Having visitors over for tea or meals is what people do here. Since I'm a single, I tend to be the guest more often than the host. It works out nicely for me because hosting is a lot of work and when I visit, I get to eat really good food that I didn't have to make. I feel like most Americans think I'm over here having to suffer through weird foods. I’m not. The local cuisine is delicious.
I try to host when I can so I can get better at it. I decided to invite Hannah and her mom. They had invited me before and have been really sweet to me. I invited them to breakfast since it's the easier of the meals to host and thought it would work good with all of our free time. I want you to imagine the two most energetic and chattiest women you know and you'll have a good idea if these two. They made sure to bring me a gift as the host. They picked some lilac, brought me a pair of woolen socks her mom had knitted, and brought some herbs to eat with out breakfast. They only stayed a little over an hour which surprised me but I learned they had to go pick up her younger siblings from school to feed them lunch. It was a pleasant morning.
One day I left my house on foot to do some errands and see if I could find someone to practice speaking with. By the end of the day I realized I had walked a lot. I used a mapping site to see just how far I had walked. I was guessing I had walked about 3-4 miles. I was shocked to see that it was over 6 miles! Yes, folks, I accidentally walked a 10K and have no t-shirt to show for it. I've been trying to keep up with how much I walk here. I average about 2 miles a day but there are definitely some 3 and 4 miles days.
I had not visited with CFS in a while so I finally made it by to see her one evening. I learned from Zucchini that her birthday was the following day and I should come by to surprise her. I arrived at the specified time and Zucchini informed me the cake wouldn't arrive for another 3 hours. She wondered if I could just hang out at the furniture store until the cake came. My schedule had been packed but luckily that day did in fact allow me to hang out for the 3 hours. I wondered how on earth I would pass the time. They had a lull in customers and Zucchini and I began to talk. I was asking her about appropriate attire and behavior for the upcoming village engagement party. Discussions of tradition led to discussions of our respective religions. I began to explain about the Trinity and how Jesus is God's son. She asked two questions that I had never really considered and that I had always taken for granted. She asked why we use Father for God and when did it start. I told her we use it because Jesus did but I couldn't remember if there were instances in the Old Testament. The other question she asked was what the Holy Spirit is. I was stumped as to how to answer. How do you explain the Holy Spirit to someone who has no concept or prior knowledge of the Trinity. Where does one even begin? At this point customers began flowing in and our conversation ended. I later asked a local believer how she would have answered and she said you can't explain the Holy Spirit without covering other ground first. I'm curious how my readers would have answered that question. If you have an answer, please comment below.
A few days later, CFS called and asked if I could be at the furniture store in fifteen minutes so I could eat dinner with her and Zucchini. It had been a while since she had invited me so I did what I could to rush over. I had planned on staying in for the night so I switched out of my pajamas and huffed my way to the store. Several other coworkers were standing around waiting. I thought this was odd. It turns out it was a big work dinner at her house for all her coworkers. There were 30-40 folks there and I was a little overwhelmed. Because there were so many of us, we ate on the floor. She spread out tablecloths and then asked me to pass out silverware and napkins. I didn't know if I was supposed to put them on the floor or actually hand them out. She had left the room so I awkwardly asked everyone. They looked at me strange and I explained I was not accustomed to eating on the floor. Finally they laughed and one guy grabbed the things from my hand and showed me what to do. It was so hard to eat on the floor. I was trying to sit on my knees to make room for the crowd but tried to keep my feet from going to sleep. I was also worried that I was exposing my backside too much. I noticed that most people sat with one knee under them and the other standing upright. I tried that position but it also felt awkward. In the end I tucked both knees under me and sat to the side. Aaahhh. Every day is an adventure.
A common problem here is that locals are in up to their eyeballs in debt. They pay for everything with loans or in installments. When I'm buying a shirt that costs about $5 I am always asked if I want the cheaper one time payment or the more expensive five installment option. The thought of saving up money to pay for something is rare. Asking someone to save $1000 seems as impossible as saving up $1,000,000. They could never save that much and they never imagine the day when they won't have debt. I see a parallel with sin. The common belief is that you must do more good than bad to go to Heaven. You work and work to pay off your sin debts. I think many are hopeless because they are indebted to sin. They can never get out from under the weight. Unlike finances, on their own, it is impossible to clear their sin debt.
One day in class we were talking about how we had avoided a bad event like an earthquake or something. My teacher pulled his ear, let out a whistle, and then knocked on the desk. I asked if this was similar to our "knock on wood" gesture. It was. He said it was not only to keep bad luck away but also to keep away devils. Interesting twist.
In keeping with my FATE conversations, I talked with an exchange student from Syria. She came to this country to flee the war and believes the war is fate. She hopes it will end. Half of her family still live in Syria. She misses them badly and wishes things would return to normal. She says life continues but it's not normal life. Things have changed. Every place is affected by the war.
On another day I learned that my house helper's son had ran away with a girl and defiled her. This left him with the options to either go to jail or else marry her. Now my house helper is scrambling to find enough money to meet all of the wedding requirements. The terms are up to the girl's family and since they are well off they are expecting lots of gold as a dowry, furniture provided, and a nice wedding salon. Apparently this kind of thing or else one of the engaged running away with someone else happens a lot. Some folks still do arranged marriages or else the parents are heavily involved in decision making. People are often not allowed to marry who they would like. I won't say that our system is much better. We may not elope often or run away from weddings; instead, we just shack up with as many people as we'd like. We love when someone seems valuable enough to love and then when the value ends or someone more valuable comes along, we move on. Love is a choice and when loving someone is hard, we are out.
I visited Grandma F one day. She commented that I looked skinnier than the last time she had seen me. Well that was a nice compliment. She went on to say that if I'd like to give some more kilos away, she knew of a clinic I can go to to help me. That's more like the locals I know. Weight gain/loss, income, rent, all these are open for discussion among locals. She did go on to say that my language had improved. I agreed with this since we were both understanding one another more than ever before. I could understand her village accent and she could understand my foreign one.
My art class ended. Our final week consisted of an getting things ready for our art show and a written test. You heard that right, a test. A written test. In my second language. I had to laugh when I saw it. I wrote stuff down but didn't give much effort because I didn’t see the point. To the locals it was a big deal. If you don’t do the test you don’t get a certificate and certificates are a BIG deal. I learned that having lots of certificates can help certain people gain better jobs. For example, a teacher may be having a hard time finding a job but if the person can show they have a math and an art certificate then they are more valuable to the school. They have more skills.
I talked with a lady one day. The subject of Jesus came up in our conversation. I asked what she knew about him and she said she had seen him in a dream on two occasions. I bring this up because dreams mean a lot more here than they do in the west. This is yet another interesting facet of this culture.
No comments:
Post a Comment