Culture shock

I wrote this post yesterday, and am posting it a day later, just for context. Things are going well!

It is amazing how much a few little things can change everything. Those of you who know me know that I am prone to stress out about the little things. This tendency, combined with culture shock, is not a great combination. Yesterday I looked out the window I am sitting next to with a great deal of nervous anticipation. I had to go buy a phone, change some money, and make a withdrawal from the ATM (400,000 tsh, or about $250 dollars). And, I had just switched rooms, so all my bags were sitting in my new room as one of the maids cleaned. I checked my bag of valuables at reception, but I was still nervous about them on top of the tasks at hand. Indeed, a note on the inside of all the doors reads, “WE ADVISED TO HANDOVER THE CASH AND VALUABLES TO THE RECEPTIONIST AND ISSUED WITH A RECEIPT,” which some kind soul has corrected by crossing out some letters, and adding in some words, to “WE ADVISE TO HANDOVER ALL CASH AND VALUABLES TO THE RECEPTIONIST AND OBTAIN A RECEIPT.” Still not quite right, but it’s a start I guess. Anyway, back to the point, which is that I was feeling a lot of nervous anticipation about the upcoming day. Despite my fears, everything went more or less okay, though as I prepared to go to bed I could not help but to worry about my accommodations: I was only able to make a reservation at the YMCA for a week, which left another two weeks of accommodation to figure out.

As a result, I slept quite poorly, which I was pretty bummed about because I had hardly slept at all over the past 50 hours. However, after breakfast, a cup of tea, and making reservations at another hotel I feel quite at ease, and no longer quite so tired. Talk to me at 8pm tonight, after I finish a two hour Kiswahili lesson, and I may be telling a different story. Unfortunately, winter (it is winter in Dar es Salaam despite the fact that the temperature is in the 80s and it is quite humid) is the the busy time of year for hostels/hotels, and many of them are completely booked. So, I went a little outside my price range. On July 30th, I will be moving a bit north of in the city to the Msasani Peninsula, which is apparently much quieter (the city has a lot of ‘ambient’ noise), and [unfortunately] rather more expensive. This is all a little beside the point though – what I really want to write about is what culture shock feels like, but I am getting caught up in the details of life that provoke culture shock.

The best way I can think to describe culture shock is to compare it to being stranded on the beach after the tide has come in. You can’t leave because the way you came in is now blocked by crashing waves. In fact, the tide has come in so far that you even begin to worry that it will wash over you and carry you out to sea. So, you have to wait it out, even though your anxiety is pushing you to the brink. Eventually, the tide begins to go back out, leaving you free to explore the beach, but there is no doubt that the tide will come back in again. Maybe not so far as it did the first time, but nonetheless, you will begin to feel that same sense of nervous anticipation, until, like the tides, it begin to diminish again.

A packet I got from WorldTeach describes a curve of cultural adjustment where first your level of ‘comfort and satisfaction’ are high, but at time goes  on you develop frustration and annoyance with everyday difference (culture shock). Then, you make surface adjustments and begin to feel comfortable again, before you confront deeper cultural and personal issues, which again leads to culture shock, and eventually down a path of assimilation. Indeed, the packet suggests that individuals will probably go through a miniature curve of cultural adjustment every day. After a day and a half here, I think that is probably true.  There is one important thing to say about all this – the lows are awful, but getting over them is the best feeling in the world. I expect that I will begin to feel the lows again over the next couple days, but having had this brief recovery from a rough day and night is simply a fantastic feeling, and I feel like a stronger person as a result.