Stahlke Adoption

Reality? Or a Dream?

Situation #1
It was the largest laundromat I had ever seen. Row upon row of washers stretched before me, and women jammed into each other trying to secure a machine. As I walked slowly through the room, it became clear that choosing a washer would be difficult. Besides the huge variety of washers available, suitable for every need, many of them were broken. I especially remember one washer, marked "Green," that appeared quite different than the others and had not been used for a long time. But at least the instructions were written in English!

Even though I had not yet chosen a washer, I stopped to sort our dirty clothes. This task was also difficult, since I had a variety of clothes to wash and there wasn't room to sort them into separate piles. A friend asked me to wash some of her clothes with mine, but I had to decline. There were just too many clothes to carry, and I couldn't take more items without the risk of ruining them. In addition, my friend told me about a serious argument between mutual friends of ours--it was an emotional story and seemed completely out-of-place in the context of a laundromat. I left her, and as I carried my tub of clothes through the laundromat, the cell phone in my pocket rang. I completely ignored it--my arms were full, and I just couldn't handle anything else.
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Situation #2
Jonathan and I entered the Orthodox church, and it was obvious that all the women except me were wearing head scarves. I hid myself just inside the door, and Jonathan found the candle kiosk to ask about scarves. The woman selling candles had just the thing to help me--a scarf to borrow for my time in the church.

After donning my scarf, Jonathan and I walked around the periphery of the building. It was easy to walk, since the church had no pews. We came to a painting of Jesus and saw a man kiss the representation of Jesus' feet. This worshiper was not the first person to do this, for a pane of glass was attached to the painting over the feet of Jesus.

There seemed to be a lull between two sections of the worship service, and we saw a priest walking with a censor. Like we had, he moved around the periphery of the church, censing various icons, paintings, candle stands, and worshipers. As the priest walked, the people around me lined up on either side of the center "aisle." (Even though there were no pews, the floor was marked with a red aisle about four feet wide.) All of the people (see ^ below) faced the priest, while I stood behind the second row of worshipers trying to look inconspicuous:
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outer wall


priest moving to the right

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center aisle with altar to the left
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^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

me

outer wall
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The priest reached the back of the church, and I assumed he would turn down the center aisle to return to the altar. Instead, he continued walking past the end of the center aisle, directly toward me. Suddenly, all the people turned together, as if on cue, and looked right at me. I was no longer hidden behind rows of people; rather, I was now the center of everyone's attention. A diminutive older woman looked at me sharply and commanded me to do something, but I couldn't understand her words. Her meaning was clear, however--"get out of the way!" The only escape was to walk directly toward the priest and squeeze between him and the line of people. Phew! I stayed at the back of the church for the rest of the service!

posted by Stahlkes @ 5:58 AM