A Stranger Within the Familiar

This weekend our group went to visit Tikal National Park in the region of Petén, Guatemala. After a day traveling and visiting Tikal´s Mayan Ruins we headed to our hotel for the night, Gringo Perdido (or lost gringo). This rustic lake side hotel gave our group the opportunity to relax, reconnect with one another, and overall have a fun time.

I was suprised to find myself actually feeling like a stranger in this Westernized hotel. While there, I felt diconnected from the local culture, people and spirit. I felt out of place and unable to engage in conversation with the locals. Here the hotel workers were use to keeping disconnected from the visitors. I on the other hand wanted to engage in conversation with the people working in the kitchen as I heard them sharing jokes together. I think the biggest reason I felt the desire to join in the conversation was because of my previous experiences in Paraguay. Why coulden´t I connect with those around me in the same way that I engaged in conversation there? In this moment I felt on the outside within a ¨gringo¨culture, trapped between two worlds and unsure where to go.

Reading for my EMU class thus far has been very helpful as I work through feelings of being a stranger within the familiar. Henri Nouwen states that we must remember not to derive knowledge from the center of who we are, but from the center of who God is and find life from the Divine Life. David Smith in his book ¨Learning from the Stranger¨ has reminded me that ¨to be a Christian is to hope, trust, and participate in this work of renewal and reconciliation and to seek, with God´s help and continuing forgiveness, to order our own lives in its light¨(p. 57). So as I come to points on this journey where my own self feels out of place or disconnected, I hope to continue deeply participating in seeking God´s grace, order and divine life. That within the sense of unfamiliar I may continue to learn and grow.

Lakeside view of our hotel, Gringo Perdido.