Communicating

Since arriving in Romania, I have experienced different ways of communicating, whether this is via motions or pointing and trying to say what it is in a different language. My first few nights with my host family is an example of that because, it was just my host father and myself. My host father does not speak English very well, but we had to communicate about things in the house. Through hand gestures, broken English and Romanian, we were able to communicate what we needed to say. Yet we communicated better through one element, and that being worship. My host dad plays guitar for the Pentecostal church here in town, and I seen the guitar and he asked me if I wanted to play, and I did. One thing I learned from that experience and many other similar experiences is that worshipping God transcends cultural and language barriers.

When you are trying to communicate how you feel and yet do not have the language to do it things tend to get interesting. Even if you have the language to do so you might not be able to work the words the way you want to, because only you feel what you feel. When I wrote a thank you letter to my host family I did not feel I was able to express how I was feeling, yet they tried to understand how I felt, but yet the love that God showed me though them was able to get through. When you are with people for an extended amount of time, you tend to know how they feel, even without speaking the same language, and you start to see the beauty that God made them with. When you feel that you have been openly invited into a family, many things tend to happen one of them being a sense of understanding, and some time non-verbal communication.

Communication is a funny aspect of humans, because it requires a lot of patience, and some people just do not have that. When we take our time to communicate, it most often will come out clear. I look at all the times in the semester where I have seen myself try and communicate, and it is amusing to say the least. I can think of multiple times where I have messed up my Romanian trying to communicate with my host mom, but yet we got through it even if we started laughing really hard. Patience is key when trying to communicate, and it is meaningful when you sit and listen, because that means so much more than not trying to communicate.

-Val