A Good Read

so i'm gonna just jot down some quotes from the book, 'Foreign to Familiar' by sarah a. lanier. the book has really opened my eyes to some of the things i've struggled with since my arrival. but with saying that, knowing ahead of time would not have prepared me any better than just being here.

p. 65 'In the inclusion culture most everything is 'ours', not 'mine'. a memeber of the family will say, 'we have a guitar.' 'we have food in the refrigerator.' this 'we' will include everyone in the house, not just the residents of the house. 'we have tools to use' - regardless of who paid for them.

p. 63 'in many hot-climate cultures, gatherings outside the workplace are family gatherings. children are part of the picture - noise and all. this is frustrating for the americans and europeans, as they feel the distraction of children running in and out takes away from the quality of the event' (this is so true!!! --children are often in our class room making noise and talking, and church is no different.)

p. 42 '(in hot-climate cultures) there is a group mentality that says, 'we are a community and must share our food, private lives, homes, and even opinions, to serve the whole'. this translates into a behavior that is inclusive, not indepedent.'

p. 61 'as a cold-climate person my greatest sacrifice was giving up my privacy, my time to myself. i never knew when i would be interrupted. it seemed exhausting until i got used to it. then it became second nature to me.'

'on a bus in thailand once, with other delegates returning from a conference, i had packed a lunhc for the four-hour ride. having learned about hot-climate inclusion, i brought fruit, cookies, and other items that could be shared. about lunchtime, two european men in front of me took out their packed lunches and began to eat. that got me hungry, so i got out my lunch too.
i offered the men some grapes. they said, 'thank you, but we brought our own lunches.' they also refused the cookies. then i got up and offered the grapes to others around me on the bus: africans, south americans and asians. they all happily accepted the offering and then pulled out their own food to share. soon we were handing around bags of dried figs, potato chips, hunks of bread, cheese and other items. we had a feast that day.
the two europeans enjoyed their own lunches, but they missed the more important event. it wasn't as much about the food as it was about sharing with one another, leaving no one out. it took care of those who didn't have anything by including them in the group. because everyone shared, we were not aware of the 'haves and the have-nots'. they were covered by the commmunity. the inclusion value of hot-climate cultures means that not no one is left out, no one is lonely.'