Bingo! A Cultural Experience

From the very start of our second semester through the remainder of January we had our Culture Intro class. This class was thought-provoking, eye-opening, and challenging! We were broken up into small groups of about eight students and spent the majority of time discussing different case studies that centered on cultural differences. Wondering how Bingo plays into all of this? Read on!

The first part of the class focused on classifying different aspects of culture. For example, if you heard a story about how a man finds a wife, you would probably list it under Family and Economics. We then went over various orientations that people have such as: time/event, task/person, dichotomistic/holistic, status/achievement, crisis/non-crisis, and concealment/willingness to expose vulnerability. After taking a survey to discover where we fell on these different ranges, we discussed the pros and cons to each, how these different orientations will excel and struggle in various contexts. Cameron and I also discovered that we scored opposite in the areas of dichotomistc vs. holistic and crisis vs. non-crisis. I'll let you decipher which of us scored where.

The latter part of our Culture Intro class was devoted to reading and discussing various case studies from missionaries all around the world. Not only did we have to analyze the different cultural factors, but we had to decide what we would do in those situations. Granted, we had the benefit of reading these and having time to reflect without being personally involved. Also, we realized some of our own values that we held as "biblical" were, in fact, our American cultural and not strictly from the Bible itself. One case study in particular stands out as an example of this realization. It took place in Papua New Guinea where they have a strong sense of revenge and compensation for a life taken. This can take the form of killing the perpetrator or in financial payment. Because of this, if you are driving and accidentally hit someone you do not stop for help. If you do, you will inevitably be beaten to death by the surrounding people. Instead, you are to drive to the nearest police station where you explain what happened. They will arrest you and place you in protective custody until everything is sorted out and the fine to compensate the death of this individual is paid to his tribe.

Well, when we first read this case study we were confronted with whether or not we would have stopped to try and help or kept to the cultural norm of driving to the police station. There's obviously a whole lot more that I am leaving out for the sake of length but basically we came to the conclusion that, in America, we take responsibility for our actions by stopping and helping but, in Papua New Guinea, you take responsibility for your actions by driving straight to the police station. Neither are necessarily wrong but are just different and fit in their respective cultures. We had trouble understanding how the latter could be right until we turned to Deuteronomy 19 where we saw that God actually instructs the Israelites to create for themselves Cities of Refuge for accidental manslaughter. Believe it or not, this was one of the "easier" case studies! All that to say, we learned from this class is that there are no easy answers and we truly have to rely of the Holy Spirit for wisdom and direction.

Bingo

Now to Bingo! Part of this class was a practicum in which we had to choose an activity/event that would take us out of our comfort zone and cause us to experiences some of the feelings we'll have when we go overseas. Feelings such as not having a clue what to do when everyone else does, being confused, asking for help, being uncomfortable, etc. When we looked over the list together, what did we find but Bingo! We had actually been saying that we wanted to go there sometime and now we had an excellent reason. We went on a Thursday night and had an awesome time! Granted, we experienced all of those feelings, but it was still such a fun experience. We learned not just the game of Bingo but some of the culture that goes with it just by watching all the people around us. We were there for three hours and had no idea that so much time had passed! Thankfully, they had an intermission half-way through during which time Cameron found out that we could get a hot dog, chips and soda for just two dollars! It was a fun date and homework night all rolled into one

This whole class made us excited to anticipate all that will happen when we go overseas in just a few short years and apply what we've been learning!

United in Christ,

Caitlin and Cameron

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