Now that I am home, I have some time to reflect over the past week and the experience overall. While I was expecting it to be a bit of a shock to the system to come home and "back to reality" so to speak (after all what is reality), I am not sure I was prepared for the onslaught of mixed feelings that perplexed and pursued me. Is it the everyday routines we come to expect from life or is it the moment to moment living that makes up reality? I like the latter idea I think, which makes both last week and this week a reality that I have to mesh together and make it all fit like pieces of a puzzle. Already I have heard from several members of the team today, and that is certainly helpful. I think it is good to continue to be a support to one another as we re-integrate into our lives and find new ground to stand upon where our old views are hopefully influenced by our new insights. For instance, I was sort of dragging through this day at first; everything seemed a bit overwhelming, and it felt as though there were insurmountable feelings and thoughts to wade through after such an intense week of learning...but then I thought about the challenging obstacles we had overcome as a team of 21 people of all different backgrounds just barely days ago. One of the most challenging was probably the language barrier- without our interpreters it could have been a much more difficult week! When you find yourself face to face with someone that you can't possibly understand because neither of you speak the same language, that can be daunting. It definitely took each one of us "out of the box" of everyday communication patterns. Yet even with language being an issue, somehow we managed to smile, greet each other in our own way and then in each other's language as the week progressed, and to find a common ground upon which to meet our needs and the needs of others. A funny side note here that I am sure everyone in the group can appreciate is that while taking a bus ride one evening to the Flowers Bay Church to meet with the youth, our driver took a wrong turn. Well...he thought it was the right turn and we knew it was not, but he didn't speak English and none of us were fluent enough in Spanish to convince him that we needed to turn around. At first we just thought he was looking for a place to turn around, but then it became evident that he had a destination in mind- just not the same as ours. He did finally stop, and after a couple of phone calls we were turned back and going in the right direction. A little stressful at first, sure, but then worth a laugh and funny memory. The point is that language barriers, while challenging and requiring a bit of extra effort, can be overcome and eventually a common ground is established. Just as the children who came to us last week could barely understand us, and we could not tell you what they were saying either...or could we? Although I did not understand their words many times, I could tell by their smiles and looks of delight when they were happy, or questioning looks when they needed more explanation. So, perhaps language is universal after all, and all one really needs to do to communicate well is to pay attention to expressions and tones. I thought about this today and how it could help me to communicate better with my own children. There are times when I think I am just being informative, but maybe my tone is saying something different. And there are times that perhaps if I just watch their expression closely, I can read what they are really saying or needing. I tried this out today- I leaned over and hugged my youngest son close and he smiled and said "I know. I love you too" without my saying a word although that is just what I was thinking...wow there really is a language barrier everywhere that can be overcome a little at a time if we just pay attention. Still learning something from those beautiful children in Roatan! Perhaps I can mesh old ideas with new ones after all with a little time, prayer, and patience...