A few years ago I happened to be in the U.S.A. at the same time as some of my co-workers were. And we were only 100 miles apart. I left early Sunday morning and drove to meet them at a church that none of us had ever visited. Their 4-year old was a little confused as they drove up. "What's J doing here? She's supposed to be in Japan."
I spent the night at Grandma & Grandpa's home with them, and in the morning, we all pulled out of the driveway at the same time, headed in different directions.
In the minutes before we left, as the rest of the family was finishing getting ready, the 4-year old and I sat in the living room, where Grandma tried to make conversation and connect with this grandchild of hers who is growing up on the opposite side of the world.
Grandma's world and the 4-year old's world are very different, and the communication gap was large. And so I started talking with the 4-year old, asking questions that I knew the answers to, but which I knew Grandma was not familiar with, and might not know where to begin asking.
"Last Sunday I went to your church and we sang the song you like. Remember how it goes?" As I started singing [hold your laughter] in Japanese, this 4-year old slowly joined in, as Grandma glowed with pride in her grandchild's budding bilingual abilities!
"Oh, and I saw your friend I-chan. What's her sister's name? Where do you play together? Oh, at Moms' & Kids' Club. How many Moms' & Kids' Clubs do you go to? Yes, one at I-chan's church, and one at E-chan's church and one at K-chan's church. And what does your Mommy do there? And what do you do while Mommy leads the club?"
I like to think that Grandma understood more of this little grandchild's life. At any rate, it was a precious experience for me to help build bridges between the two of them and their very different lives. And it was a real treat for my friends and I to have our Japan world collide with our USA world.
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