Coping with Culture Shock

         Monday's lecture was all about culture shock - what it is and how we can deal with it. The reading and class were both alarming and helpful...it is alarming to think that I am going to not only be in a foreign, unusual, different culture, but I'm informed I am going to go through a period of hostility and frustration in which aspects of the culture will effectively drive me crazy. Luckily there are ways to deal with culture shock and hopefully "cure" it. Ashley showed us a list of culture shock symptoms and said that depending on how we personally coped with stress determines our culture shock symptoms. Looking at her list these things stood out as signs I might be under stress: excessive reading and sleeping, excessive laptop use, phobic behavior, or not going out. I definitely use movies and books as a safety net or comfort blanket. So if I realize all I want to do is watch movies or read books I might be experiencing culture shock (of course I do just enjoy movies and books and sleep, so those won't necessarily mean I am in culture shock). I can see myself getting rather phobic about things. Last Christmas I had some money stolen from my luggage and I am already dreading luggage issues with my upcoming international travel. We've talked some about safety in South Africa and I could definitely become phobic about safety issues. And of course, when stressed or disstressed, it is hard to leave the house, where things will be familiar and safe. And of course frustration and general grumpiness seem to be a part of culture shock.
       Okay, so I know the visible signs of culture shock - what do I do once I realize I might be experiencing it? Suggestions that I liked and intend to apply: laught at things, empathy, remembering that this is a once in a lifetime experience, keep the faith, and involving the host family. Of course I am going to make cultural mistakes. Hopefully most of them are pretty small and easy to learn from and then laugh about. I think humor is a great way to combat culture shock and maintain good relationships. Empathy is VITAL!!!! Remembering that the upbringing of South Africans might be drastically different from my upbringing and experiences is very important, as well as putting myself in other people's shoes. I have wanted to go to South Africa forever, this is my dream, and I want to make the most of it and embrace it - culture shock and all! I liked the keeping the faith method for minimizing culture shock...keeping the faith to me means that I remember we are all God's children. We might be different culturally and religiously but we are all brothers and sisters. It also means remembering, as Dr. Brown said in the Inquiry Conference, that humanity and the world are really better than the news usually makes them out to be...the world's a great place. Involving the host family seems like a very wise idea - they will be the people I know best, outside of Holly and Emily, and they will understand how the culture works. Of course I want to take advantage of their knowledge and wisdom.
       Some other thoughts I had from Monday's class: I should talk to my parents about how they dealt with culture shock. When I was 6-9 I lived overseas in Ireland and Israel. I don't remember dealing with culture shock, I was probably too young and just thought everything was a grand adventure. But I'm sure my parents had an interesting time figuring things out - I should ask them how strongly they felt culture shock and how they dealt with it. Another thought - in preparing for dealing with culture shock, the reading suggested knowing about your own culture and how it affects what you think and how you view things. What an interesting thing to think about! As a born and raised Mormon I naturally view some things a certain way, although I can't think of anything specifically right now - another blog post? And the final thing I want to work on is learning how South Africans communicate non-verbally....what things are different then how Americans communicate non-verbally.

Issues in the Field

      Today's class was great - I really appreciated it. We had a panel dicussion with the facilitators who have experience in the field. They shared many of the problems they had the field and ways to get around those problems. Some of the issues that concern me the most: I was not really worried about having issues with the people in my group, but it sounds like that is quite common. I just feel like Holly and Emily are going to be so great to have around, familiar faces in a strange new culture. They are both really smart, likeable girls, so I really hope we do not have too many problems. Another thing that concerns me is culture shock. Everyone talked about being overwhelmed and how little things that are different really start to bother them. This is a bit discouraging to me. I want to hear that everything is just great and an amazing and fantastic experience.....I know this is not realistic, and it is good to hear about these issues so that I do not go into the field completely naively. Anyway, back to culture shock, I really like Heather's approach to this problem, and to the problem of lost motivation. She would make a list of the things she loved about South Africa. It might be the only time I ever get to go to that part of the world, and I certainly want to make the most of it, to enjoy and treasure that time.
       Other things that worry me - I am worried about meeting people and becoming part of the community. I feel like with our field experience that is a little harder - we are not going to some small rural village where everyone will know us, we are going to a fairly large city. So that means identifying communities within the city to join - I know I will be part of the church community and I hope to be part of the zoo community. Then there is our host family and whatever community they are apart of; hopefully I can enter into that community and get to know their family and friends. Anyway, a big part of our in-field class is getting out into communities and working with people. I guess I am worried that since it is a bigger city that it will be harder to find the right communities to work with....but church and the Thomases should provide enough opportunity to meet and befriend other people. And I would like to go to Mama Yoyo's school, so there is another community!
       I haven't been too worried about language, but maybe I should? Heather and others have mentioned that the accents can be quite hard to decipher. And of course there will be new vocabulary. Maybe I'll just listen to a ton of youtube clips of people speaking with various South African accents...I did watch this one video where a guy was trying to teach how to talk with a South African accent - I don't think he did a very accurate job, but what do I know!? Anyway, it was good to discuss these and other issues that arise in the field. I really want to work on adding more safety-nets into my proposal, like Ashley suggested.