The Minority

We had heard that there was a KFC and Pizza Hut in Pikangikum. We had to find it. It was hard to imagine, but sure enough, there it was. It was a small section of the Northern store. The Northern store is the store in the community. It has groceries, electronics, clothing, the post office, a place to cash checks, and more.

I walked into the Northern store and I was the minority. I’ve had a fair amount of experience being the only white face in a place, but it has been a long time. I didn’t remember it feeling so awkward. So uncomfortable. No place to hide. There were 2 very long lines going to the customer service desk. There were lots of people, but it was relatively quiet. For some dumb reason, I noticed that Evan had his hat on and was momentarily relieved. The thought that his very blond hair was covered made me feel like maybe we didn’t stick out so much. It was such a small comfort because everything about us stuck out. For one thing, the hat covering his blond hair was red. In fact, his coat was bright red. Eli’s coat had bright blue in it. And Kendall’s and my coats had bright colors in them. I looked around and realized that almost every single person was wearing a black coat. Our brightly colored coats only highlighted the flashing lights that seemed to be going off around the four of us.

It was an awkward experience. Part of me couldn’t wait to get out of there. Another part of me was savoring the moment.

Tonight I asked Eli what he thought about our time in Pikangikum. He said he really liked the movie at B.’s and the orange slush we bought for him and Evan at KFC/Pizza Hut. (Along with the small order of popcorn chicken we paid $7 for.) I asked if he noticed anything about the store: “It had food, like Sobey’s.” I asked if he noticed anything about the people: “They talked different. Some of them.” Finally he said, “Oh, you mean that they were all brown!” I asked him if he liked that, “No.” I told him that I also felt uncomfortable, but that it was good for us. I asked him if he thought that his brown friend, Marco, felt uncomfortable when he first came to Siloam. Eli didn’t think so, but he did have this thought: “That’s the weird thing about our church- Everyone is white!”

It was interesting to me that Eli did notice that everyone was a different color than us, but that it didn’t seem to be a big deal to him. The movie and the slush were much more important to him. I want our kids to enjoy being around people who are different from us. I want them to enjoy learning about different cultures. I love experienced like this for the boys.