Culture Shock

I was never a big fan of war-stories - you know, those times when you sit down with veterans (very often your uncle or grandpa) and hear about how they went to hell and back. I got enough of them during my travels as a military musician. This war story is different though. It comes not from a soldier, but from a theologian, and the point isn’t to look back. The point is to look at how past experience can shape the future. So here’s a look at Joe Biden and the ways he’s influenced Eastern Europe through the eyes of Dr. Kuzmič. The last time I saw my father-in-law so excited was 3 weeks ago – when his grandson was born. Petra’s dad couldn’t figure out how to narrow down all of his Biden stories into one small column for the local newspaper. “Do you know” he said with his Croatian accent “that Joe Biden was a prophet here in the former Yugoslavia?” No, I had no idea. Before last Saturday Joe Biden was Joe Shmoe for all I knew. “April ’93. Biden came to Sarajevo (Bosnia) and Belgrade (Ser...

Have you ever gotten comments about your coffee drinking habits? Have those tired, nonstimulated killjoys ever given you one of these: “Coffee isn’t good for you – you’ll get addicted” condemnations? They usually launch into how coffee will raise your blood pressure, stain your teeth, make you go to the bathroom more (even though it’s supposedly dehydrating) and didn’t a study prove that it’ll give you cancer? Well coffee lovers, it’s time to celebrate. It’s not true! None of it. The New York Times recently ran an article that combined various studies proving that there are absolutely no harmful effects of drinking coffee everyday and that it could in fact actually benefit your health. The myth about dehydration? Wrong. Even a Starbucks grande will give you as much of your daily dose of hydration as 16 oz. of water. What about heart disease? Nope. Cardiologists at University of California at San Francisco found no proof. Cancer? Uh-uh. In ’81 it was found that coffee led to pa...

I'll be honest with you. I haven't been in a church building much this summer. A combination of a lack of protestant churches near my wife’s family vacation spot and being away from our church home in Orahovica has made it difficult to attend. But I have been to Church. Let me tell you about 3 times this summer when I've been part of two or three gathered in His name and I came away with a strong sense of God's presence. 1. Our youth group took a trip up to the Papuk Mountains to mark the end of the school year. We were enjoying a BBQ in one of the most beautiful parts of Croatia, when my friend Scott from Boston calls up out of the blue to talk for a few minutes. Turns out he's headed to the Middle East for a few weeks on a missions trip. I can't tell you much about the conversation except for this: When I asked him what I could pray for he didn't mention a good trip over, or safety when he got there, or even that he would influence others for Christ. What ...

This past Sunday we had the privilege of having Enoh dedicated in our home church in Orahovica. Adding to the occasion was the fact that most of Petra’s immediate family was able to attend the dedication before returning to America. Enoh literally means ‘dedicated’ so it was fitting that we dedicated him to the Lord in the presence of family and fellow believers. During the service and at other times since Enoh was born I’ve had an overwhelming sense of how many people had a part to play in his and our well-being. The Lord has blessed us with a number of people who have shown through their actions that they genuinely care for us. While it is certainly necessary to thank them in person, I think it would be fitting to use this space to acknowledge some of those people to whom we are especially grateful. In no particular order: - Pastor Slobodan and his wife Lidija Stojkovic who will probably never read this and if they heard me say the word ‘blog’ they would probably think I was misprono...

My wife and I rented a movie here in Croatia a couple years back that is called Crazy House ( Luda Kuča ) when literally translated. It stars Ben Stiller and Drew Barrymore and although it’s a little over the top we enjoyed it. When we visited the States we looked for it on DVD but couldn’t find it. Turns out the title was actually Duplex . Since then we’ve found that very few of the popular titles are translated literally the same when imported into Croatia. Chris Hawley wrote an entertaining piece in USA TODAY and the Arizona Republic recently about the literal translations Hollywood movies have in other countries. The following is a list of some of those movies and their titles along with the countries (or areas) in which they were renamed: Get Smart (2008) Super Agent 86 (Mexico) Confused Spy (China) Is the Spy Capable or Not? (Taiwan) Airplane! (1980) The Unbelievable Trip on a Wacky Airplane (Germany) Alien (1979) The Eighth Passenger of the Nostromo (Poland) Much A...

If you're an astute Croatian who has kept up with my blog, you might have read my original post about Enoh, gone to your Bible and found that the passage in Genesis does not have 'Enoh' spelled this way. In fact it is spelled 'Henok' which apparently is close to the Hebrew way of pronouncing the name. The fact is, this spelling ('Enoh') and pronounciation actually comes from the Serbian translation of the Bible. Petra and her family always heard 'Enoh' in church and apparently assumed it was the Croatian version. For those of you who are curious, Croatian, Serbian and Bosnian are essentially the same language. I say that hesitantly because there are former Yugoslavians who would straight out object. However, the Slavic linguist in our family who teaches all three languages at a university in America says they are the same - with some minor differences (kind of like the relationship between British English and American). So, it was not correct to say ...

You can’t go through the birthing process in a different country without noticing some things. My eyes were wide open as I nervously tried to figure out how to best help my wife and stay on the nurse’s and doctor’s good sides. Here are some of my observations: - There aren't any doors to the delivery rooms - nothing to separate others from the sounds of labor. You can hear a lot. The most frequently said words in the delivery room are NE MOGU! (I Can’t!) - My wife was in an altered state of being. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t blame her (I guess you could blame me). The number one reason I knew she was in another state of mind was the fact that she used her wet cloth meant for moistening her lips on her sweaty shoulders, forehead and hands before her mouth. - Croatian men don’t participate much in this process. The hospital only allows them if they go through a class which I did (but I didn’t understand anything). I didn’t see any men in the birthing hall. I didn’t see any men in t...

“The best way I can describe it is ‘shock'” said my wife after she returned to her normal state of mind. “The combination of the most pain and the greatest joy you've had in your life is just shocking.” That was her summary of the last few hours of labor. Petra had contractions for 59 hours (during which she couldn't sleep a wink) before finally giving birth. She performed magnificently though, coming through at the end when it looked like she wouldn’t have any more strength for the last few pushes. There weren’t even any insults directed toward my mother, me, or my responsibility for getting her into this mess. We'll never know for sure, but if a woman ever makes the case that they can endure more pain than men, I won’t argue. If it was hard for Enoh we couldn’t tell – he went through the whole thing unfazed. He let out a halfhearted 'wah' after arriving just to let us know he was alive, then promptly fell asleep. He woke up again 15 minutes later, took a look...

My sister-in-law is a huge Leo Tolstoy fan. She’s into Tolstoy literature like Michael Jackson’s into plastic surgery – it has reshaped her. And apparently Tolstoy also influenced Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr . among others. That, in addition to the fact that he’s considered a literary genius is enough for me to listen to some of the things he had to say. In the introduction to my blog I mentioned the fact that marriage can sometimes fall under the category of culture shock. It seems that there are others who agree, including Leo Tolstoy. So here’s Tolstoy on marriage from Anna Karenina : Levin had been married three months. He was happy, but not at all in the way he had expected to be. At every step he found his former dreams disappointed, and new, unexpected surprises of happiness. He was happy; but on entering upon family life he saw at every step that it was utterly different from what he had imagined. At every step he experienced what a man would experience who, after admir...