“Serving overseas as a small-town boy from America is intense, stressful and humorous! Enjoy a light-hearted story with me from our last 20 years overseas!”
—Matt
Navigating by GPS (Good People Service)
On a snowy afternoon when I was around 16 years old, I learned how important it is to have good people around to help in time of need. I was with two other friends in one of their cars on a country road. The sides of the road started to drift in a bit. As an oncoming car approached, my friend who was driving got the car to close to the outside of the drifted in lane. He got us stuck. We got out and tried to push the car free without success. We stood outside the car wondering what to do next, when someone came by. We were excited to see an adult who could help us. We asked him if he could help us and he said, “For how much?” We were taken aback as we didn’t fully understand or weren’t ready to believe an adult would actually only help us teens, if we paid him. Well, we had next to no money to offer him, so he drove off. We learned a life lesson that day about help from people. We put our heads together, found some branches to stick under tires and got the car free that snowy day, but never forgot that encounter.
A decade later I was moving overseas and this was in the era where you used paper maps and asked people for help and directions when getting around to places. You wouldn’t just slow down and ask out the car window how to get to such and such place. You had to ask them how they were doing, and then allow them to ask us why we were in their area, give them a little personal information about ourselves – have a conversation. After this greeting and getting to know one another, it was considered polite to ask for directions, which they happily gave. It wasn’t unusual for them to get in our car to guide us, or for them to jump on their moped or vehicle to guide us personally. It often took two or three conversations like this to get any place and many minutes longer. However, it allowed us to learn the culture, the people and language more quickly.
Overseas in the places where we have lived, people have exclusively used landmarks not street names nor street numbers to find a location. We are always amazed how many people don’t know their own official address. It is explainable to some degree as many live in areas that have been around for hundreds, if not thousands of years. Street names have changed multiple times along with the street numbering system. It is not uncommon to see a building with multiple street names and street numbers on the building wall in order to help the postal worker have a better chance of getting mail to them.
Now a days, newly arriving people to their overseas destination use Global Positioning Systems to find their way around in a new area. They use Google Translate or some other program to even do the talking for them when meeting a local. They learn the new language more slowly and not as well. They connect less with the culture and the people they have come to serve.
Sometimes the old method of GPS, Good People Service, is the best way to get around and connect with a community.
Something similar ever happen to you? Contact me and let me hear your story!
mattsmishaps@gmail.com Matt’s Mishaps, PO BOX 114, Grabill, IN 46741
