Culture, is it really that shocking?

A member of our team - Rachel - wrote this piece for her local newspaper.

Culture, is it really that shocking? By Rachel Garner

According to the Oxford Dictionary, culture shock is “the feeling of disorientation experienced by someone when they are suddenly subjected to an unfamiliar culture, way of life, or set of attitudes”. So naturally when you are sending a group of 25+ teenagers to a completely different continent (Africa), with a significantly disturbing history (the Rwandan genocide of 1994), culture shock  is an issue that’s going to get flagged up. Both ICS and Tearfund continually mentioned culture shock during orientation weeks in both the UK and in Rwanda, and to the best of their ability prepared us for it. They highlighted possible behaviours that we could find distressing, offensive or just down-right weird.

One of our first weeks of placement - visiting the beneficiaries

However, I think that no amount of preparation is going to ready you for the reality of a different culture and that culture shock affects everybody in different ways. We were even given examples of In Country Volunteers (ICVs) who experienced culture shock within their own country. So given that we are a mixed team of UK and Rwandan volunteers I thought a good way to explore culture shock would be to talk to members of my team about their experiences; how they feel it has affected their time here; and also what advice they would give to other people going to different countries susceptible to experience a similar sort of culture shock..

From the team interviews, it is clear that we have all experienced some form of culture shock

“I felt overcome by everything that was different and felt like I had just been thrown into a completely new world” (Beth)

But what is fantastic is that, as a unit, we have been able to turn this into something positive and something to grow from.  One of my team mates described culture shock as

“realising that you are definitely an outsider in a situation” (Chinwe).

This can be particularly hard to move on from, but when you work together as a team, it is possible.

Members of the team working together at Kimihurura Farming Cooperative

Despite facing some challenges because

“culture shock influences team dynamics through what is considered rude in different cultures” (Beth)

which would sometimes leave one half of the team feeling as though they had been disrespected through a lack of understanding. Overall the differences in culture have had a really positive impact on the members of our team.

Learning from one another - different cultural skills

“It has affected us positively, you really get to know how other people live, and you adapt and become flexible because of the changing of environment” (David).

Culture shock has given us the opportunity to learn about ourselves and others, developing our patience, empathy, respect and understanding. Culture shock has even led to some of our most memorable moments as a team because

“it makes the team happy learning something new about another culture” (Sam)

and allows us to become more of unit as we create new friendships built on accepting one another for who we are.

Team Kigali, minus Beth who was doing some office work!!

So what would we say to other people who are at risk of experiencing culture shock? How can they turn it into a positive experience? My friend Henry said

“If you are truly a team, culture shock won’t be a problem.” (Henry)

meaning that no matter what happens, if you are able to work things out as a team, and find common ground, then you can’t really go wrong! But sometimes this needs helping out with a few top tips! The common theme throughout the interviews was to be open minded; be ready to find new experiences; be prepared to both ask and answer questions. I love the way Claire summed this up

            “to be flexible, patient and try to learn” (Claire).

At the same time it’s important to remember that…

“… if where you were was exactly like home then you might as well have stayed at home” (Beth).

Exactly! We went out to Rwanda to try make a difference and if it were no different to the UK, and if we didn’t find ourselves a little “shocked” at times by the culture, then we may as well have stayed at home. And I’m so glad we didn’t!

Picture of the Day 31/08/2014

We had such a lovely afternoon going to Caplaki market and buying lots of gifts - many of which are for ourselves but shhh don't tell!

Lovely afternoon at Caplaki market, browsing all the stalls, haggling like complete pros

Workshops at Compassion Children

In the past two weeks we visited Compassion Children three times to run sessions whilst the children were off timetable from normal school during the holidays. This was different from some of the other projects that we have worked on, as this focused mostly on senior school aged children where the range was 13 - 20. It was really nice to talk and chat to people who were closer to our age, and listen to all of their opinions and dreams.

Our second session at Compassion.

On our first visit to the Compassion centre we held Q and A sessions where we got to know the children, and find out what kinds of things they were interested in; so that we could host further sessions with them. This was such a lovely opportunity as it allowed us to really get to know the children there, and find out what their dreams and aspirations are. So many of them have such big plans and it's awesome that we got to play just a small part in helping that happen. 

During these Q and A sessions the children could also ask us any questions that they had about English culture and England in general. Many were very interested and inquisitive about the history of England, but also what we were doing out here in Rwanda, and our plans for the rest of our time here. It was so much find getting to interact with them on such a personal level, discussing all our favorite things like music tastes, foods, sports, hobbies.

For our second and third visits we tried to prepare sessions that they had asked us specifically to help them with; namely public speaking and debating. As a team we decided that the best way to improve public speaking and debating skills, was the first improve confidence and the ability to project your voice.

Holding the ice breaker session.

In our second session we worked with an ice breaker game whereby we got all of the children in a circle and got them to tell the entire group their: name, age, favorite animal, favorite dance move and an interesting fact. We did this so that they would feel comfortable around us as well as each other, and so that we could further get to know them. We thought that this would help them to project their voices as it was such a large group and room that you had to be rather loud to get your voice to carry.

When we came back for our third and final session we tried to build on what we had done before. As they were now more confident and better at projecting their voices, we now tried to work on their ability to form arguments and reason under pressure. We did this by holding mini debates - where we chose topics and they would have to go to either side of the room to show whether they AGREED or DISAGREED with that statement. Once they had picked a side we would then ask them to give a reason why they chose that side, and then ask the opposition to reason otherwise. 

Getting stuck into the debates - reasoning out opinions.

This was such a massive success and we had some truly amazing debates over some pretty hot topics such as...

1. The biggest problem in modern day society is crime.
2. Music is better than film.
3. Honesty is the most important human quality.

They came up with some really thoughtful and well processed arguments within minutes, and demonstrated a natural ability to reason and counter argue on the spot.

We finished up our time at Compassion by playing some classic playground games such as Bulldog. We all had a fabulous time working here, and felt really blessed to be the first team to have been asked to go. This is a really cool project and something we have really enjoyed getting stuck into!