Adventures at the Asian Market
Today we went to the Asian Market to pick up a few things. Tomorrow the "country highlight" at church is Vietnam. We've been asked to do a short presentation on Vietnam and what the Lord is doing there. We decided to get some fingerling bananas to share as a snack with the congregation.
To our kids, the Asian Market is like disney land!!! Samren and Taevy are always *so excited* to be in a place where they are surrounded by all things Asian. Our particular market is more Vietnamese than anything.
While it brings joy to us to see our kids happy in this place, it also brings sadness. If you think about it, it's pretty sad that our kids are so excited by the Asian market. It's sad that they walk down the aisles pretending to know what all of the items are and imagining that they remember eating those things in their birth countries. It's sad that we don't have a ton of outlets here in Tulsa to better immerse them into their culture beyond grocery store shelves!
Still...it's fun to go to a place that is most like Cambodia and Vietnam in Tulsa. It's piled high with all sorts of items; it's crowded; it's full of unfamiliar smells; and our kids are in the majority there.
We decided not to buy duck heads, live snails, or dehydrated cuttle fish today. We did come out with a brand new Ao Dai for Samren, a can opener, tongs, chopsticks, fingerling bananas, a tray, and a ton of cute and cheap hair accessories!
3 comments:
While it may seem sad it is also wonderful that they delight in the cultures of their birth countries and have pride.
Move to my neighborhood and you can help the economy of southeast Michigan and live in are a very diverse city. Within a 1 mile I can eat Indian (different regions, Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai, and visit a ton of ethnic grocery stores.
I'm glad your kids are able to experience a little bit of their own culture. If you ever come to Southern California, come stay with us and enjoy the Asian experience! I grew up eating the dried cuttlefish all the time! For us, I think finding Ghanians or other West Africans will be a significantly greater challenge.
Matt, I've only been to CA a handfull of times but one of the things I loved was the larger Asian population! We have a fairly decent number of Vietnamese immigrants here in OK, but I've yet to meet another Khmer person (beyond my friends' children who were also adopted). We'll look you up if we're ever in S. CA! LOL!
Because of Bright's name we seem to run into a fair number of W. Africans. Just the other day a guy at Wal-Mart came up after he saw Samren's Ghana soccer jersey and heard Bright's name. It was so refreshing to hear W. African English! The guy was so warm and supportive of our adoption. He invited us to his W. African church for Sunday Morning!
Anita
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