Everyone told me that it would take about six months for the culture shock to fully kick-in. For six months everyone has made comments like “You seem to be adjusting so well!” I’m not getting those comments lately.
The main part of what I’m feeling just seems to be an exhaustion to little details. I don’t want the strange foods, different people, and new languages to go away. I just want to press a “pause” button somehow; to take a commercial break. One day with running water and clean food would be enough to reset how I’m feeling, I’m pretty sure. As it is, all of the newness, which is no longer new, feels like a weight on my shoulders.
I’m in a good place here. This job has huge potential for growth. My coworkers are great people. But part of me just wants to curl-up and be in the United States for a little bit. I hope this passes soon.
Aw, I hear you. We travel to Greece a lot, as my husband is from there. We spend a lot of time in his father's village in rural Greece...goats in the road, everything is dusty and dirty, there are only outside toilets, more like a latrine, you pick which chicken or goat you want to kill for dinner from the yard etc. When I see pictures of towns in Ethiopia, they remind me of this village, which seems so backwards given it's only 40 minutes drive from a bigger city. It's the kind of place where they cook a dish with ground goat meat and then leave it on the counter and eat from the dish for 3 days...no thought of food poisoning for leaving meat out in 100F weather, like they don't know any better, because really, they don't. For the most part, they are not an educated group -mostly older generation, in their 60's-80's. Their kids have long moved off to the cities, and they are the one's holding on to the 'simpler' ways of the past. I usually make it through the first month, but the monotony of the same food, foul smells like homemade cheese hanging in a hot kitchen, and seeing the same litter and graffiti (everywhere), same pace of life (slow), starts getting to me and I wish I could be back home with some mac and cheese and fast-paced life and cleanliness around me. By the end of the second month, I am dying to come home to some normalcy, but then I miss the weather and the family after a while. I would imagine it to be an even bigger shock in Ethiopia. What kid of job is it that you are doing? I found that watching a movie or something on my iPad helped me to feel more connected to home. I hope you feel more settled soon!!
ReplyDeleteClaire