Missionaries and various cultural adjustments

Yesterday I posted on how we should be cautious as to how we preach about arriving on time. I pointed out that the concept of “being on time” is somewhat cultural. In Anglo-Saxon and Germanic cultures, being on time means that one arrives no later than the time appointed, and in reality it really means arriving earlier than the time appointed. When we say that someone has arrived “just in time” we actually mean that as a negative comment because they have “cut it too close” and were in imminent danger of being late. However, in Latino cultures, being on time means that one arrives no earlier than the time appointed. In many business situations, being on time means that one arrives within 15 minutes AFTER the appointed time. Many Anglos in Latino countries find it hard to comprehend that in social situations being on time can even mean being up to one hour late!

But, this brought back memories of the many adjustments that both missonaries and international businesspeople have to make when they cross cultures. Some of the adjustments are easy, but some can be quite difficult, particularly if the behavior is considered inappropriate or simply “not done” in your home culture. A good part of the training that missionaries receive is training to allow them to talk themselves into changing some of their behaviors when they arrive in a new culture. Another part of their training is country-specific information that will warn them about what is waiting for them. Below are some examples that you might find either interesting or humorous.

How do you know when, uhm, meat is fresh? When I first went to Bolivia, I visited a local outdoor market in Cochabamba. To my slight horror, one of the Quechua women had a row of sheep heads laid out in front of her meat stall, along with the skinned bodies of various animals. She saw me looking at the heads and mistook my horrified fascination for buyer’s interest. She promptly pointed out to me that I could tell that the heads were fresh and the brains would be good by looking at the eyes of the animal. Since they were still shiny, they were obviously freshly killed.

What are you willing to drink? In southern Bolivia a missionary took me to on his rounds one time and we stopped at a subsistence farm. He warned me ahead of time that they would offer us some food and drink and that we had to eat and drink. So I did. The drink was a milky particularly nauseating drink. It was only afterward that he told me how it was made. The locals got an earthern jar and some local roots. Then the women chewed the roots up fine and spit them into the jar. Water was added and the concoction was buried in the ground to give it time to “cure.” After a time the jars were dug up and the milky drink was considered a delicacy.

What do you think about your body? A friend of mine did a missionary visit to Japan many years ago. There a local Christian pastor invited him to one of the local hot baths and sauna. So they went in and stripped down and were soaking when a naked woman walked in and got in the pool. Horrified my friend asked the pastor about it who said that it was no problem. The Japanese simply turned their heads and did not acknowledge that the other person was present. My friend got out of the pool and quickly went to the locker room explaining to the pastor that he had just reached his cultural limits.

Do you really own that? A missionary I knew went to a culture in which the understanding was that anything that you left outside your gate was community property. His young son left his bicycle outside the gate one time and it was promptly taken by another family who used it publicly and happily. He had a very delicate time explaining to the family that his son had not meant to put the bike out as community property but had simply been careless, as any child can be. Please note that leaving something outside the gate did not make it garbage. That was not the cultural concept. The cultural concept was that you wished to share.

Is it a pet or is it meat? When we were in Perú, the area in which we lived considered fried guinea pig to be a delicacy. They were bigger than the USA guinea pigs as they had been bred for meat, but they were definitely guinea pigs. To American children who consider such to be pets, this was a particularly horrifying food, especially as it was served hairless, fried, whole, gutted, and face up so that it was looking at you when the plate was placed in front of you. In that same country, one of our daughters asked our Quechua cook how anyone could kill a rabbit. Because Spanish was the second language for both our daughter and the cook, the cook understood our daughter to be asking how a rabbit is killed. So, she promptly made a quick twisting motion with her hands which had our daughter running out of the kitchen in horror and tears.

All missionaries, international businessmen, and veterans who have served overseas have various tales of this type. They are humorous when you look back on them, but not so while you are experiencing them. Nevertheless, they help to keep us loose as to what Scripture and Holy Tradition are actually saying and what cultural twists we may have added without realizing that they are just that, cultural twists. And, I must admit, we all love telling these tales to horrified and giggling listeners.