On Monday, Nate's school went down to the local movie theater to watch a documentary movie by Disney on The Big Cats of Africa. I had a chance to go along to chaperon and help out. It was an amazing study on the differences between N. American and Argentine (Jujuy at least) cultures.
The kids started off their day by heading to their home room, roll call, announcements, flag salute, etc. Then came the time to load up to go. This is the where the difference really began to show.
Each class lines up outside their room in 2 rows. One row for the boys, the other for the girls. I don't ever remember doing that in school in N. America. I am sure that it was not done so that no one would feel offended at being segregated, different, sexual orientation biases, etc. : )
From there we were to march along in good order to the front of the school to load on the buses. I was expecting "school buses." Instead we had city transit buses. Humm? No prob. But, unlike school buses and exactly like in city transit, it is ok to cram on waaaaay more people than can possibly fit into the seats. The extra people get to stand and hold on to rails from the ceiling if they are tall enough, or to hold on to handles across the top of the seats if they are too short for the former. And cram on we did! : )
I was expecting at least twice as many buses. When I got on with the class and realized the bus was already full, I thought it was a mistake and we were going to get off and get on to another, more empty bus. No such thing was going to happen. It took me a few seconds to shake off my N. American way of doing things - all I could think about was the potential lawsuits when we got into an accident and the kids packed into the aisles went flying in every direction. - I quickly got over it and tried to figure out how best to cram in and not squish any of the kids. : )
I was also surprised (should have known better by now) that there did not seem to be any rhyme or reason to which class got onto which bus. We were all mixed together. 1st and 2nd grades with 5th grades with 7th graders, etc. Of course, as fate would have it, the older kids arrived first and took all the seats. Then the rest of us boarded. A wise teacher made all the older kids get up and give their seats to the smaller students. It has hard as the aisles were already jammed and in the end it only partly happened. For example - Nate's 2nd grade class was THRILLED to be able to sit in the back exist area & stand in the aisles so they did not take any of the seats. : )
Once at the theater, again, it seemed a bit like a free-for-all. Now, each class did take up their own row and their teachers sat with them, but as far as which row we took - it did not seem there was any organization to it. It was a school field trip so of course my N. American mindset told me we were there to learn something and not to chow down. I did not allow Nate to go to the snack stand to buy anything therefore. Big mistake! Many of the kids loaded up on stuff and had a blast. By the time I realized it was okay, it was too late as the movie had started. Nate was not too happy with me.
When the movie was over we all got lined up and started to leave. We packed the lobby and tried to stay in our neat little rows. (Some groups are better at it than others. Ha.) We stood there for quite awhile waiting for the buses to pull up front so we could load and go. But eventually, we were all sent back into the auditorium to sit down and wait. Something must have gone wrong with the schedule.
When we all finally went back out again, I was surprised at how long we had to wait for the buses, then how long we had to wait to load, then for how long we had to wait to get moving... etc. Again, I was in my very time conscience N. American mind set. But, none of the Argentines seemed impatient in the least!
Now, I share all this with you not to blast or make fun of Latin Culture, but rather to highlight the differences in the way cultures do things. One culture is not right and the other one wrong. Although, I am sure that any N. American who would have been along would have found many things "wrong" with how the trip was done. I am also just as sure that for a person who grew up in a Latin America who was doing the same trip in the States, would think of just as many things that were done "wrong."
It IS amazing how much our cultural upbringing shades and shapes us.
Even though I have trained in, am aware of it, etc. -it is still hard to set aside my home culture's biases. : )
Just something to think about and be aware of in our constantly shrinking world.
Good night and God bless -
Paz y poder en el Espiritu Santo : )
No comments:
Post a Comment