Cultural Differences that Let You Know You've Been Abroad a While

We were gone too few days to experience what some would call 'reverse culture shock,' but we are finding ourselves amused by some of the differences we are noticing now that we are back.  It started as soon as we touched down in the airport in Miami and has continued all week.

So let me put it this way.  You know you have been abroad a while when you:

Protected trees in the middle
of a Bolivian street.

• get excited about how inexpensive something is and then realize that the price is in dollars. 
• find that seat belts actually work and you are expected to use them.
• lean in to kiss the cheek of someone who has offered you a hand shake. 
• look for fresh milk at the grocery store in one-liter plastic bags.
• see a blue-eyed person and wonder what country they are from and how long they have been here.
• cannot find the bill you need to pay for your items because they all have green on them.
• wonder why the driver stopped for a red light when there was no oncoming traffic.
• say "Muchas Gracias" to the clerk who has been speaking to you in English.
• think it strange that so few properties have fences and walls around them.
• automatically toss your toilet paper in the trash can instead of the toilet.
• wonder why people are watching baseball when there surely must be a good soccer game available to watch.
• miss the shade of the protected trees in the middle of the streets, sidewalks, and parking lots.
• are surprised by how few forty-year-old cars are on the road.
• wonder if the tap water is safe enough for you to use it to brush your teeth.
• think it is normal for a taxi ride across town to only cost a couple dollars.
• see a construction site and wonder why they would spend money on a porta-potty.

Since we were only gone a couple weeks, it is not taking us long to get back to the way of doing things here.  However, I am grateful for the tapestry of cultures that we get to enjoy, and we look forward to going again where there will be new things to learn when we go, and thing to unlearn when we return.

A Church's Gift

Every church is different.  Some are friendly, and no newcomer leaves feeling unwelcome.  Some are reverent, and a quiet awe pervades the worship services.  Some are joyful and exuberant as they lift their praises to the Lord.  Some are evangelistic, and they are excited about sharing their faith with friends and co-workers, and they revel in their own salvation.  Some are prayerful, and prayer meetings are well attended and considered to be one of the most important aspects of the week.  Some are seen as theologically deep or mature, and their pastors and teachers enjoy going deep into the Word of God.  Some are missions minded, and their reputation for giving to missions is noticed even by visitors.

One of the families that fed us.

On this trip, we found something in this Cochabamba church that we have seldom seen.  We found a church with the gift of hospitality.  In all of the trips we have taken, both in the U.S. and abroad, we have not
been welcomed into people's homes and lives the way we were here.  Every day, for both lunch and supper, we were fed by the people of this church.

When I mentioned this to Jacky, the pastor's wife, she said to me, "Well, we know the verse in Hebrews that says "Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares."

"That's true," I replied.  "But you know us and you know that we are not angels.  We are just people."

She laughed and agreed.  Yet somehow this group of people really took the gift of hospitality to the maximum and made us feel so loved and welcomed.  As we joined them at their dinner tables and heard the stories of their lives, it made us feel so much more a part of them.  Some felt unable to have us into their homes, but they showed hospitality to us by taking us out to dinner.  There, too, we heard their stories of faith and family and came to love and appreciate them.

Pique Macho

"What is the typical food here?" we asked when we arrived.

"Oh, Cochabamba has many foods.  We do not have just one."

So through the weeks we were there, the church tried to make sure that we tried many of their typical foods: Pique, Silpancho, Api, Charque, Pollo a la Brasa, Steak, and so much more.  They checked with each other to find out what we had already had so that they could let us try something new.  On our last day there, we were invited to join the college-age young people at a steak house and were able to get to know some of them. 

The church gave us some mementos as going-away gifts, but to be honest, the best gift they gave us during our time there was themselves through the gift of hospitality.  Through that, our hearts were bound to them.  We understand those families better and have an appreciation for their lives.  Had they not chose to share their lives with us in this way, we would not have gotten to know them nearly as well.  As a result, we found we did not want to leave because they had become so precious to us.

We look forward to going back.  Perhaps next time we will be able, in some way, to extend hospitality to them as well.