Conversations with my Grandfather

I grew up in a family with two cultures. My mother came from Germany and my father comes from the Philippines. There’s a great difference between these two cultures for example Filipinos like to eat rice while the Germans like to eat bread. The result in my family is we eat bread in the morning and evening and at lunch time we eat rice. Another example is: My dad is not that time conscious like my mother. That’s why my mother always reminds my dad what time is. There’s a bigger sentiment against T.V. watching in Germany so our T.V. is mostly just a display object and we never turn on the T.V. to entertain visitors. We are required to bike to school for environmental, economical and for exercise reason. I learned German because my mom spoke to me in German, read me in German books and had me listened to German tapes. For my mother it is very important to maintain a relationship with our relatives in Germany. So it very special for me and my family when we go to Germany or when some relatives visits us here in the Philippines.

Wedding of my grandparents.

          Last year we went to Germany for a month. We didn’t have much time to do some sightseeing because we visited a lot people. The best thing about visiting people is the conversation we had especially with my grandfather. My grandfather a.k.a  “Opa”  likes to tell stories about his life. He told me about his experience in the war when he was a boy. Opa was very proud when he told me the story of his ancestors (but sometimes he exaggerated it. He also told me about his love story with my grandmother who died when I was three years old. It was very funny. I’m also amazed when he told me about his life as a pastor handling 5 churches and how he toured around the world without knowing any other language except for German and Dutch. My grandfather’s stories taught me a lot of lessons. I learned from him to be optimistic and to trust God fully. My conversations with my grandfather built a stronger relationship with him. The conversation with my grandfather also taught me that communication is very important in building a strong relationship with other people