This past weekend was intensive training for my trip in May. To say the least, it was emotionally draining and I learned a lot. There were many simulations of different cultures, specifically the culture of a closed country, since that is where I am going. The training took place on campus and we pretty much had the entire campus staked out for what we call ISPLAND. The first night we walked around in the rain for hours with our luggage at the "airport". This simulation involved going through security, getting visas, going through customs, and exchanging money. During this time "security officials" asked us questions about why we were there, and there were people walking around trying to steal our things such as passports, luggage that was left unattended, and pretty much anything hanging out of pockets. We could not talk loudly, and we had to stay with our group. After exchanging our "american money" for ISPIES we bartered for a taxi. The driver tried to rip us off by stealing our luggage, didn't know where the market was, and drove like a crazy person with Indian music blaring. We finally got to the market and bartered for our food for the next day. During this time there were "crippled" people begging, and other people bumping into us in order to steal from us. Throughout this time, everyone had accents that were hard to understand. All in all, this was the easiest simulation that we had. The next morning we were woken up to the Call To Prayer which is Muslim. The women were told to put on our hijabs (scarves over our heads) and the men had to put on prayer caps. There were rules we had to follow. The women could not speak loudly but rather had to whisper, we could not make eye contact with the men, we had to sit in the back of the worship center, or if punished, in the lobby, we had to walk behind the men, we could not speak to the men, and we had to serve the men without making physical contact. After an entire day of this these are some of the emotions we had gone through: feeling unwanted, dirty, alone, helpless, ugly, and lonely. This simulation brought many to tears as we realized what 1 billion Muslims deal with all over the world every day. When this simulation was over our boys brought us flowers and thanked us for going through what we had to. The next simulation was going to a house church. We were all given directions on how to get to our house church (there were many all over campus), and we had to memorize a password. We traveled in groups of three and had to make up reasons as to why we were out late at night, since police were everywhere. We had to hide our Bible's since they were contraband. Once reaching the housechurch and saying the password, we were ushered into a dark room with only a flashlight. We read scripture from a sheet of paper, sang, and prayed, all while whispering. Several times we had to stop and wait for the police to leave the area. In the end we were all praying for our brothers and sisters in Christ who go through this every day. Every year 100,000 to 150,000 Christians are murdered for this. Sunday was the easiest day. We walked to church in the rain after bartering for our breakfast. Then we went to a nursing home across from the school and spent time with the residents there. We are going to go back for an hour every weekend to build relationships with these people and show them Christ's love. We then walked to a place to eat. After this there was one last simulation called bafabafa. This is very hard to explain...so look it up on the internet :) After this whole weekend, I not only gained understanding and knowledge of the people in the country I am going to, but I also grew closer to my team of ten. We never argued, were always concerned for each other, and made compromises. I am now even more excited to go on my trip!!
