First in the Field - Focused on Culture

Today I want to share my thoughts about culture shock. These will correlate with what we read in class as the signs and stages of culture shock, but will hopefully add my own experiences and descriptions into the mix.
First of all, I want to apologize to ISP; I feel like I never really experienced (my parents can attest to this) the terrible teens, until now. Throughout the last four weeks, I’ve probably wanted to revamp and redo and reorganize every aspect of how a student is prepared for field work, I’ve recorded all those thoughts, or at least shared them with Deidre and Corrine and I realized that really, very little can be done to ease the shock of coming into a country you’ve never been to and trying to negotiate your way to a rural area of that country and try to not offend or ruin relationships for future students when you know nothing about their expectations. It’s also impossible to adjust quickly to the meals you make, the way you buy food, the time you wake up and go to sleep, the way to begin, or adjust research you have no idea exactly how to do. It’s a little like a mission, but a little worse because your trainer is non-existent and the spirit just isn’t as involved in research as He is in missionary work.
At the same time, I’m learning a million really great things from the people here. I keep writing home about all the friendly people who wave to us and want to meet us and welcome us to Ghana. We felt like celebrities the first two weeks of being here in Wiamoase, especially around the children! We are learning how to cook things, wash our laundry, do dishes, and communicate within this culture and can definitely see the valuable aspects of their culture and I think I can sa I appreciate almost everything about their culture at this point.
Two weeks later:
So we loved Ghana, we loved Wiamoase where we live. We loved being here and the people and how much we’re learning and experiencing. And then we went to the Cape Coast and when we got off the bus there, something snapped in all of us. I’m not sure if it was the fear and uncertainty I felt about being in yet another place that was entirely foreign to me, the incredibly annoying taxi driver we got to take us to our hotel (he became kind of a stalker, showing up at our hotel or insisting he drive us everywhere and lying to us about the other taxi driver rates), or just the pushier personalities of the salespeople that we encountered everywhere and the children/people that would ask us for money and be offended and pushy if we said we couldn’t.
Whatever it was, when we came back from Cape Coast, we all felt the aftermath of the cultural hostility carry over into our perceptions of people in Kumasi, Wiamoase, and for me, even toward the members of the branch in Asemang. People saying hello to us, especially men, then children, then women really annoyed me and I’ve begun traveling on different paths around Wiamoase to avoid the crowds and greetings. I’m frustrated when people laugh at me, and instead of reacting like I did at first (by crying) now I get really defensive and try to facially and verbally express what I think they don’t understand. I’m more frustrated with the bugs than I’ve ever been before, resenting them for the fact that they come out at night and that I have to put on bug spray and long sleeves/pants for them. I have felt all these emotions, but at the same time I am learning a lot more about Ashanti culture because of this hostility.
First, I recognize that these emotions are illogical and that I’ll be able to overcome them eventually. Because I want to overcome these feelings as soon as possible, I find myself asking questions that go deeper, looking at people in the eye more because I really wonder what they’re thinking, expressing my frustration verbally to the person that’s causing me to feel hostility has helped me to see they don’t mean things the way I interpreted it. Lastly, analyzing my own culture to try and differentiate what they’re doing with what that might mean within my usually context. It’s been interesting to experience these emotions and YET simultaneously recognizing their source as a stage in culture shock.
I’m just grateful I’m having these experiences in Ghana and I wouldn’t trade what I’m learning experiencing for anything.