Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Cultural Exchange

I am fascinated by other cultures which is just one of the reasons my family often hosts a child from an orpahange in Ukraine. It's also a chance to share Jesus with a child who otherwise may never hear his name, to show how loving, Christian families interact, and to share our Okie culture and learn about theirs. We are doing so right now. Our host child is 15 and a living doll, both inside and out. She's also funny and a real gamer, willing to try new foods--and ride the Zipper at the country fair. AWK. Never again.

Tonight we had fried okra, a staple for us in the summer months. She doesn't like our ice tea, wasn't crazy about corn on the cob(poor deluded child) but this girl loved okra. In her thick Russian accent, she kept saying, "What is this? Okra? Mmmm." She had also never had M & Ms. My husband believes M&Ms are a staple of life, so he introduced her. She calls them M M Ms. And yes, she likes those too.

This was our first teenaged host child and I was a little nervous at first, being a little kid person, but she has proven to be so much fun. (And she washes dishes without me asking!)

So tell me, have any of you had experience with another culture?

4 comments:

  1. Wow, how wonderful to host a child from another country. My sister and husband adopted a girl from Russia back a few years, and she is now 11. I see issues from living at the orphanage, but she's starting to blossom. God's blessings for your open hearts.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The only other culture is my new neighbor who is French, I am southern so we have a little talking problem, LOL
    Also I have a Koren sister-in-law and have never been able to talk with her but have not been around her that much as they have always lived in a differnet state, but we spent a week end with them once and she cooked all her dishes some I liked and some I didn;t she sit in the middle of her floor and prepared her food. We had to take our shoes off before coming in her house.

    mamat2730(at)charter(dot)net

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  3. Carmen, I think it's awesome that your sister adopted a Russian child. This girl is Ukrainian and speaks Russian, a language I have studied though the result is anything but pretty. ha! Our host child also shows some orphanage issues that just break your heart. She's never got to be a child and the need is very obvious. She's also never had the undivided, caring attention of adults and she just soaks it up. I dread 4 days from now when she leaves.

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  4. Edna,

    Thank you for sharing about your Korean s-i-l. I think it would be really interesting to experience the dinner you mentioned. Ukranians also consider it an act of courtesy to remove shoes at the door, so I never have to worry about Lesya tracking in the way my husband does!

    ReplyDelete

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