Logistics

Today was a long day. I did five hours of language, which is more than usual. I'm coming along on local language, but, wow, it is a slog. I have a new (25 year old) textbook now, which I like, and I'm about down with my textbook series for bigger language.

Today was a lot of logistics: figuring out the kids' insurance cards, getting them inoculated, and trying to get our car inspected. We get a lot of support here, and yet a lot of this is still hard to figure out. Navigating institutions and systems is what's hardest for us. Things that were fairly easy in the States are harder here. We're fairly confident braving the DMV, a hospital or a federal agency back home, but it's harder when you don't know the rules.

It's also hard here to figure out what's a "big" thing and what's a "little" thing. Car related stuff in the States is usually pretty important (being uninsured is really bad) but here a lot of it is suggested more than required (something like half of college aged moped drivers don't have licenses). These types of things are challenging to figure out. Do we go to the public or private inspection facility? What happens if the car fails the inspection? How do we know what failed? How do we balance this with classes and three kids? Today Emily and our (world's most incredible) nanny got a lot of it figured out, but it was really stressful. It helps that many people here have had the experience of living cross-culturally and dealing with these types of questions, so they can (if they think about) realize what's involved.

One of our cultural challenges is that we never know who is responsible. We have at least three people who oversee us in our home denom, and four or five here, and then a handful of people at our school. A lot of people care for us, but it's rare that we know exactly who to ask for help. We know that we should be responsible for ourselves, but doing things ourselves takes longer and often results in delays.

I'm thinking of this post as a kind of aside, to remember later the challenges of adapting to a culture. In the middle of new babies, new teaching schedules, campus politics, and the rest of it, the things I often find most challenging are these types of logistical hurdles. I don't know if they'll get easier with time, or whether they will stick with us. All things in time...