Talanoa: Culture Shock

It is November 9th, 2015. I have now left the host village and been dropped with my two suitcases, foam bed and gas stove to my new home of Dakuivuna Village. By dropped, I mean quite literally, dropped off and left in my empty single room house. My amazing, supportive and loving host mom, Matilita, followed me to my new village and stayed with me for a few hours helping me to clean, organize and meet my neighbors.

Up until November, my adjustment into Fiji was what I expected...new and different but manageable and enjoyable. I believe adjustment into a new culture inevitably begins with culture shock. The simple definition of Culture Shock, from Merriam-Webster Dictionary is: "a feeling of confusion, doubt, or nervousness caused by being in a place (such as a foreign country) that is very different from what you are used to". For me, the brunt of this shock took place my first two months in my new village. Culture shock is no new feeling to me. I have lived in another country before, and I have lived in parts of the United States so different from what I knew that I experienced culture shock there as well. I am good at observing other cultures in order to learn how to predict their behavior-which is the first part of adjustment. In the host village and then in my new village, I said "yes" to any and everything to allow me to observe, identify and predict host country behavior. However, what I hadn't prepared for was the high expectations of my new home. They weren't paid for me to come. They had to provide me with housing at their own expense. They weren't told I would be making many mistakes. They were told I had been in training for the last two months learning the language and culture. They weren't provided a training on what Peace Corps is or what (United States) Americans are like. They were told all of the wonderful possibilities and opportunities I would be bringing to their community. I quickly became overwhelmed by these new expectations. I could predict the behavior, but I was having a hard time accepting this behavior.

3 Parts of Adjustment, according to A Few Minor Adjustments:

• Predicting host country behavior
• Accepting host country behavior
• Changing your own behavior 

And so my adjustment journey was interrupted for further discovery at acceptance. This was a step that was going to take some time. I first needed to identify what I was bringing with me...the "baggage" I was bringing from my own culture. 

Steps to Cultural Understanding and Acceptance, according to A Few Minor Adjustments:
1. An awareness of your own cultural assumptions and values
2. Acceptance of the reality of your own cultural conditioning
3. Acceptance of the reality of the cultural conditioning of others

I thought this would be easy. I see myself as a painfully self-aware person. I have been blessed with many years filled with many choices followed by a lot of reflection and self-discovery. But the reality is "...people who live in a particular culture, who manifest it in their everyday actions are the least likely to be aware of it. This is because you express your culture naturally, unconsciously, without thinking about it" (A Few Minor Adjustments, 1997, p. 37). The village in Fiji has many rules and beliefs that (United States) Americans break and go against naturally almost instinctively. In the village women cannot wear pants (or shorts), you cannot wear hats or sunglasses, you must say "bogi" before entering a home at night, you must not sweep or do laundry at night, if someone asks for one you give them five, if someone borrows something it will not be returned, and the list is endless. Most of these rules and beliefs are easy to accept and adopt. But there are some that go against everything (United States) American. Sometimes, it is "not until you leave your own country that you start to examine or articulate these values and assumptions" (A Few Minor Adjustments, 1997, p. 37).

So what did I discover? What are the (United States) American values and assumptions that I didn't even know I held?

Please stay tuned for the next chapter.

Above: My little yellow house. Tin roof, concrete walls and floor

Above: My host mom, Matilita (in the green/brown) and my new neighbors helping me set up my mosquito net 

Above: Bush training. Weeding at a neighbor's farm with my machete