Some Cultural Differences We've Noticed...

It stands to reason that goint to live in a new culture, in a new country that there will be a few things done differently here than at home. Here are a few of the things we've noticed and are learning to appreiciate.


1. Everything Starts at 7AM
- Yeah, just about everything! The major grocery stores are open from 7am-11pm at night. Some smaller stores aren't open that early, but even this morning (and this is not unusual) we heard the car repair guy with his bullhorn coming by at 7am. The buzz of the day begins at 7am

2. Door to Door Delivery of Stuff is Big Business.
-In the morning it can be the car repair guy with his bullhorn shouting out "Radiators, electrical, auto repair, batteries etc. etc." Apparantly if your car has stopped working, he'll come by and fix it at your house. so all you do is go out when he comes by and flag him down.
- Sometimes it's the propane guy with his catchy song playing. i can't sing it or even hum it here, but when you hear it- anytime from 7am till 7pm, you can get a new, full propane tank for your hot-water and stove. Some other propane companies just honk , one truck has a siren he wails as he goes around the neighbourhood
- The Tamale guy comes around at about 7-9am and then again at 7-8pm. apparantly people liek tamales for breakfast and late suppers! He has a bullhorn that announces the different kinds of tamales he's selling today- "Beef and pepper, chicken, pineapple, pork." There are 2 of these guys in our neihgbourhood.
- Seems liek everyone's favourite is the "Pan Dulce" guy. He comes around in the evenings and sells sweet breads to be eaten as a snack. Danish-like pastries, donuts, empanadas. They sell from about 20 cents to 45 cents each depending on the size and if they are filled.
- Finally it's the Helados truck/ cart. Ice cream and these fruit pops that are popular here. These fruit pops are pure frozen fruit- sometimes with cream or coco milk too. The watermelon one, even has seeds in it! Not like our imitation juice popsicles at all.

3. Driving Rules
- At first glance, it seems there are none here. But there are- they are just different then Canada. For instance, a 4 way stop. (There are tons of these!) You can make a U-Turn here- and it is expected that one will. People Rarely come to complete stops. Just enough to see who goes next and whether it's your turn, but in order to facilitate the efficient running of the system, you need to creep your way into the intersection, even if the guy coming the other way is turning nin front of you- you go slowly anyway and then clear the intersection when you get the chance. At streetlights- the greenlight blinks first to let you know that it's about to change yellow- then very quickly it becomes red. A yellow light shoudl be treated as red- cuz chances are good someone else is jumping the green!
- Some roads are very obviously 4 lanes, but at some places, that can expand to 5, 6 or even 8 lanes, depending on the presence of pedestrians, the amount of traffic and whether or not it seems safe to do that! Shoulders are sometimes for parking, sometimes for walking, sometimes for driving, sometimes for selling stuff- sometimes all 4 at once!
- In the USA (souther California anyway) people seem to be in a hurry and courtesy is rare. Here in Mexico, they drive "Crazy (to us) but it's a courteous crazy- if you inch into the lane of the next guy and cut him off- he doesn't give you the "Trudeau wave", he jams on the brakes, lets you in and then rides your tail so that noone else gets in in front of him. Sometimes with a wave of a hand you can change 3 or 4 lanes at once with the permission of the other drivers!

4. Even though everyhting starts at 7am- it goes late too!
- the busiest time for grocery shopping seems to be from 8pm-10pm. Not only is there alot of shopping going on, but the taco stands, the corner stores and the streets in general are filled with people, the smells of BBQ meat, the sounds of music. It slows down after 10pm- then revs up again at 7...

5. Mexicans are the some of the hardest workign people I know.
- We tend to have a preconception in Canada of the "lazy Mexican"- sitting under the cactus having a siesta. While some still do have a siesta between 3-5 or so- its cuz they were up at 5 or 6 am and they'll work till 10 or 11pm. Some have regular jobs during the day then open a taco stand out of their homes at night. Owners of places work all day and night 6-7 days a week. People without "jobs" will sell, buy, dig, do almost anythign to make some money for the day. Exceptionally hard working folks, resourceful and ingenius.

6.It's a day to day culture.
- in Canada (esp. the prairies) we have learned to store away in times of plenty for times of need. I.E. Plant a garden for the 3 weeks without frost and 22 hours of sunlight and then can, freeze, sell, trade your zucchinis till you seem to have enough to do you as long as you can. Modernly it looks like shopping at the superstore or costco and having enough in the house so that if you can't get out for some reason, (lose the electric garage door opener) you can still survive for a week to a month.
- In Mexico, where you rarely have enough money to buy 2 weeks worth of groceries, people buy for a couple days at a time- so the grocery store is always full with people having only a few items in ther carts. there are several "10 items or less" lanes in some places. So our house has virtually no cupboards. Nowhere for us to store our 2 weeks worth of groceries. So we shop almost daily!
- What''s needed for today takes precedence over what's needed for the long term. I heard of a story where some people were looking for a stick to whack their pinata with. After much searching, the missionary came back with a broom he had found in the church. Much to the delight of the people, they took the broom, busted it, and used it as the stick. The missionary was shocked. Why not just use it as it was? We wasted a broom! Today's need takes precedence over tomorrows.

7. Fate determines my life...
- This one is a tough one to swallow sometimes. In Canada our culture tells us that we have control over our circumstances. We buckle our seatbelts, because that saves lives- We have governments inspect our playgrounds and give us new lifesaving gudelines (which change every 5 years- when we realize that a child got hurt under the old guidelines), we regulate everyhting with the hope of controling our destiny. We deny death, we ignore the ill and the aged, in hope that we can avoid both for us. We also tell ourselves that we can be anythign we want to be- anyone can be the prime minister (despite the fact that very few of our modern prime ministers come from the middle or working class). We expect the government to prevent hurricanes and ice storms and are raged when they cannot fix massive diasters by Monday, or Tuesday at the latest. in Short, we beleive that, with few exceptions, we have control over our lives.
- In some developing world cutures, they beoleive that the heavens determine our lives paths. In other words, poor people will always be poor, so why get educated when you can help put food on the table. Why wear seatbelts? If it's your time to die, it's your time! Safety is not number one. People don't expect to live forever, they don't expect to get out of their circumstances. If God is in control, what can I do?

8. There is an openness to talking about God and a desire to have a relationship with Jesus Christ, rather than follow a religion.
- not everyone, of course, but there seem to be lots of peole who are no longer willing to settle for religion. They want Jesus. They want to know Him, to follow Him and to be loved by Him.
It's an interesting time to be a missionary here. Thanks for partnering with us so we can be here.
Please pray for us espescially in relation to language learning and acculturation. These things mentioned above which can be interesting and even admirable, can become an irritant too during the different phases of culture shock. Pray that we won't do or say anything that would hinder our ability to serve the people here with the Good News of Jesus- espescially while in the culture shock phases!

thank you and Bless You!

Dios la Bendiga,

Until Next time,
Mcdonald family