Some Days I Just Don't Have It

There are some days that I just notice too many things that are going on around me, and it overwhelms me. I've learned if I have to go buy meat I make sure I have a full stomach. The smell can be quite hard to bear if you're feeling queasy. One day Pawn wanted me to get her a fish. Even in the supermarkets, the fish are just iced down; you pick out the fish, take it to the man who will gut it and cut it, then he puts it in a bag of crushed ice for you. I did this with no problem. I even found the sink to wash up my hands afterwards, and I filed that in my memory file for my next shopping trip.

The fish are pretty easy, but fresh meat is a different story. Imagine piles of chicken breasts, chicken legs, pork ribs, poik loins, and some other body parts kept in stainless steel tubs. At the store I went to yesterday I noticed the stainless steel tubs were refrigerated at the bottom, and the meat was kept at a certain temperature. I didn't know before if they were machines of if they used ice. They provide tongs or scoops for your to pick out your pieces of meat. Then there's also the typical meat case about waist high that would hold packaged meat in the States only ours just houses chunks of meat or minced pork.

I've learned from watching others to just a plastic bag on my hand and dig in. I'm looking for the good colored chicken and always checking to make sure it has no smell. For someone who doesn't like to check by smell to see if the milk is ok, this has been a hard skill to learn. I bag up my meat and take it to the butcher to have him weigh it. This is where I run into problems. The butchers are all wearing plastic gloves and are busy working with the meat. Then they take my bag of meat, weigh it, put the price on it, and then hand it back to me. I'm always thankful when Rusty is with me so he can hand me a wipe or when I can get over to the wash station.

Yesterday it was very busy, and I saw a lot while I was waiting for the butcher--a lot of it I wish I hadn't noticed. But I survived, and hopefully next time it won't be so hard again. I'm not complaining. It's just that we all have our things that we struggle with. I've noticed other stores putting in hand-washing stations, and it makes this farang happy. But even if they put in hand-washing machines every place, I'm sure there will still be hard days. There's always something that will throw us for a loop. Knowing that we're following God's calling on our lives gets us through a lot.