Never a dull moment...

​Any time you live and work in another culture and language, you are going to come up against challenges.  A lot of them are really pretty funny. Embarrassing, but funny.  And you just have to laugh and learn from it, because if you are too serious and beat yourself up about it, you won’t make it out here in the big world of cross-cultural service.  Here’s one recent example:
 
In a meeting of church leadership, I (Laurie)  said, “We need people to be cheerleaders (porristas) for the event and encourage people.” Others at the table responded with strange looks and gasps. 
 
Then one leader said, “What do you mean by porristas?” 
 
“Cheerleaders… you know, people who encourage you and give energy to the event. Like in sports on the sidelines?  (odd looks) Like in High School Musical? (ah ha! Clarity registered on their faces.)  The whole time I’m waving my arms and making cheer moves from my high school days.
 
Then the founding pastor said, “we don’t use that word here. Where did you learn that word?” 
 
“Mexico, Costa Rica, Peru.” 
 
He says, “Oh. Latin America. Well,  we don’t say that.  Porristas are people who smoke marijuana. We don’t need that at this event.” 
 
Oops… note to self… no porristas at church events.  Noted.
 
 
 

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