Plane Conversation

Hello Friends!

Once again, it has been a long time. I was home for Thanksgiving. It was great to be home with my family and friends. While I love living in Honduras, there is just nothing like spending time with people who know you so well and that you love dearly. I did miss the children though, especially as the time went on. By the time I left, I was definitely anxious to see the children again.

I wanted to share with you an experience I had on the airplane from Houston to Chicago. A man in his late 20s/early 30s was sitting next to me the whole plain ride. We had a few friendly exchanges throughout the flight, but for the most part kept to ourselves. When we were told to turn off our IPods to prepare for landing, we began to talk. Eventually the conversation turned to me talking about what I was doing in Honduras. This man was extremely interested in my experiences and my reflections on life in the United States compared to life in Honduras. He asked me what I thought when I landed in Houston and if I was in culture shock. I stopped to think for a minute before I gave my reply. I told him that it wasn't so much the material things (although paying $7 for a sandwich nearly killed me) or the language difference (although I did try to order my sandwich in Spanish) but it was more watching the people that got to me. I had some time in between flights so I just sat in the terminal and people-watched. What I saw made me sad. I saw all these people running around, talking on their cell phones, visibly stressed or upset about something. I wanted to scream- "RELAX! Whatever it is about that business deal that is upsetting you is not what is truly important in life." After living here, I have learned what truly is important- family, faith, and community. I think that if this man saw the joy on a child's face just to have someone play a game of soccer or Uno with them, he would realize that getting so upset and stressed about a business deal doesn't do any good.

I also wanted to yell SLOW DOWN as I watched a woman anxiously rummaging through her briefcase and looking at several files and then getting on her cell phone. I mean, she could have accomplished the same thing by taking a deep breath and removing the files slowly to look at them. We had over half an hour before the plane boarded, so I'm sure she had the time. The culture in the United States is just so busy and it makes people more stressed and unhappy than anything else. I have truly come to appreciate the pace of life in Honduras.

As I told this to the man on the plane, he just kept saying, "Wow." He said that he realized that he is one of those people and he needs to change some things in his life. He said he would love to do something like I am doing. I told him that I love what I am doing, but that not everyone needs to live in Honduras to make a difference. There are small things that you can do in your own community. He said that he would be up all night thinking about what I said. Now, I don't know what impact just sharing my story ultimately had on him, but I would like to think that if nothing else at least he might stop and think the next time he gets overly stressed about something at work.

I never expected to have an experience like this on the plane, but I learned a lot from it too. Sometimes I am hesitant to share my experiences because I don't want to sound "preachy" or like I am bragging about what I am doing. But this time I didn't think about how he would react to it. I didn't plan on having an impact on this guy. I just wanted to share my story because it is something I am passionate about and he was interested in it.  After this, I think I will look for more opportunities to share my experiences in Honduras with people in the US. You never know what people need to hear and sharing my story may inspire someone else to make a change in their life.