Culture Shock

Like Christianity's 10 commandments, First Nations people have the 7 Grandfather teachings: love, patience, humility, truth, wisdom, respect and honesty. My favourite is love, because it states that when people are feeling weak, they need more love. I think that will be very useful when homesickness and culture shock sneak in and the other interns need support. The IAYI Pre-departure Course for the 2012 International Aboriginal Youth Internships Initiative has culture shock down to a science. Our Metis presenter Leanne explains the culture shock pathway, "It starts with the honeymoon period, when you get there and are amazed by everything. Then a downward spiral of culture shock occurs and you can feel homesick and isolated. At this point many people tend to further isolate themselves through electronic use with loved ones back home such as skype or phoning (yes, they have phones in Africa, and for cheap, you can buy one for $15) , by falling in love, "going native" (by rejecting their culture and taking on the local one) and experiencing physical symptoms such as excessive weight gain or loss." She says it is important to explore the culture because the more you understand, the more comfortable you'll feel. Leanne recommended taking time to be alone: read a book, drink some tea and to connect with nature. Our elder Shirley from T'Souke Reserve said it would be helpful to find a place of worship, to support each other and wear colours like orange and red for energy. Once we recover from homesickness and adjust, we should be fine as we, until it is time to return to Canada, then we should expect pre-return anxiety and to go through the 4 stages of honeymoon, shock, recovery and adjustment again.

The most important thing I picked up from this workshop is to not delude yourself that you know someone. Each person comes with their own values, thinking and beliefs that affect their behaviour. So if you try to analyze their behaviour without any other knowledge, it is going to lead to frustration and misunderstandings. For example, I have perceptions about the world, and I experience it in a different way than a 50 year old male living in Uganda would, due to my gender, age, cultural background, family values and morals and education.

We had two presenters come in from Uganda and Zambia to talk to us about cultural differences. Apparently, as a woman, when you meet a man, you are expected to shake hands by getting on your knees, avoid eye contact and to keep one hand at their wrist to show respect. This is going to be a challenge.

We played an amazing game that helps to illustrate cultural differences.

1. Divide a group of people into 3 groups: three observers, 2 interviewers and the rest, who will function as the community. Tell the observers 2 things about their "culture," for example:

-the women can only talk to women and the men can only talk to men
- When answering questions, answer "yes" when the interviewer smiles, and "no" when they don't smile.

Then send the interviewers and observers into the "community" and have them ask questions to find out about the culture and what the rules are. I know in my experience as an interviewer, I delivered rapid fire questions and while grinning wildly, I demanded to know if their culture was Star Trek. Hopefully your students will do better.

And as always, love to Moosmas, Davey Baby, Shirley, Kienan, Dad, the other interns and everyone following this blog