Let me sum up...

Okay, it is high time that you lovely people know what has been going on in my life over the last month or so. To quote a certain beloved sword-wielding Spaniard, “Let me esplain. No, it is too much. Let me sum up.” So many random things happen here during a day, that when someone asks me what I have been up to lately, I just end up giving them a blank look as my mind frantically tries to put the disjointed parts into some semblance of order. So because of that, I think I will just sum up.

One of pockets of things that I do comes under the title of “visiting”. Basically that means that I get to go spend time with my friends – mostly Pakistani, Iraqi Kurdish or Iranian women. The ones I go to see the most are young stay-at-home moms with little children who really enjoy having company. I have also been basically adopted into a Kurdish family and sleep over at their house every week or two. These people are from cultures where large extended families live together and they miss that, so they love to have lots of people over.

This also tends to be the time when my English breaks down. You see, when you spend an extended period of time talking to someone who speaks broken English, you not only find yourself slowing down so that they can understand you, you also start to eliminate all unnecessary words – such as articles, prepositions, helping verbs. I also find that I generally end up unconsciously imitating the accent of the person I am speaking to. A Pakistani accent is particularly easy to pick up. It is really only when this happens outside of context that I start to notice that I are even doing it. My housemate Rosanna and I have caught ourselves saying things to each other like, “Home. We go, yes?” At least it keeps us amused…

Another aspect of life here is our church. This probably the first place that I have ever been where I am never tempted to say, “I am going to church.” Because we meet in different places, the church is not really connected with a building. It is the most natural thing in the world to say, “We are having church.” I love how clearly I can see that church is the community of believers.

And I love this group of people. There is so much cultural diversity and acceptance and support. I think little 10 month old Timothy, our church baby, embodies ICC. He is happy to be held by anyone (as long as he isn’t really overtired) and will laugh more easily than any other baby that I have seen. There is nothing better than making a face at Timothy across the room and hearing his little giggle. Timothy brings joy and laughter and cuddles into the life of everyone that he meets. Even first time visitors will often be found having a cuddle with him. I think we all want to be like Timothy – bringing joy and laughter and acceptance into the lives of everyone we meet. And that is why I love ICC.

Last night we had our International Christmas Party. We expected about 60 people and 90 showed up. But there was enough food (barely) and enough room and we all had a lovely time. We did a little nativity play to tell the Christmas story. I loved that we didn’t end up having to make any costumes. Our four wisemen (the Bible never says there were three!) all wore their cultural clothes (Malaysian, Sri Lankan, Indian, and Nigerian/British respectively). We had a very dramatic shepherd dressed in traditional Kurdish clothes. Mary, Joseph and the angel were all the children of the British family that I live with, but they had enough ethnic clothes around them to come up with their own costumes too. I think my favorite moment of the play was when Mary came running out carrying the “manger” and “Jesus” – and without Joseph. He showed up about 5 minutes later without his costume. Memories of “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” were flashing through my mind as I struggled not to laugh while I was reading the narration. And the best part was that none of the glitches mattered!

So the party was a great success and wrapped up with an hour of Kurdish, Iranian and Congolese dancing. Off the top of my head, there were people from Iran, Iraqi Kurdistan, the DRC (Democratic Republic of the Congo), India, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore, Venezuela, Lithuania, Germany, Scotland, of course those boring British people, and me as the token American. I think it was a little taste of what heaven will be like!

There is more, but I think I’ll stop there. Like I said, I am summing up!

In less than a week I will be home for Christmas for 10 days. It will be a good break, but also good to know that I will be coming back. There are so many nice people on both sides of the pond!

~ Hannah