World Race Fusion, a perspective from one of the ones that makes it “fusion”
My squad has an amazing cultural diversity. There are 22 people. We have a Russian, a Kenyan-American, a Korean-American, a Mexican-American, an Afro-American and me, a Costa Rican.
Since day one I was scared about being surrounded by more than 20 people that were going to be speaking 24/7 a different language than my native one, and having to adapt myself not only to the country where we were going to serve but to the culture of my squad and team.
I as a Costa Rican, was raised in a quiet house, where others opinions matter, where your parents have a big influence in your decisions, where you respect the rules that are established, where you have to respect authority no matter what, where you are knowledgeable to others culture and needs. I as a Costa Rican, don´t really understand Americans sense of humor, I know that the way I do things is not necessarily the best way to do things and even more if I am in another country, I know that I don´t have the answers for everything, I know how to cook without needing to open a box or open a can, I know that if I snap my fingers nothing is going to happen but to offend somebody, in fact I don´t know why I am saying “American” if hearing that really offends me, because Costa Rica is in America hehehe.
Getting into a culture that is noisy, has a respond for everything, that sometimes looks first for personal benefits, ask for comfort, that don´t hesitate in complaining, that has to be asked to do something, that looks forward to not be tired because of ministry, that doesn´t speak my language, that doesn´t understand your needs… is difficult and is frustrating sometimes. Not everybody understand that if you are missing home is not only home… is everything, because the only piece that you have of your country is yourself.
At the beginning of the race, I was really wanting to be part of the leadership, or treasurers team or logistics team… something that could make me infiltrate in a way that I was going to be able to share more of my culture to do things, in a way that my voice could be noticed between 20 more similar opinions. But that didn´t happen. I figured out that my lack of self-confidence was causing struggles in my opportunities to grow.
By our fourth month I got the opportunity to start doing finances for my team, and I love numbers, I love to take care of money…sometimes more than I am supposed to. This new role helped me to understand better the World Race and to show them at the same time that being from a different country didn´t mean that I wasn´t not able to develop a leadership role. At the same time I got the opportunity for a new label role called Squad Health Coach, this one really gave me the change to interact more with the squad, to let them know more about my culture, different ways to do things.
Being “the fusion” is a CHALLENGE. Being fusion means to repeat your team one word several times because you have a different and strong accent, means understanding only some jokes because you don’t understand the context of most of them, means feeling not included in some conversations because you really don´t have anything to add, means telling your team constantly to not have flash conversations where everybody interrupts each selves because you can´t jump into that fastness, means asking them to repeat what they are saying because it doesn´t make sense to you or you just don´t understand their lingo.
Being “the fusion” means that you will have a lot of homes in USA, and that your friends are going to be miles away if you want to hang out with them, means your house will be their summer house if they go to your country, means telling a joke and that nobody will laugh, means that you will pray for others in your language and that person won´t understand (and this is awesome because you can say whatever in their behalf without having them realized what you are praying for), means that you will appreciate more than ever worshipping God in your native tongue, means at the beginning feeling tired because your brain is processing twice all the time, means forgetting words in your language after a few months because of speaking a different language for months.
I am 29 years old, almost 30, I am from Costa Rica, my height is 1,57m and I weight 54.6kg; my voice doesn´t sound as a 30 year old woman. Because of being fusion (from a different country from the majority of the squad) I am smaller and thinner, but that doesn´t mean I don´t think as a 30 year old woman, that I am weak, that I am not gifted, that I can´t think by myself, that if I am in silent I am not ok, that my prayers in a strong English accent can´t be heard in heaven, that you can use my Spanish prayers to show up, that I can´t help with strong and difficult things.
Being fusion is not about a person coming to a squad to make it different, is about a lot of different people trying to live together in community, without seeing the barriers that already exist as something that makes you weaker but that makes the squad stronger.
Nobody´s background is better than others. Nobody´s abilities are more useful than others. The role that “the fusion person” plays in your life is going to be how fusion your world race time is going to be.
Let “the fusion person” to show you his/her culture, to show you new ways to do things and the different ways that person feel loved by people. Don´t assume anything or push that person to do things that are not ok for him/her…remember that love comes first.
Dear world racer fusion, be prepared to immerse yourself in a World Race culture while you immerse yourself also in an USA culture. Be ready to challenge yourself and to be a good steward of your time to be a good ambassador of your culture.
