We visited Gibraltar many years ago. It was where Richard took his first steps!
Though everyone seemed to have Spanish names, they were so clearly patriotic and ‘British.’ I remember, while in a minibus, the locals cheering as they saw a Spanish registered car being towed away for a parking offence as we drove past.
It was quite disorientating being there, with passion/nationalism so much more genuinely prevalent than ever encountered in England.
The Falklands, I would guess, would be a similar cultural experience – but much colder and windier.
Both places have communities that are at home in their land, but others see them as foreigners.
Conversely, I grew up in a small Ukrainian community, in exile in a foreign land which had welcomed them, whose home was thought of as somewhere else, where they felt ‘foreigners’ had invaded and were in charge, excluding them.
Home is where the heart is, and people can honestly have opposite views of the same place!
Like Paul pointed out, it is a good attitude to try and live to be at peace with all others. Including ourselves. Something, unfortunately, we seem to constantly have to prove and reprove. To claim the victory Jesus won.
Never been to Gibralter, but amongst many places I have visited is Bahrain. The people there are extremely friendly and helpful and although there was a bit of a language barrier it wasn’t too difficult. The shopping was particularly easy as most shops were familiar anyway….i.e. M&S, Boots, Hallmark Cards, Costa Coffee, Carrefour, plus of course the ubiquitous MacDonalds, KFC, Pizza Hut and even a Spud-U-Like 🙂 As I was there for my grand-daughter’s wedding we ate at some very varied hotel restaurants and only once had ‘English’ food 🙂 Contrast that with China, where the same grand-daughter now lives. My daughter and family are out there now visiting the new baby (my first great-grand-daughter). There are immense language difficulties as you can imagine, but the fact that they are ‘white’ people attracts a lot of attention. Walking through the park with the baby attracted about a dozen Chinese women, all runnig across to peer at her and smile and talk to each other about her:-) What was really strange as far as my daughter is concerned, was how the Chinese ladies like to touch her clothes and her hair and face 🙂 Initially she found it a bit disconcerting, but soon came to accept it and indeed she says it helps to break down the obvious barriers when everyone speaks a different language 🙂 So I think that re-inforces Paul’s attitude to live at peace with others, no matter how odd it may seem on first encounter 🙂 xx
Having lived in Scotland, followed by America, before returning to England again late 2009, it seems we have been Exiles in a foreign land for many years. Even now, we feel that we are aliens and strangers sometimes. In fact, we really are because we are citizens of Heaven, rather than earth, in Christ Jesus.
Today I attended my first lip reading class and it is amazing how many kinds of barriers there are to communication sometimes, yet there is always a way of breaking down those barriers too as Lilian has already mentioned – I believe it starts with loving others whether they be black, white, yellow, red or brown. Did you know there are five colours of dirt too and we all have the same blood? It is truly awesome the power of God’s creativity and diversness – it makes for a very interesting and challenging world. That’s more food for thought, or another blog Stef?
I too have never been to Gibraltar, or Ukraine, or even Bahrain, although many visits to Turkey proved very interesting as we learned to speak the language and communicate with the locals.
Blogging is another language – come on folks – don’t just sit there reading – give it a try!
Thank Stef for being so faithful in continuing to produce very thoughtful blogs for us all. Thanks to new found friends on here too 🙂
p.s. Home is where the heart is….. a previous pastor reminded us when re-locating to America, it really doesn’t matter where you live, God is always there with you. He has promised to never leave or forsake us…..Selah! (Pause and think about it).