Sandals on the Ground

Guess What   

I'm here! 

Healthy! And Safe!

I've actually been here for a bit now, but I've had to lay low while I've been learning about the culture and trying to get a handle on a few things before I went live with this blog. I did appreciate all of your prayers for my travel, though. Thank you also to those who helped me prepare for this trip and get excited. You guys are great.

When I left Istanbul, I had a two-hour flight left before my destination. This is when it all really began to hit. I'm going to be living here for two months, I thought. After talking and preparing for it for such a long time, I couldn't believe that this was now when reality decided to sink in.

When I got off the plane, I walked on to one of the buses that takes passengers to the airport. The bus was quiet, and I tried to avoid eye contact with everyone because I could already begin to feel the stares. This young woman looked at me with a bright smile and said "Hi!" "What are you doing here?" She was so friendly ... and loud. She was the only one talking on the bus, so everyone was listening in. She asked me questions like, "What's your name?" Where are you from?" "Are you American?" "Where will you be staying?" and more.

Why she had a lot of question, I thought. My next thought was that it's 3 a.m. and she is way too happy. I first questioned if she was being sincere, but I eventually thought she was because she was really nice. She was probably just being herself and trying to welcome me to the town. This was great, except for the fact that I felt so uncomfortable offering up some of this information for many reasons.

1.) She was someone I had just met  

2.) We were in the passport/visa line 

3.) It was my first time being in this country

There was still so much for me to learn about what was appropriate to say and what I should avoid, but not knowing what to do, I tried my best to not share too much information. So I took the easy way out and tried to answer questions as vaguely as possible.

On the bus, the nice woman not only figured out that I was a student at an American university, but she managed to announce it to the whole bus. Her next question for me after that was a simple one, "where are you from?"

Just to warn you ... At this point, I may or may not have stretched the truth. I really just didn't know what to do, and I thought I would try to tell her things that would make the conversation die down. Remembering that she was so excited that I went to an American University, I told her I was from the Caribbean. (Like I said, stretching the truth.) I didn't think she would ask me much more about America.

"Carribean, really?" She asked, excitedly. (oh dear, I couldn't help but wonder why she was so excited. This plan looked much different in my head).

"You're Jamaican, right?!" she asked, once again announcing it to everyone (Okay, what on earth? This just reached a level of creepy.)

"Yes. How did you know?" I asked, surprised.

"Oh, I could just tell"

Yea right, I thought. What's her story anyway?

She went on to tell me about all her Jamaican friends, and I just smiled away in complete shock.

After 20 minutes or so, we said our goodbyes and she went up to the counter to check her passport.  I shared this story with a part of the team after they picked me up from the airport. They laughed, and told me it's totally okay to say I'm American and that I'll be working with a medical nonprofit. This is one of the most progressive cities in the country, and having foreigners visit is not too uncommon.

Well, now I know that I can be more transparent in this area than I thought. So there's that.. I guess I'm already racking up those awkward moments. Great. Anyway, I'm here and I'm excited to be here :-)

The sky looks really beautiful in the evening. I learned that sometimes the pinks and purples in the sky are actually caused by all the dust in the area. Interesting.

Looking forward to sharing more updates with you. Thanks, again, for all of the love and support!