Insert your favorite cliché stating that you should resist the natural
human desire to have expectations or assumptions. Things taken for granted often
don’t translate cross-culturally, but you already knew that. But a personal
example is I had the assumption that the lines painted on the road mean
something… so far it looks like I’m wrong. Also I didn’t expect that the next
neighborhood over would be exclusively black for what I’m told. I have yet to
get myself into too much trouble because of misguided assumption, but I have
been thinking about the topic lately.
Back in August at SALT orientation, one piece of advice that
repeatedly offered was “have low expectations.” This concise phrase was to
remind us that even though we are young (thus invincible and can accomplish
anything we set our mind to) and volunteering for a year (where a year in
enough time to accomplish anything), that the visible effect we make might not
be as drastic as we have dreamed it will be. Maybe it’s because of 17 years of
teachers encouraging confidence in my abilities, but I find this advice hard to
swallow. As I’m approaching the 3 month mark, there is a tug-a-war is going on
in my head about what I’m accomplishing compared to what I feel I should be
accomplishing. In the classroom I can see progress, but in the community I
still feel like that white guy down the street. I have few community members who
are more than just passing greetings but I’m just starting to accumulate enough
courage to initiate a conversation with a stranger.
The other evening I church I arrived with my family on time, so
naturally we were early. I sat in the back by myself because my host family
decided not to sit down. Then sometime during the service a middle aged lady
sat next to me; I knew her face but not her name. Services have many scripture
reading and most people have a Bible to follow along, she was no different.
When the pastor announced the closing scripture, she found the passage and then
noticing I didn’t have a Bible she offered her’s to me. I accepted her offer
but insisted that we share because I didn’t want to deprive her of being able
to follow along in her Bible. She recited the last verse in unison with the
pastor, took back the book, and asked me if I could follow along with reading.
I thought it was an odd question but assumed it was an indirect question about
my Spanish ability. I responded saying I could follow along and understood most
of it. She looked impressed, and then told me that she could not read and that
she memorizes the passages that get read often. It was my turn to look
impressed and that was the extent of our interaction for the evening. Since
then a congregation of Bibles has taken a different meaning.
I have also been on the receiving end of the assumption process. I
was leaving work to go home a number of weeks back and met Luis from church.
Luis is a 15 years old and plays the keyboard church, also the guy who recently
cut my hair. He told me he was going to play some soccer and I asked where he
played trying to sound interested. I got an invitation to go play some 3 vs 3
street soccer with him and his friends. When we walked home he told me that he
didn’t expect that I liked to play soccer. Well he knows better now, and came
over the other evening to convince me to come play some mud soccer. It wasn’t
that tough a sell.
Some random fun facts:
White socks are not for mud soccer.
The Mennonite church here has had 2 food fundraisers so far,
Hamburgers and Tamales. They’re good cooks.
The rain has turned some of the roads, including a section in front
of my house, into mud soup. So my walk to work now more resembles an obstacle
course.
