Culture Shock

The challenges of life are always around. Even though now and again we do find spaces of time when all seems “smooth sailing”. Its usually not long before a new challenge shows up!

If you don’t find enough challenges in your life at home, I can guarantee you when you travel to a foreign field you will find all you need. First thing you will discover is this thing known as culture shock which mostly means “your way” of doing things is not the only “right way” in this world. If you have traveled at all, you will know what I mean.

My philosophy is that you can cope with anything when you know there is an end in sight. As for missionaries and others who are planning to stay awhile, thats a whole different ball game.

Culture Shock Briefing
In fact most missionaries go through some sort of briefing or orientation before embarking on such as adventure, so they know what to expect. At least they will have SOME idea of what they may face upon arrival. What really happens is that your world is suddenly turned upside down when you enter a foreign country with the idea that the return date is set somewhere in the rather distance future.

Now if you are a perfectionist and find yourself traveling to a country like Mexico, you are in for a mm what’s the word? Treat? Wild ride?

Well one thing is for sure, the perfectionist traits of my personality are now nowhere near as defined as they used to be.

Facing The Need To Change
One of the first situations I faced was with some new found friends who were also working with me in the office. As insignificant as this situation seemed, at the time it was a “big issue” to me, and that’s the whole point about culture shock. It is not the big things that can be difficult to handle, it is those little things. I had dictated some letters to be sent out and they were typed and presented to me with a big smile, all ready to sign.

Oh my, what is this, was my first reaction when I looked at the letters. I can’t sign this! First I had asked for them to be justified, and they were sort of. Each line was filled with a number of xxx at the end sufficient to create a perfectly justified look. Mm, and then the grammer! Sure my Spanish was not perfect at the time, but even I could spot the grammar errors, and I was supposed to sign this! Help!

So the challenge her was should I return the smile as I signed the letters, or return the letters? This was my first week in this environment so my perfectionist traits were still very strong and the letters were handed back for retyping.

That was the first day, but it was not long before I realized that as bad as these letters looked to me, they looked just great to the girls with me. Plus I had to face the question, what was I here for? To change their culture? Or to show them how to live the Abundant Live within their culture. The latter of course was my true mission.

Lessons From Culture Shock – What Is REALLY Important?
So it was time for ME to change! Culture shock raises some very valuable questions:

How important to you are the people around you?
Is enjoying your friends more important to you than having YOUR own way in everything you do?
Do you spend your time with your friends trying to change them?
Is your culture and ways of doing things more important to you than your friendships?

Yuli