Multicultural Mingling

This week I'm at SALT/IVEP/YAMEN! orientation in Akron, PA. The last week of camp and the week at home were really good. It was great to be able to hang out a little bit with the Jubilee house folks. They had their communal dinner one night and 41 people showed up! Normally turnout was more in the 2-5 range. It was awesome to see that they've connected with a fair group of people during their year. A bunch of us helped Jason advertise for an event at the Roosevelt Community Center. We walked around and talked to a bunch of people and told them about the event and I was really surprised, most people seemed interested and really friendly and said they would come. Camp got me more used to being friendly with strangers and walking around really made me think about doing a year at the VS house because I could get to work with all of that potential in the community.

Anyway at orientation here we have 50 American/Canadian SALTers and about the same number of IVEP/YAMEN people who come from all over the world. The cultural mix is fascinating. On the first day I felt badly when I would see an African brother or sister because I knew that they wanted to sit and have long talks to get to know people, but I was really tired and I didn't have enough energy to talk with more than a couple of them. That night, I saw one woman from Jordan getting some cake. I commented something worthless like "Oh, you have cake!" and she right away asked if I wanted any. I said no, I didn't, to which she asked again. I said no again then she said, here, I'll get you a piece of cake. I was so confused, I thought she hadn't understood me but her english was good and I was sure I had spoken clearly. Then it dawned on me that the norm in Arab culture is to decline offers of hospitality until the host does it anyway. I knew this because MCC had sent me a little book about cultures before I came. Realizing that resistance was indeed futile, I accepted when she offered me juice, forgetting that accepting an offer immediately is perceived as being forward. Oops. We ended up having a nice chat while we slowly ate our cake and drank our juice.

These last two days have been full of this kind of confusion, all around, I'm sure. The awkwardness is quickly wearing off and everyone seems to be quite comfortable with each other.