A time to laugh

So, what do you do…
…when you can’t read the label of a household product?—You end up putting floor cleaner in your washing machine. (Yes, I really did that the first week we were here. It looked just like the laundry detergent. But it sure smelled different… Oh well!)
…when you can’t communicate with the waitress at a local coffee shop—you end up with 2 different smoothies and try to act like that’s what you wanted.
…when you find out that you’ve been telling the cab driver “Work!” instead of “Turn left!” …or that you just pointed to an item in a store and said, “I’m sorry” instead of asking “How much?”—Well, you just feel really dumb, take the opportunity to have a good laugh, and tell everyone else so they can laugh too. =)
Yes, we’ve had ample opportunities for laughter since we’ve been here. But sometimes it’s not so easy to laugh—Like when the waitress mocks your efforts to communicate in her language…Like when your kid splashes in a puddle on the sidewalk that is not water (yuck!)…Like when you get off at the wrong bus stop and end up quite lost in the middle of the city in the rain with 2 hungry kids...like when your bike gets stolen and you can’t communicate with the cop to tell him what happened and you try calling your interpreter for help and your cell phone runs out of minutes… (Yes, all of that really happened as well!)
It is totally against our nature to place ourselves in uncomfortable situations, but here we are nonetheless, overflowing with opportunities to feel stupid, frustrated, and helpless. And it is in those moments that we are learning to redefine the meaning of “a time to laugh”—by asking for a better perspective, choosing to relax and practice patience and flexibility, and realizing that sometimes laughter is the best medicine for an unpleasant situation.