Cultural Challenges
We have been in Bolivia for almost 4 years. That is so amazing to me, and yet in many ways I feel as if I have lived here all (or at least most) of my life.
We haven’t had a hard time with the culture. My parents and ancestors are from small-town Texas (after they debarked from the Mayflower, they headed straight for Texas!) and I spent my early years and many summers in those same small towns. I also experienced life in the high-powered business world of the ’80s oil rush in Dallas. And we have dealt with the breadth of human nature in a variety of corporate and church environments.
I give you this brief bio in order to show that we have experienced life in its richness… the sublime to the ridiculous, as they say.
We never made the mistake of isolating human nature within geographical boundaries. People are “people”, all over the world! Yes, in Bolivia I got my purse stolen from my side at a charity bake sale… but in Bible College in Missouri, my graduation ring was stolen from my bedside as I napped (and that same year, my purse and then my Bible were stolen as well).
We thought that our biggest challenge would be to get people to realize their need for a saving Christ to be their Lord and Savior. That challenge has been pretty much the same as we encountered in the States. As we said, people are the same, all over the world. The HolySpirit convicts of sin and we respond to that conviction… either by asking for forgiveness from God or by hardening out hearts.
What has been much harder has been in encouraging our folks to grow in Christ. When following Christ to live the way He shows us in scripture involves changing from “custom”, our people are very timid.
In fact, the phrase “having the courage of your convictions” is a frightening and confusing thought for our people. We in America are raised to believe in the inalienable rights of all human beings to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
But here in Bolivia, human slavery was practiced openly until the mid 1950s. That means that we still have some Bolivians alive today who were slaves when slavery was abolished. They grew up with parents and grandparents who were still slaves in their minds and hearts! They also have grown up knowing that laws can (and DO) change as easily as the change of president. How were they to know whether slavery would stay abolished or not?
Those of us in America take our “mindset” for granted. We rarely wonder how or why we believe the way we do. And then, as we grow older, we wonder how in the world our children, grandchildren, nieces/nephews and neighborhood kids can think so much differently than we do!
The answer to both the Bolivian challenge to dream or to achieve and the confusion about how the young people of America think is found in…
EDUCATION.
Even when we raise our babies at home until they are six, when they enter public school the pedagogy of public education takes over. They learn to think the way their teachers tell them to think. I’m not even going to try to address the ideological “training” that our American children receive.
I want to talk about the education that takes place before public school. In America, our baby games and educational stimulation is all geared toward strengthening the character and will of our children. We start encouraging problem-solving from birth!
Think about the game, “Where’s Mommy”… when we cover our face, at first the young baby thinks that we have “disappeared”. They don’t have a full body awareness yet. When we move our hands and cry “HERE she is!”, the baby is reassured that mommy is still there.
After just a few times, the baby understands the game and starts prying apart Mommy’s hands to find her for him/herself! “HEY… I want my Mommy and I am gonna FIND her!” seems to be the thought behind the action. The baby has solved the problem for her/himself.
When we shift the game to “Where is [baby]?”, we give our children the chance to control their world, to be proactive and have control of us and their situation. They get to work the “magic” of reappearing, on their own terms. And they learn self-confidence along the way.
How are Bolivian babies raised? For the children of the working people, being quiet and unquestioningly obedient is the most important goal. Children are taught not to hope for anything more than what they have today, to grab everything they can today because it won’t be there tomorrow… if there IS a tomorrow.
For the indigenous baby, the “Where’s Baby?” game is horrifying! To dissolve an average Bolivian baby to tears in minutes flat, just cover your face with your hands and ask “Dónde está [baby's name]?”. It seems that the amount of innate confidence that the baby has will determine the range of reaction, from a stern skepticism to a full-blown terror.
I was truly confused by this reaction! It took me quite a bit of reflection and prayer to figure out what lay beneath that simple game. And I discovered it was confidence, faith, trust and HOPE.
Then there are the children of the wealthy and professional classes. Those children are worshipped, for one thing. Every need is cared for and they are totally pampered.
At this point, life for those children diverges because education is bought and paid for here. Yes, there are “public schools”, but the educational content and the preparation for life is radically different from what you find in the private schools.
However, all schools are governed by the national standard of pedagogy. I am seeing more and more attention to skills of reasoning, critical thinking and problem solving, but we still have generations of people who were taught NOT to think for themselves!
As we have seen in the United States, a change in educational pedagogy can dumb down the culture in a relatively short period of time. But raising the critical thinking and ability of a culture takes much longer.
Okay… so WHY are these theories important? Because how are you going to be successful at any business venture if you cannot think beyond “now” and “today”!? How can you plan for the challenges that come in life and business if you can’t figure out how to solve those challenges? How can you discern truth from fiction and have the courage of your convictions if you have been taught that “getting along” is more important than Truth?
It is the lack of a work ethic grounded in the hope and expectation that success is possible that cripples our service and craft industry here.
Yes, they have carpenters and craftsmen who can copy any picture of furniture that you show them… if you can wait a year or two for them to finish it, assuming that you haven’t paid them up front (if that’s the case, then you’ll generally never see the finished item).
Yes, they have upholsterers who can work miracles with fabric. And they will get that sample cushion recovered lickety-split and it will be perfect. But then, when you give them the other 6 to 12 cushions for your living room suite, they break down.
They don’t see those other cushions as money in the bank… they see them as oppressive work that they will probably fail to complete… which is precisely what happens.
You can find a worker/shop owner (seamstress, carpenter, painter, upholsterer, etc…) who does excellent work and you can want them to be your only craftsperson for your work. But if that worker even suspects that you might have a lot of work for them, rather than rejoicing the way an American small business owner would react, workers here react in fear.
No, Americans and even Europeans can’t understand this difference in cultural reaction. But I think it has its foundation in what the people were taught as babies and small children and throughout their lives:
* don’t trust what people tell you;
* we will always fail, so deadlines are just vague thoughts;
* no one keeps their word,
* so promise anything because it doesn’t matter if you don’t follow through.
I think it is always important to live your life, every day, every encounter, in the way the scripture teaches. I think that this approach to life is how we keep back the tide of ungodly behavior and how we exert a Godly influence on the physical world around us.
Matthew 16:19 tells us that it is our responsibility to try to make/keep our part of “the kingdom” — those things and people upon which we have some influence — as much as possible like the scripture teaches.
Have you ever thought about what it would be like if EACH of us did that? I know we don’t have as many Christians in the world as those who are dying and going to hell. But if we EACH did just a bit more and ALL of us tried a tiny bit harder, can you imagine what it would be like?
In the meantime, we follow the sage advice of Steven’s persuasive speaking teacher at BBC (Mrs. Norma Gillming)… “we persuade by inches” as we remember the wise saying “A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still.”
These skills can be taught, regardless of the age of the learner. That is our encouragement!
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