comfort zone

"Comfort zone" is something we read, hear, see. If your like me, you don't think about it beyond admiring a piece of framed artwork saying things like "life begins when you step outside your comfort zone". I never gave this set of 2 words much thought- until I got here. According to the dictionary, comfort zone is defined as "a place or situation where one feels safe or at ease and without stress".

Honestly, I am out of my comfort zone here every day - from the time I get up in the morning and need to use the bathroon ("cr") until I wash my face in the evening with cold water (there is no hot water here) and lay down on a wooden slat bunk bed made for children.

...getting into town using public transportation that is questionable, loud and dirty...having to go into 4 different shops to find bagged candy...losing sense of time because schedules and leaving when you say you will are not important...being stared at to the point of people literally stopping in their tracks to look at my face...beggars everywhere I go...sitting around a dinner table unable to engage in conversation because I don't speak the language...visiting communities where children wear rags and don't have underwear...stepping out of the van to hand out bags of warm food and being swarmed by children under 10 who live on the street and want to touch my skin or hug me...sitting through a church service spoken in a different language...unable to leave the compound by myself...eating a meal that I don't know what I'm eating...walking into a filthy hospital and searching for words to say to a young woman who lost her baby during childbirth...

Then I read in this same dictionary that "if you stay within your comfort zone, you will never improve". THAT brings me comfort.

"He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When others are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us."

view to the sea