Cultural Differences

Even though I've been here for nearly nine months and my time abroad is about to come to an end, I still seem to encounter cultural differences quite often. Take for example on Monday when I went to the hospital to figure out why my eye was bloodshot (hot, I know), I waited for about two and a half hours and while I was waiting (read sleeping against a wall) I was kindly awaken by a nice woman offering me a cookie and juice. Naturally I accepted the offer and then went back to sleep until my name was called. I think that a waiting room is an interesting place to make observations about people; in comparison Maltese waiting rooms are much different than Canadian ones. Seeing as it is such a small country, I suppose that people are bound to know each other or at least have a friend in common so conversations strike up easily and the room tends to get pretty loud - it actually becomes difficult to hear your name being called at some points.

Fast forward to today when I went back to have a follow up appointment; I arrived early to avoid waiting as long I had on Monday. Once again I found myself  people watching and at around 8:00 a man came into the room and I heard a woman tell her son that George was here. I figured that she probably just knew him by chance. Instead, I soon found out that George who is 86 years old comes to the hospital everyday to give small sermons in each ward. At first when he started to talk I thought hmmm okay people know this guy, it's cool that he's taking over the place but then I quickly realised we were in a mini mass session and I found myself doing the sign of the cross and pretending to understand what he was talking about. He took about ten minutes to get his message across and then carried on his merry way. On the one hand I was shocked to see this taking place mainly because it would never happen at home, but on the other hand since Malta is such a Catholic country everyone almost seemed relieved that they were able to pray a bit together to get rid of their guilty conscience for having not been able to go to church in the morning due to their optical ailments. Who's to say whether its right or wrong, as for me, I prefer a cookie and juice.