Our Colombia Experience

All of you who know me, know that I like to “look outside my box”. I am fascinated by how other people think and why they think what they think; especially in theological areas. I have had many positive experiences with many different Christian denominations and think of myself as sort of a “bridge builder”. As I have often said, ecumenicalism is one of my soap-boxes.
But for all of my experiences, encounters, discussions, etc., for all the off-the-wall ideas that I have heard and attempted to understand, after thinking I had seen and heard just about all…..today, I believe, was a milestone. It was brought home to me so very clearly and forcefully that no matter how much I want to understand people, no matter how much I think in advance about where someone is coming from in order to communicate more effectively, no matter how much training and experience I have, I realized that you can never predict what a person from a different culture may think…Now hold on to your seat….You better be sitting down for this one…..Today I found a group of Episcopalians who don’t know how to do a pot-luck!!! Yes, you read correctly,….. DO NOT know how to pull off a pot-luck lunch!
As you know if you have been reading my blog, we have been attending the cathedral here in Bogota. The priest, Gonzalo, is a wonderful guy, an awesome preacher and very friendly (of course…he is from Medellin!) He likes to do the announcements right after the Eucharist before the last prayer; he will use the time to personally welcome the newcomers in the congregation and, as he did today, throw out some ideas. This morning he proposed that on Sept. 30 after the service, the congregation come together for lunch, to talk, joke around, have fun, meet and get to know the newcomers. Basically he was proposing the standard Episcopal pot-luck, although he did suggest we have a sign up for one person to bring rice, another dessert, another meat, another salad. Unfortunately, he gave the congregation a little too much say. These wonderfully sweet, kind, generous Colombians started discussing exactly what ought to be served! The choices were narrowed down to (forgive the spelling) sancocho (a Colombian soup with meat and corn and potato or yucca) or an asado (like a barbeque). They actually took a vote! Oh, I was biting my tongue trying not to giggle. I had never seen anything like it!
Now, remember, while this was hysterical from an American perspective, it made total sense from a Colombian cultural viewpoint. A meal is an important time and sharing a meal is an important occasion. It needs to be done right. I got the sense that not having rice for the meal might be akin to running down the street naked. (Ok, maybe not that bad, maybe in your underwear!) I guess it was just an idea that never existed within my universe of thought; a group of Episcopalians actually exists that have never done a pot-luck before. Pretty incredible the things you learn in church!

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 26th, 2007 at 7:40 pm and is filed under Cristal's Musings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.