At times, Jamaican women here can be unfortunately much neglected. Many feel especially threatened by the American women that come down, since a lot of Jamaican guys are often more interested in talking to us. When I’ve come down here for week trips in the past, I always remember feeling extremely awkward in the presence of the girls. There are a lot of awkward silences, which often times make me feel uncomfortable. One thing that I have grown to realize, though, is that the lack of conversation is okay, it’s simply a part of the culture down here. The more time I spend in Harmons and with the people here, the more I understand that their lives are fairly different from ours.
I feel like in the States everyone is always moving, always rushing, always busy, always completing their to-do lists. In Jamaica, if you don’t work, there really isn’t any busy work to do during the day. When I ask my friends what they do when there’s no team down here, the response is usually “nothing” or “just stay at home.” As I’ve spent more and more time just visiting the women and spending time with them, I have started thinking about how the women I know from home would survive in a world like Harmons. The day of a Jamaican female usually begins early in the morning. For those that have families, they usually spend time cooking. Otherwise, there is often cleaning and laundry to do. Time is then spent walking to a friend’s house to sit and talk or help with their laundry. Sometimes they’ll watch a movie or take a nap. Even when sitting together there is a lot of silence and time spent being in the presence of someone else. I don’t think many Americans would deal well with having nothing to do the majority of the time.
However, being able to experience this slow-moving life has been a blessing in disguise. While at times I feel like if I just sit and watch the clouds go by with another Jamaican I might go slightly crazy, I have learned to appreciate that time as fellowship. God has been showing me that in those moments of silence with no distractions and no list of things to get done is when He works the most. There’s no telling how God will use me to show His love to others just by existing and doing life with them and slowing down enough to simply sit with them and demonstrate that they are important. I feel that spending my time with them is a great way to show how much I care.
This summer has given me a chance to reduce the speed of my life and be thankful for moments to just live with others. The difference in culture has taken some time to get used to, but I’m finally beginning to understand that we were not created to be so busy that we can’t stop and talk with our neighbors or help out a friend. Doing life with others is often more important than cramming it with meetings and schedules. It can get dangerous when I’m too busy to notice the opportunities God gives me to build relationships with others. Hopefully I will be able to take this “Type-B” personality home with me and continue to value people over lists.
One last thought to ponder comes from a book that our staff is reading together called “Chasing Daylight,” by Erwin Raphael McManus. The first chapter of this book focuses on the importance of a moment and how we shouldn’t underestimate the power of what God can do in one. He writes, “One of the Greek words from which we get the English word moment is atomos. You can easily see that the words atom and atomic come from atomos. This is the perfect picture of what is hidden in a moment. The image of an atom reminds us of how easily we could miss a moment or even underestimate it… At the same time, we have the image of the atomic hidden in the moment… When you seize divine moments, you instigate an atomic reaction. You become a human catalyst creating a divine impact.”
I’m excited to see how God will use us in this culture of “no problem, mon” to create divine impacts for His glory throughout the rest of the time we have here.
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