning.

I just don't even know where to begin. I am getting so attached to the African way of relationships and it scares me. Everything is so friendly and relaxed and layed back here. I have especially noticed this with the family i have been staying with. They will spend every night just sitting around on the rocks and dust in their backyard and talk and laugh. On a typical day walking through the village, they run into many people that are either family (cause family stays close by.) or friends. When they run into someone, they usually stop and talk for however long they fee like. I see the riders on boda-boda's, (motorcycles) talking and laughing with the driver...while they are driving...which is just also amazing how they hear eachother over the noise, but just the fact that they want to be friends with the one who drives them places. When you greet someone here, it's not a hard handshake, a quick, hi how are you, and then leave, but you keep holding hands with them for however long you fee like. It's more intimate,and I'm getting so used to that. You hold eye contact. People are not looking one way or another in order to get somewhere or do something. You are the most important thing at that time. Saying hi to you comes before doing or going somewhere else. You can sit down to eat with someone and only say a few words or many or none. They do not care. It is not called awkward silence, but just enjoying eachother's company. I love it, but it frightens me. I am a pretty on time and scheduled person in America, and although I'm gettting used to this new way, I know one day i will go back, and I don't know how this will really have affected me. Will I view relationships differently. Will I begin to see my community differently and spend time talking to people. But, then again, how much of this community is built into the culture? it's not my own doing to change things when I get home. They live around so much of their family. They buy from small stands and get t0 know the people in their neighborhood. They have that structure available to them. I live in a fast paced world where relationships come after you get what you need to get done. I come from saying hello to someone when i pass them on the street, and it's so cold...i never feel enriched from each conversation as i do here. How is God teaching me, and how will I respond. I have only been here a month, but I pray these things get ingrained in me. I pray that the african community is a burden of my heart. that I desire to do what I can in my own life. Until then, I will enjoy this community and gain insight and understanding each day from this very different culture.