Blog #3: A New Crop

We came across a bump in the road during the course of this project. Every time we tried to go back to our family's house, they either would not answer the door or they would be gone altogether. We came back to their house every Thursday at the same time for three weeks and still they never came. I thought this was very rude, but then I remembered that different cultures have different perceptions when it comes to orientation to time. As Americans, we expected our family to always be punctual because we made a commitment to teaching them. It could be possible that the Burmese culture does not place as much importance on be on time, as long as the task at hand eventually gets done.

After explaining our dilemma to Kelly, the volunteer coordinator, she assigned us to a new family. We are now working with a single Burmese widow that is completely fluent in English. Our main job is to keep her company one day a week and talk to her about our lives since her husband has passed away and her children live all over the place.

We had an instant connection with Margaret the moment we walked in the door. She gave us all a huge hug and offered us something do drink and a snack. She was so excited to have visitors that she just started talking nonstop about her life and sharing wonderful wisdom with us. She has an incredibly strong faith. She has 10 biological children, 6 of which have now passed away. But she still believes that the Lord has a plan for all of them, including herself. She writes down scriptures and prays the rosary in all of her free time. She prays for everyone in the world, whether she knows them or not.

Normally I would expect the initiation stage of forming a relationship to be awkward and consisting of lots of small talk about the weather and how the day goes. Emelia and I had about 3 minutes of that with Margaret before we delved into the deep conversation about faith in God. I know that Burmese people place great emphasis on forming strong relationships, and this was incredibly evident in her. She moved very quickly through the initiation stage, breezed through the acquaintance stage, and we were instant friends. Sometimes this is a cultural thing, but in this situation I think she did that because that's just how comfortable she is with people.

Margaret's ease and willingness to befriend new people has helped me greatly. She showed me that it shouldn't matter what culture you are from or what religion you affiliate with. What matters is that we are all people who are from the same God. She taught me that stereotypes are low and deserve to be broken. She values every person, which is a quality that we definitely need in more people in this world.