It's a Thing

The daily manner of living, I’ll call it the culture of a foreign people (“foreign” in this case meaning “not like us”—I intend it to be a sensitive use of the word) is most challenging. And that goes both ways. We are just as challenging to them as they are to us.

When we travel to foreign lands and visit for a couple of weeks, we often find the customs and habits of the people to be charming. When you live among them, those same charming customs and habits can be unsettling. In order to keep my reaction neutral as I learn about these specific matters and discuss them with my American (or should I say North American) friends, I will often start the conversation with the statement, “Did you know it’s a thing here that. . .”

For example, it’s a thing here that you don’t eat leftovers. They are toxic. They will kill you. Initially, I thought that was simply my companion’s opinion. Then, as I was discussing the matter with the (North American) assistants, I learned that they had a similar experience. They once ate at a Chinese restaurant (and yes, Ecuadorian Chinese food is quite interesting) and took home doggy bags--something of a miracle in itself since I’ve watched the Elders eat and it reminds me a lot of mechanized street sweepers—it goes pretty fast and there’s nothing left behind. The next day they pulled their doggy bags out of the fridge in the presence of an Ecuadorian who had some authority over them. He told them that eating that food would kill them. Reluctantly but obediently, they threw the leftovers away.

In this same country where leftovers will kill you, guess where they stock the eggs in the grocery store? On the shelf, right next to the vegetable shortening! Hermana Ottosen says she has a difficult time convincing the South Americans that eggs belong in the refrigerator. They’ve been taught that putting eggs in the refrigerator will make them hard. (??????) So they sit in the cupboards. I hasten to point out that people don’t fall over dead every day from salmonella, so maybe we are just as steeped in our beliefs as they are.

Oddly, the prohibition against eating leftovers seems to have something to do with the food having been cooked and put in the refrigerator. It’s okay to eat fruits and vegetables that sit in the refrigerator for days, as well as yogurt, milk and cheese. But as soon as you combine those things and cook them, the food has to be eaten at that meal. I’ve found it quite amusing that, given the rules here, my companion always fixes too much food and puts the rest in the refrigerator. When I ask her who will eat the food, she points to me! I haven’t figured out yet whether she thinks I will be unaffected (she’s seen me eat leftovers) or she has the attitude “Better you than me.” None of it makes any sense.

When he was in Argentina on his mission, my son, Chris, was told that if you ate watermelon and drank milk at the same sitting, you would die. Unwilling to let such a fable go unchallenged, he proceeded to drink milk and eat watermelon. The locals warned him, and then watched closely to see whether he would keel over right at their table. I’m not sure what they thought when he didn’t. I told the same story to my companion, a local, laughing as I told it. When I concluded, she told me they were wrong—it’s not watermelon and milk that will kill you, it’s cantaloupe and milk. Oops.

Medical beliefs are just as challenging. Hermana Ward, our mission “enfermera” (nurse), often encounters deeply-held cultural beliefs that make it difficult for her to practice scientifically-based medicine (and yes, I acknowledge that in the United States, our cultural bias is towards the practice of medicine that is based on the latest scientific research, which is always subject to change the very next day based upon that day’s discoveries). She was trained in the MTC not to permit injections and IVs except under certain controlled circumstances. Wouldn’t you know—that’s the very first thing the locals request for medical treatment. There’s a pharmacy on every block, and you can walk into any one of them and purchase syringes, antibiotics and other “prescription” medications without a prescription. The pharmacy attendants will even start an IV for you right there!

The epitome of medical practitioners is thought to be the specialist. General practitioners are looked upon as substandard, and only there to take money from those who can’t afford better. (I hasten to add that Dr. Rosenberg, who is an internist and used as a general practitioner by the mission from time to time, is a wonderful doctor who has been of invaluable assistance to the nurses in our mission.) Oddly, having paid to see a specialist, locals often don’t follow their recommended treatment regimes. Rather, they follow their own treatment ideas, which usually consist of doing things other friends and relatives have told them to do, such as putting an eggshell over a cut. It’s a thing down here.

The really odd thing about cultural customs and habits is that we all have them. I’m certain that the Ecuadorians observe the North Americans and scratch their heads and talk amongst themselves, saying, “Did you know that it’s a thing in North America that. . .” The problem is we can’t get enough distance from our own beliefs, habits and customs to be objective. We all have our things.