Category: Culture Shock

One night we ran out of food and therefore Kaden was not able to have his typical forth helping. He looked up at me with horror in his eyes and asked in a trembling, hushed voice, “Mom, are we…poor?”  Maybe you have had a similar experience in your home where your child comes home from school, buries his head in the sofa and cries because his family too “poor” to buy him the $100 shoes that all the other kids are wearing.  Living like Kings If you are like us, you remind your kids that compared to the majority of…

by Stacey   I met an American Peace Corps worker today who had also just arrived in country. When I asked her how she was adjusting she said that she goes through one emotional extreme of feeling like she is seeing progress in adapting to life here to the other emotional extreme of feeling like she is completely lost all the time. And, since the days feel so long, usually she goes from one emotional extreme to the other several times in a day. We both nodded our heads as we listened to her as we could very much relate….

By Stacey Some days I wish I could change my skin color. To those on the streets of Cameroon I am referred to as “la blanche” or “white person.” Sometimes little children excitedly point and run to tell their friends when I approach as if I was some sort of exotic animal. I know they do not mean anything by it, and yet I feel like I am like the village attraction (actually, I think I amthe village attraction). Adults in the market try to get my attention essentially by calling out “hey white person, we have great white people…

by Stacey What We Have Been Up To Living in an Airport It has been a little over a month since we arrived in country and I think it would be safe to compare this last month to living in an airport terminal: we have been carrying our luggage around everywhere we go, checking often to make sure we have our passports for when we get stopped by the authorities, while all the while counting our children to make sure we did not lose any of them. We are in closer proximity to other people than we are used to….

By Stacey Imagine delving into a science fiction novel where the author takes great strides to imagine an alternate universe. He creates “sing-songy” languages between his characters that are outside of his readers’ imagination. Then he describes the narrator’s response to these languages: a mixture between bewilderment, intrigue, and a general uneasiness. This main character also thinks back to his life on Earth where venders would sell their merchandise from a structured network of individual stores in an air-conditioned mall. In his new world, a multitude of products seem to be piled up on top of people’s heads as they…