One week for church, the speaker talked about wilderness experiences. The time in your life when, like Moses, you are in your “wilderness”; the place that is unfamiliar to you and is a challenge for you to endure. I’d have to say, living in the South has been my wilderness experience. The sad part is, I don’t see it ending any time soon. In previous posts, I’ve described some of the ways the culture is so incredibly different. But the longer I’m here, the more differences I find. For example, just this morning, someone told me that southerners, as a main part of their holiday (Christmas or Thanksgiving) meal, they serve macaroni and cheese. Can you believe it? How weird....
I had to laugh yesterday because I noticed an article in the newspaper... it stuck out to me because it had Canada in the title. So of course I had to read it. It was an article on how some Canadian baseball teams have been coming to the US in search of tournaments because there seems to be a lack of baseball teams in Canada. It started off by saying one of the team members “first taste of grits will likely be her last.” I laughed because my own first experience was quite the same. I thought I had bought cream of wheat. Couldn’t figure out where I had gone so horribly wrong.... did I not cook it long enough?? Needless to say, grits are still not a favorite of mine. They are however, a staple food here in the South. Along with black eyed peas, fried chicken and collard greens, smothered in butter or who knows what kind of grease.
One of my biggest pet peeves is the flour though... you can’t find flour in bags bigger than 5 lbs... ANYWHERE! and on top of that, its always bleached white, and contains less gluten. So if you want your bread or whatever your baking to stay together, you have to use more flour than what’s called for. Whatever happened to good ol’ Robin Hood? I was very excited about finding Birds Custard powder last week though. I was able to make Nanaimo bars for the first time! Such a wonderful taste of home.
Its not all bad though. Southern hospitality is second to none. Like that country song... “Everybody knows everybody, everybody calls you friend; You don’t need an invitation, take off your shoes and come on in.”
So for now, I’ll continue to marvel at the differences and strange ways of life, and try to learn to love them( apart from the grease filled food). But what I wouldn’t give for a mug of Timmy’s and some -35 C weather...
