30 days of thankfulness - day 18

I am thankful for cultural diversity in my community and in my life. This town has a very large Hmong population, the 5th highest in the nation. We also have a large Hispanic population. Among other reasons for appreciating this are the grocery stores and restaurants! I just bought some sticky rice at the 'Oriental Market' (that's the name of the place, I didn't call it that to be un-PC). I enjoy going in there and seeing the different foods w/labels that I can't read. The cool thing is that almost every time I ask someone, they are more than happy to teach me about the food and products there! (Why, you ask, does someone who doesn't cook get into this stuff? Remember I like learning! New foods and tastes fascinate me, that doesn't mean I want to cook them!) I love how the Hmong culture has a strong sense of family. Almost everyone is related and they really take care of each other. They respect older generations, too, which is something I wish more American people did. Anyway - the reason I brought all this up is that Dave and I frequently comment on how by living here and teaching in the ELL field, Moses is exposed to WAAAY more people of different cultures than we ever were growing up! I believe that is to his benefit. He loves going to Hmong New Year and seeing all the money on their clothes, he loves eating quesadillas and hitting pinatas, he always tries to speak Spanish like us!! He knows a lot of words and phrases (A LOT more than I thought! His newest is "No hay fuego!") but when he hears people talking in a stream of Spanish he will make it up and join in. We all get a good laugh out of that! I am thankful for diversity in my community and in my life.