Celebrating Culture

This week we had a fabulous dinner with a great group of people.
We were all gathered to bid farewell to some friends whose job has transferred to another country. As I reflected on the evening, I was struck by the things that made it so incredibly enjoyable. Top of the list was the true friendships that had developed among a very culturally diverse group and the international flair that was scattered throughout the evening like the spices on our delicious dishes.
I counted more than nine different nationalities represented around our table.
There were Indonesian, Spaniard, Italian, Arab, American, Danish, British, Brazilian, Filipino...
The conversation at any given time flowed in and out of English, Arabic, Italian, or Spanish. Everyone just followed along and enjoyed the moment, the sounds, the laughs. We couldn't always understand the language (we get three out of the four between my husband and I), but we could always understand the emotion.

Our conversation topics ranged from great vacation spots, food, favorite movies, life in our little city, international politics, adjusting to moving/being transplanted, the International School that all our kids go to, jokes about local happenings (we got a lot of laughs/cries out of the recent rocket attacks!), and saying good bye.
The Italians got asked the food questions.
The Arabs got asked the government questions.
The Americans got asked the parenting questions.
The Spaniards got asked the football (soccer that is) questions.
The Europeans got asked the vacation questions.
The Asians got asked the hospitality questions.

I found it so interesting to observe how each culture said good-bye differently.
Some just cried.
Some confessed they would go home and cry into their pillow alone.
Some told wonderful stories.
Some told hilarious jokes.
Some made toasts.
Some spoke blessings.
Some shared memories.
Some were very quiet.
Some hugged.
Some kissed.
Some avoided the good-bye altogether, waiting for the last possible moment when they would bid the couple farewell one last time as the moving truck pulled away.
Some were already arranging reunions in the future.

In the end, we all celebrated our friendships that know no cultural bounds.
I've heard before that there are often more differences within a culture than there are between cultures. This was true around our table. All being so different, really we had a tremendous amount of things in common.

God has created people amazingly unique, yet desperately similar in so many ways.

Culture.
I'm a big fan.