It would be amazing to have a neighbor show up at my door with this yummy concoction! It was explained to us that in Turkey, people would make the pudding and then share it with their neighbors in all four directions until there was no more left to share. Everyone makes their family recipe of Noah’s Pudding and then the favorite version is chosen. The food was incredible the festival is marked by a cook-off of sorts. The event was full of laughter and music. My family was so warmly welcomed at Ashure, Noah’s Pudding Festival, where the end of the Great Flood is celebrated, as well as the escape of Moses and the Israelites from Egypt. When we parted ways, she’d invited me to attend a festival with her family that next weekend at the Raindrop Turkish House in Austin. We both were women of deep faith and curiosity. We were both immigrants, and were finding the cultural differences in Texas a bit perplexing. It turns out that she was accompanying her friend, not her daughter. I typed a greeting and then passed the device to her, indicating that she could choose her language by selecting her flag. I asked her, “Is your daughter getting her license today?” She looked at me, surprised, and said, “Sorry, no English.” No problem! I grinned, grabbed my tablet and opened Google Translate. I spotted her instantly, and took an empty seat beside her all of the seats around her were empty. I knew she’d be easy to find–she wore the hijab. Was this mom feeling as anxious about this ordeal as I was? I resolved to sit with her in the waiting area so we could share this momentous occasion of our daughters’ impending independence.
I watched as a woman got out of the car ahead of us, and another woman took her place at the wheel. We pulled into the DPS driveway behind another vehicle and waited for her examiner to come. My daughter was taking her driver’s license exam. And through these conversations, I have experienced God’s grace, revealed through other faiths, other cultures and other languages. This powerful tool has served me well, helping me to share wonderful conversations with people I would not have been able to communicate with otherwise. As much as I find technology to be frustrating, there are some very specific moments in my life when I praise God for the blessing of technology, especially for Google Translate.
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