Saturday, Saturday, such a busy day.
I just wanted to take a minute and tell you all about the awesome thing we did last Saturday morning.
We got invited by Furaha, the woman who helped plant Baraka Academy, to attend their "promotion" ceremony at 10 a.m. on Saturday. So, Kristen, Sheryl, and I all got ready to go and headed off to the school.
We made it there by 9:55. Expecting the ceremony to begin right away, we grabbed some seats and waited. and waited. and waited! We waited until 10:45. There were lots and lots of parents/family/grandparents sitting around us and coming and going and the kids were all filing in roughly.
As a little bit of a side note right here, I had been recommended to read a book called "Foreign to Familiar" before I came (Thank you Kara Moran and the Kettlebrook Esperanza Group!) and I took that chance and read it cover to cover. Twice. There's one chapter that really stood out among the many to me; it's a chapter all about Hot cultures versus Cold cultures. A hot culture is one where the people are very relaxed: the people take their time, talk with everyone, meet and greet, and are always expecting people to make time for them...and they reciprocate that as well. You never know when a hot culture person may show up at your door! On the reverse, a cold culture is one where the people are ON THE GO. Non-stop. These people are very time oriented, respectful of others,and usually have a rather large...how should we call it....personal bubble. haha. Congolese culture is a HOT CULTURE. And where I come from....well.....we are most definitely on the colder side. There isn't a right or wrong to hot or cold, just different. But getting used to jumping from one to the other is quite difficult!
Back to my story now.
Like with Baraka Academy. We were told "the ceremony starts at 10 a.m." so we came at 10. Unfortunately, we didn't weigh in the fact that it's a hot culture! In a hot culture, saying that something starts at 10 a.m. means you start getting ready at 10. You stop whatever you were doing, get dressed, eat, get in the car, drive to the place and find your seat....at 10:30 or so. The same goes for the people putting on the ceremony. You start setting up at 10. So we arrived at 10 and there were about 8 benches set up. less than half. We found our seats and watched as people came in and out bringing benches, desks, speakers, sound equipment, cameras, kids, parents, all piling into this little outdoor auditorium style room.
When the ceremony finally got started (phew!) we we're all excited. These adorable little kids and very proud older ones, filed in wearing their little caps and gowns singing and clapping and dancing to the drums that some unseen person was playing.....I wish my graduation had been that exciting!
After all of the kids had entered, everyone started pressing in to see. There were so many people there! I finally stood up so I could get some good pictures. The classes came up one by one and each sang a song, danced, and the younger ones answered questions to show what they had learned that year. SO ADORABLE.
Did I mention the entire thing was in Swahili? Well, it was. Which was very cool as well. :) I love listening to people converse in other languages.....even when I can't understand them (which is nearly always.). I love the way it sounds! Especially Swahili. The whole language is very fast and methodical. A lot of rhythm to it.
Well, at about 12:20, we got up to take our leave because, as hot cultures tend to do, we knew the ceremony would go on for at least another 3 ish hours. That is completely normal and if you have ever been to church in the inner-city before (shout out...I love Christ Bible! :D) you can attest to this fact, church services and any important event tend to go much longer than what you expect, so you learn to expect them to be longer!
All in all, we took our leave, went home, and enjoyed the rest of the afternoon with volleyball and just general hanging out time.
What a lovely day. :)
Please pray that God would continue to show me new things and reveal to me how to establish deeper connections with the people around me. :) Also that I could continue to see the difference between hot and cold cultures and deal with them personally.
God Bless!
Maranatha.
-Kelly
I just wanted to take a minute and tell you all about the awesome thing we did last Saturday morning.
We got invited by Furaha, the woman who helped plant Baraka Academy, to attend their "promotion" ceremony at 10 a.m. on Saturday. So, Kristen, Sheryl, and I all got ready to go and headed off to the school.
We made it there by 9:55. Expecting the ceremony to begin right away, we grabbed some seats and waited. and waited. and waited! We waited until 10:45. There were lots and lots of parents/family/grandparents sitting around us and coming and going and the kids were all filing in roughly.
As a little bit of a side note right here, I had been recommended to read a book called "Foreign to Familiar" before I came (Thank you Kara Moran and the Kettlebrook Esperanza Group!) and I took that chance and read it cover to cover. Twice. There's one chapter that really stood out among the many to me; it's a chapter all about Hot cultures versus Cold cultures. A hot culture is one where the people are very relaxed: the people take their time, talk with everyone, meet and greet, and are always expecting people to make time for them...and they reciprocate that as well. You never know when a hot culture person may show up at your door! On the reverse, a cold culture is one where the people are ON THE GO. Non-stop. These people are very time oriented, respectful of others,and usually have a rather large...how should we call it....personal bubble. haha. Congolese culture is a HOT CULTURE. And where I come from....well.....we are most definitely on the colder side. There isn't a right or wrong to hot or cold, just different. But getting used to jumping from one to the other is quite difficult!
Back to my story now.
Like with Baraka Academy. We were told "the ceremony starts at 10 a.m." so we came at 10. Unfortunately, we didn't weigh in the fact that it's a hot culture! In a hot culture, saying that something starts at 10 a.m. means you start getting ready at 10. You stop whatever you were doing, get dressed, eat, get in the car, drive to the place and find your seat....at 10:30 or so. The same goes for the people putting on the ceremony. You start setting up at 10. So we arrived at 10 and there were about 8 benches set up. less than half. We found our seats and watched as people came in and out bringing benches, desks, speakers, sound equipment, cameras, kids, parents, all piling into this little outdoor auditorium style room.
When the ceremony finally got started (phew!) we we're all excited. These adorable little kids and very proud older ones, filed in wearing their little caps and gowns singing and clapping and dancing to the drums that some unseen person was playing.....I wish my graduation had been that exciting!
After all of the kids had entered, everyone started pressing in to see. There were so many people there! I finally stood up so I could get some good pictures. The classes came up one by one and each sang a song, danced, and the younger ones answered questions to show what they had learned that year. SO ADORABLE.
Did I mention the entire thing was in Swahili? Well, it was. Which was very cool as well. :) I love listening to people converse in other languages.....even when I can't understand them (which is nearly always.). I love the way it sounds! Especially Swahili. The whole language is very fast and methodical. A lot of rhythm to it.
Well, at about 12:20, we got up to take our leave because, as hot cultures tend to do, we knew the ceremony would go on for at least another 3 ish hours. That is completely normal and if you have ever been to church in the inner-city before (shout out...I love Christ Bible! :D) you can attest to this fact, church services and any important event tend to go much longer than what you expect, so you learn to expect them to be longer!
All in all, we took our leave, went home, and enjoyed the rest of the afternoon with volleyball and just general hanging out time.
What a lovely day. :)
Please pray that God would continue to show me new things and reveal to me how to establish deeper connections with the people around me. :) Also that I could continue to see the difference between hot and cold cultures and deal with them personally.
God Bless!
Maranatha.
-Kelly
