Last night involved one of the first times I actually l felt a larger cultural difference between my American, or Texas culture, and that of Dutch people. Luuk and I went to the Zomerparkfeest, a large, free music festival in Venlo, NL. The venue had about four different stages with performances that ranged from afrobeat, blues, rock, hip-hop, to African music.
The African music came from this guy who collects cassettes containing music from Africa and mixes the music and he travels around the world sharing this music. I think that is totally awesome, hence the name he labels his music "Awesome Tapes from Africa." People around the world can hear the beauty of African music. :) Get his free music here: http://www.awesometapes.com/.
My favorite performance, though, had to be "Jungle By Night." The band consisted of about twelve, maybe 16 to18-year-olds, who played afrobeat music. There were three lead guys and one played a trumpet, another a trombone, and the last "dude" a saxophone. Other members of the band played all different kinds of instruments, including; jimbay, drums, keyboard, bongos, bass, harmonica, and others. Total jam session.
After watching and listening to these young guys create such great music, we walked to the main stage, which had the largest crowd. This is where I stood and discovered that Dutch people don't say "Excuse Me" or "Sorry." At first, I just brushed it off and thought it's just a "Dutchie thing," but the more I go shoved and bumped into, without people saying anything, the more irritated I became. I felt like people didn't even notice me as a person, but instead I was simply a barrier to move out of the away or move around. Who would ever think that by someone not saying something as simple as "excuse me" would effect me in such a negative manner? After praying for lots of patience, I eventually had to ask Luuk if we could sit down, since I began to loose my patience; however, once I sat down, thought about it, and talked to Luuk, I understand that it's just a cultural thing. People aren't trying to be rude, it wouldn't be normal for someone to say "sorry" or "excuse me". I admit it's still hard to get used to, but I cannot take it personally. It's not a bad thing, but it's just different. I'm sure if I visited New York or a busier city up north, then people might act in the same manner when it comes to big crowds.
Although I had a brief negative experience with people, I do want to note how interesting it is that no matter where we are in the world, once you begin to become comfortable with a new place, faces begin to look familiar. I love that we are built as creatures who need to be around other humans and you can definitely fulfill that God given characteristic by spending the evening surrounded by hundreds of other people who are enjoying the gift of music. Last night was ultimately a humbling experience.
I will post pictures of Boxmeer, the town I'm living in, soon!
Love you all!
WLPNL
-Luuk was joking around and made this up for me. It's WLP(Whitney Lee Peters) in the NL (The Netherlands), so I will sign off using that abbrev. from now on.
Song I'm in love with right now. You can't listen to it only once! The lyrics...
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