Culture Convergence

I really like sharing things on this blog - my thoughts and events. I worry about being offensive with some of my thoughts but this stuff is part of my life right now and I think they ought to be recorded.

First, culture shock (better named "culture adjustment") is for real. Culture adjustment takes time to work through. Culture adjustment opens our eyes and breaks down our hearts. Culture adjustment grows humor.

I have spent more time praying and crying and being angry here in Macau than I have anywhere else.

I hope it's making me a better person. I firmly believe that all events can give us experience AND can be for our good with God's help and some humility. Anyway...

So Macau is an extremely different and difficult place for me. There's so much about it that's different it's hard to even categorize. In some ways things here are the same as they probably are anywhere on the planet, and in other ways it's sometimes hard for me to believe that human beings have arrived at such different conclusions about things. The differences are in some ways so awesome and beautiful and in other ways soooooo trying of patience and kindness and understanding.

My favorite thing so far about Macau is the descent of so many cultures upon it in the last several years. In our little apartment block our friends are Macanese, mainland Chinese, Swedish, Norwegian, Dutch, Scottish, British, French, Portuguese, and Filipino. Other nearby friends are Australian, Irish, Czechoslovakian, Spanish, German, Colombian, Canadian, Indian, Thai, and Brazilian. From what I gather this mix is changing Macau pretty quickly.

I think it's hard for a lot of people native to Macau to deal with us (all of us outsiders) and our different ways. I see it at the grocery stores, where managers are struggling to understand us and what we want (no, we don't want just as much Campbell's oxtail soup as chicken noodle...). I see it in comments I get about my kids and how I (and others like me) choose to parent them. That said it sure is fun to, over time, get more of these kinds of folks to smile at me and my crazy kids rather than frown. The bread store lady is coming around to us now, and her smile (rather than annoyance) feels like a victory to me.

Anyway the East/West convergence is for reals, and takes some time to understand, on both sides. Of course I notice what I think's weird but am oblivious (so often) to what feels crazy offensive to folks here. Working on that.

A while ago I went into a bathroom stall and came across what in my mind is the quintessential image of our unresolved convergence:

 In case you're not sure what's going on here there are occasional signs in stalls spelling it out for you:

Sometimes easterners don't like our western solutions anymore than we like theirs I'm afraid. That's really okay and hopefully gets us all some chuckles as we step back and just take the time to wipe the toilet seat and laugh.