Another birthday, and I am still waiting on those grey hairs and extra pounds that I have been eagerly anticipating for many years.
Oh well…maybe next year.
Happy Birthday!
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Author Archives: Seth Grotzke
Problems with Cross Cultural Communication
Tanzen: “A boy at daycare is mean.”
Crystal: “Why do you say that?”
Tanzen: “Because he calls me a plant.”
Crystal: “I think you are misunderstanding his Spanish.”
Tanzen: “Oh.”
A lighter side of Spain
Serving with Eyes Wide Open by Livermore
Book: Livermore, David A. Serving with Eyes Wide Open: Doing Short-Term Missions with Cultural Intelligence. Updated. Baker Books, 2012.
(For a full review, click on title above)
Point: Short term missions needs to be evaluated, not because we should abandon the idea, but because we have drifted from the central purpose. That purpose is to properly love God and love others.
Favorite Quote: “How does our lack of cultural intelligence diminish our attempts to love God and love others? That’s the heart of the matter” (Livermore, Seeing, kindle 2560).
Stars: 4 out of 5
It would be worth another read and I would recommend it to someone who:
- Is leading a missions trip
- Has been on missions trips
- Wants to interact with other cultures right at home
Other books along this theme would be:
Lanier, Sarah. Foreign to Familiar; A Guide to Understanding Hot- and Cold- Climate Cultures. McDougal, 2000.
Lingenfelter, Judith E., and Sherwood G. Lingenfelter. Teaching Cross-Culturally: An Incarnational Model for Learning and Teaching. Baker Academic, 2003.
Livermore, David A. Expand Your Borders: Discover Ten Cultural Clusters. Cultural Intelligence Center, 2013.
Toral de Merayo
We have been taking an afternoon a week to visit the nearby villages, and this past week we visited Toral de Merayo. It has about 550 inhabitants and is situated in a small valley across the river from Ponferrada. We ran to the village (about 6 km away), walked around a little, and tested out the playground equipment.
To my knowledge, there are three ways to get to this village. You can walk across the edge of El Pajariel (the small mountain that borders Ponferrada on its southern edge); take the road on the east side of Ponferrada (which was washed out for a while during our rainy season), or take the the highway out and around, looping back in through gravel paths.
Toral, like many other villages, feeds Ponferrada – in multiple ways. These villages are home to many gardens, orchards and vineyards, so their produce ends up at the market in Ponferrada. The inhabitants are also often times employed in Ponferrada.
Brutally Honest
“Fish go in the sea. Not in mouths.”
Tanzen’s response to having to eat leftover fish for supper.
Jesus
May I enter him as my refuge,
build on him as my foundation,
walk in him as my way,
follow him as my guide,
conform to him as my example,
receive his instructions as my prophet,
rely on his intercession as my high priest,
obey him as my king.
Valley of Vision, 78
We are going to put IKEA out of business
Some of you naysayers have said that we have no talent whatsoever with woodworking…and we proved you right trying to make this kitchen stand for Crystal. However, you cannot say that we lack ingenuity.
Sav (“I’m afraid of sharp power tools), Jon (aka – Bob the Builder)*, and I (“stop whining, Jon, and put a bandaid on it”) spent some time using up the scraps from Jon’s garage. In actuality, these are the scraps of the scraps, since Jon had scavenged them from old pallets and junk heaps. He had used up all the “nice” stuff before we got ahold of it. Selfish. I know.
Through much blood, sweat, and tears (mostly blood), we have a finished product with a top shelf to hold our coffee maker, a middle shelf to hold our microwave, and a bottom slanted shelf to hold our vegetables (one could say that all the shelves are slanted, but this one was actually meant to be. No. Really. I mean it.).
In trying to take over IKEA’s clientele base, I have decided to name our company, IK-E, pronounced “ICK-EE.” We will show those Scandinavians a thing or two.
Grandpa Jack would be so proud.
*If you are wondering why Jon does not appear in any of the photos, it is because we didn’t trust him with any tools except the camera.
…and it was raining.
One of the pleasant surprises about living in Spain is the grocery delivery. If you spend a set amount of money on purchases, certain stores will deliver to your apartment for free. This is a great deal if you don’t have a vehicle and you also have a three year old in tow.
The store that offers this delivery is the Spanish equivalent to a Super Walmart, and so they carry most items. We decided to capitalize on this service when we had to buy folding chairs for the visitors we are having in our home. We bought out their stock of chairs, and still had some purchases to make in order to reach the minimum delivery amount. We wandered the store until we found enough items to raise our purchasing price and then headed to the checkout. It was there that we were told that they only deliver groceries, and not folding chairs.
So we walked out of the store and into the rain. I had four folding chairs under my arms and water dripping from my glasses while Crystal had a bag of nonessential items and a small person in a stroller who really, really wanted us to know that she was hungry.
Lesson: Check before check out.
We live in an interesting world
This is a picture of us sitting in a living room in Ponferrada, watching a soccer game being played in Barcelona, by steaming the game through FaceTiming someone in Lima, Peru, with people from Spain, Peru, Minnesota, Brazil, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Pennsylvania, and the UK.
