"You don't have to know me very well to know that I am terrified of spiders," writes a Pioneers worker in South America. Can you relate? The difference is that this woman lives among spiders, in this case, the jungles of Peru. That's part of cross-cultural life; living with things you would never choose.
While culture stress is one of my least-favorite experiences, I do sometimes miss the way it pushes or even forces a reliance on God and others, a living by faith that seems so optional when your location, culture, and relationships let you rest on your own understanding and competence.
Anyway, back to the tarantulas. "Peru is trying to help me get over that fear by strategically placing them in the most shocking of places," says my correspondent. "I thought I would take a minute to share the three most disturbing encounters."
1. In my shower (this is never convenient)
2. Cooked into my rice at a local restaurant (Didn't finish that meal!)
3. In my laundry (I apparently rudely interrupted a tarantula mid-nap while picking up my laundry)
"I have no pictures of these encounters because they are normally followed by shortness of breath, strange noises and often running and yelling for Daniel."
