All goes well at the Global Youth Summit. In fact, things are winding down already at the GYS. This was a whirlwind three days of worship, cultural exchange, and a whole lot of yerba mate and carbohydrates (two critical forms of sustenance for Paraguayans, it seems).
The group of about 700 young people is at least half Paraguayan, with the large majority coming from German-speaking colonies in the Chaco. These South American Mennonites, who are more and more culturally Paraguayan while still maintaing German appearence and language, are the folks who really mess with my assumptions and categories.
I´m noticing how dependant I am upon appearences to determine levels of commonality, and how silly my first-impression assumptions tend to be in this context. During lunch on our first day here, for instance, I was on my own and scouring the cafeteria for a friendly-looking table. Admittedly, I had no desire for an enriching cultural encounter–I just wanted comfortable small talk with minimal awkwardness.
I settled on a table of young women who would have fit right in at the Bethel College cafeteria. But as I sat down and tried to make conversation, I got a few sideways glances and uncomfortable silence. It became obvious that these women were from the Chaco and were a bit taken aback by my presumptuous English overtures.
After some more silence, I ventured into German and stumbled through some simple questions. That seemed to break the ice, and soon one the girls who spoke very good English (her third language, after German and Spanish) mecifully relieved me of my need to further assault the noble Deutsch tongue. We had a pretty good conversation, mostly in English, and the girls even helped me buy some fruit from a local vendor.
Based on that early experience, I´ve developed a strategy for communication with German-speaking types. I open with some sad-but-endearing attempt at German, and my patient interloper politely asks me–in English–how I came to learn German. Common ground having been established, conversation ensues. Preliminary friendship achieved!
–Meredith Lehman
