Making Myself At Home

I visited the house of a friend this evening, and whilst I was there one or two other visits came and went. In an off-the-cuff way I commented that the house seemed to have quite a few visitors that evening. They looked at me strangely at first, afterwards explaining that tonight is unusually quiet, it is not uncommon for the family to have up to fifteen visitors in a single evening, an often many stay for the night. ‘Where do they sleep?’ I asked one girl, as I looked around at the tiny house. ‘Oh, they sleep in mine and my sister’s room, it’s reserved entirely for guests’. Without delving too much into the seemingly paradoxical nature of her statement, I began to reflect on how the definition of hospitality varies from culture to culture.  Even now I am learning new things every day!