the world between cultures

I was reflecting this past week about, well, many things.  On the front of my mind has been culture…the depths of it, the intricate layers of it, the impossibility of defining it.  February 18 marked our first year in the Philippines.  In the past year we have done more thinking about culture than ever before, and we’ve begun to observe that culture is really a flexible and active entity.  One can’t really say they know ALL of a culture, even their own, because there are always different variables at play, depending on who, what, and where, or the angle from which any of those is being observed.  For instance, there’s culture related to one’s country, and then there’s culture related to one’s religion, there’s culture related to one’s socio-economic status, and culture related to one’s level of education; there’s culture related to race and ethnicity, and culture related to one’s geographic location; there’s culture within one’s politics, and culture within one’s music or artistic tastes.  And then, there’s culture within one’s family.  All of these cultures are constantly in flux in each person.  We may be related to one another in a general framework, like American culture or Christian protestant culture, or Filipino culture or Islamic culture, but when you get to the core of culture, it’s impossible to pinpoint.

Filipino culture is, in my observation, a constant contradiction of values.  Yet I humbly take the position of a learner.  I would be dishonest to deny that I haven’t stood in judgment at times (which is normal in the process of cultural adaptation).  Most of the time that judgment comes out in traffic.  But I have also begun to step outside of my own culture and see the world through different eyes.  I recently heard someone talking in a way that sounded very ethnocentric, and I thought, “Don’t say that about the Filipinos!”  Like I was defensive, because these people, and their culture, are working their way into my heart.  That, in fact, is the Lord’s doing, an answer to prayer.  To love a people is a choice, but the feeling of love must come from God.

 

Our family went to Hong Kong this past weekend.  We flew out early Saturday morning and got back late late late Monday night.  It was as if we’d been gone a whole week, we saw so much and enjoyed ourselves so intensely.  It was the break we really needed.  It was thoroughly refreshing to be back in an efficient city…the most efficient city I’ve ever been in.  We road the subway, a bus, a tram, a trolley, a ferry, and a cable car, and not once did we sit in traffic (come to Manila and you’ll understand why that is SO refreshing!).  But while we enjoyed the efficiency and the lack of attention on our baby (again, just bring a young child to the Philippines and you’ll understand what I’m saying), we also missed the friendly service and general helpfulness of the Filipino people (that’s not to say those in Hong Kong weren’t helpful…they were great!).

I think the most revealing thing to me about our trip was that I found myself not knowing how to behave.  When we first arrived I tried to wave down a bus that would take us where we wanted to go, because that’s what you do in Manila.  But the bus was going and we would just have to wait in line.  Now, we actually are more comfortable with the line system, but I realized how adjusted I’ve become to the way things work here.  Then we found ourselves with a fussy toddler in a restaurant.  In the Philippines, the good side to the constant attention on Josiah is that we know people like him, and so if he’s being fussy sometimes they help out by talking to him or helping us.  But in the foreign culture of Hong Kong, we didn’t know…are people annoyed with our loud child?  These are small things, but when you’re not “in the know” in a culture, when you face the issues that remind you you are an utter outsider, that’s when you start to examine your own culture deeper.

So what I’m getting to is that I found that I have adopted some of the Filipino way of life, their culture, into the way I live.  Life here, although it can still be trying and difficult, makes sense to me.  And that…that is a big thing.

Edwin said the other day, “I should have been a sociologist.”  And I responded, “You are…we are.  We’re missionaries…we have to be sociologists.”  And this is true.  We aren’t just here to adapt to and live in another culture.  We’re here to make a difference in this culture.  To do that, we have to be living in it, a part of it.  And to live in it, we have to understand it, and realize that “it” isn’t accurate…it’s more “they.”  The cultures, plural, of the Philippines…those are what we are learning.  We have to get to the core values and worldview of the people.  And that’s what we’re doing, one day at a time, living in the world between cultures, and wearing a new one for a while.