Ethnic Bazaar

It's 3:55 AM and I am up blogging. I woke up at 2:47 AM and haven't been able to go back to sleep. What's on my mind? A bilingual, multi-ethnic baby "coffee"! Ever heard of that? Me either, but I am all about new challenges and I am supposed to know about cross-cultural communication by now, right? Uh, yeah...I am just not sure how proficient I am at it currently.

I have three close American friends who would like to host a baby "shower" for me. I am so excited, because I love parties like that! How much fun to get to see all my friends in one place at one time! But here's the catch, all of my friends here don't speak the same language or even come from one or even two different cultures and the "baby shower" tradition doesn't exist in the French culture in which we all live. I read a blog about it that said that the main problems with this concept in the French mentality are that celebrating the birth of the baby before it is born is bizarre to them as they are more superstitious than American parents and the traditional "just girls" type of shower is strange as well since they prefer more mixed gatherings.

No problem, you say, just explain to your friends that this is an American tradition, and that they will love it. That is the easy answer if one is fluent in French already and there aren't cross-cultural communication issues. I decided that I would like to have a "coffee" in lieu of a "shower" as I have already been showered with so much from my friends that have older children and I still have lots of baby girl things from SA. I just want to have a get-together where everyone can have a chance to meet each other and I can see all my friends at one time before CG arrives when I will need to turn my focus to her rather than focusing on building friendships-(one of my main focuses since moving here).

This afternoon, I called a French friend to verify her address for the invitation and explained that some friends would be having a "coffee" for me and that I wanted to invite her. I could tell that she was a little clueless. I am hoping that I will see her at church again on Sunday (along with 6 other French ladies) so I can explain better in person, and that the French version of the invitation that I worked on with the help of my beloved bilingual and most helpful friend, F, will communicate better than I can explain it. Later, I talked with my friend from Singapore who, although fluent in English and familiar with the American "baby shower", thought that it was an event for the entire family. I am hoping that the names on the invitations take care of this misunderstanding so that my poor hostesses won't be overrun by husbands and children along with my lady guests. We picked a Saturday afternoon in the hopes that we could have an event with "just the girls". This is an infrequent occurrence for us young moms, but I feel that it is often much needed. When I am not chasing around my toddler I feel better able to connect with friends- guess that's because it's actually possible to maintain eye contact, carry on a conversation, etc- and everyone enjoys a break from "mommy duty" now and then, don't you think?

I am hoping that the non-American Anglophones (English, Australian, and Nigerian) will "get" the whole "before the birth baby celebration" concept without too much explanation or confusion. Mostly, I just want everyone to be comfortable and to feel that they are an important part of my and CG's life. It would be great if everyone were able to understand and communicate with each other, but knowing that won't be entirely possible, I am hoping for the best!