In a course we took in August 2008, Julie and I were taught that interacting with people from different cultures requires us to “think gray” and “suspend judgment.” To my thinking, that’s being put to the test in an extreme way.
I had exposure to “think gray” and “suspend judgment” when I was in Nairobi, Kenya this past February. I even think I did pretty well. But this didn’t prepare me for what I’m observing here in Guam.
My son’s family adopted a 7 week old puppy (now 5 months old) whose mother was a street dog. David and Dawn have been told by a local Guam dog trainer that the proper way to train Alley (as in alley dog) is not to say “no” but to growl at it, just like one street dog would “discipline” another.
I had a dog as a kid and Julie and I (and the kids) had 3 more dogs. I have never, never heard of growling to a dog. I frankly can’t say that I’ve seen it be very effective with Alley. It seems so foreign to me. I can’t imagine ever understanding this approach. It’s for the dogs.
Which is why I think this is preparation for our 6 months in PNG. This experience may really be from God to prime my “cross-cultural” pump as we anticipate heading for the highlands of Papua New Guinea. I wonder what strange and different outlooks I’ll observe. I wonder what that will look like. Hmmm…
Stay tuned.
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