(Photos: Grace before her first pool experience; Grace's hands are almost always in her mouth.) We have officially been on the road for over a month. We left Megan’s parents house on July 30 and still have a few more stops to go before we arrive at Tom’s parents house in Massachusetts. Last night we stayed in our twelfth location, our ninth state. As you can imagine we are looking forward to being in one place but we must give credit to all our hosts, they have made it very easy to be guests. Warm beds, hot showers, yummy meals and good conversation—these are some of the hallmarks of a good guest experience.
Being a guest in a home in Chad has a number of the same qualities but there is still a distinctly different culture of playing guest and host. Firstly, showing hospitality is extremely important, It’s so important that people will go into debt to provide good meals for their guest. The host is honored by the guest’s presence and the guest is honored by the number and type of dishes served. Secondly, there are culturally expected rituals. The guest will say they have to go only to have the host urge and insist that they stay longer. The host is almost obligated to ask the guest to keep eating and keep eating even if they show signs of already being content. Upon leaving the host leads the guest out of the gate and walks with them a part of their way back home (the longer they walk the more honoring). Then there are all the nuances of custom that we had to learn- like when to take the hot tea (the usual end of any visit). You needed to take the cup off the tray right away (trying not to grimace at the intense heat), but then you could place it on the mat to cool. But if you left it too long you would be urged to drink, so you needed to take some little demur sips occasionally, but you must hide the fact that it is burning your mouth and you never blow on it as this is only something children do.
Being a guest becomes this dance
or play that as a foreigner you have to study and learn. Sometimes this was exhausting, though it did add to the value and satisfaction of a “good visit”. Luckily for us the American dance comes naturally. You’ll have to ask our hosts if we’ve made any missteps.PRAYERS ANSWERED
We’ve had a really nice, encouraging week being with family and friends and getting to know one of our supporting churches better. We’ve have been blessed with all the wonderful hospitality (THANK YOU ALL). Grace continues to be amazing—her most common accolades by observers are “she’s so alert!”, “what a pretty baby!”, “she’s strong”, “she’s so calm”, “what a good baby”. We very much agree.
PRAYERS REQUESTED
As before pray that our car and baby do well in the last stretches of this road trip, we should be in MA by the end of the week. Pray that we plan our time in the States well- we are already getting the feeling that it is going to be full and fast.
