Reverse Culture Shock
Interesting phenomenon, culture shock. Going into a new culture, strange language customs and all that, well that's what you'd expect, a bit of a shock, but coming HOME? No, it's not possible to have such a shock coming home. I've lived in Britain for 20 years, I know it's culture and it's language like the back of my hand, got an A at 'O' level English, but maybe that's the start of the shock … They don't do 'O' levels any more!! Well, actually lots more has changed over the last 3 years than I could have possibly imagined … or is it me that's changed beyond all recognition?
Probably a mixture of the two. But the most poignant way to see your own culture and assess it is as a visitor, or through the experience of living in another culture.
So how did we end up overseas?
An interesting question. I am a MK. There. I've made my confession. My parents were missionaries, making me a Missionary Kid, so when I became a Christian at 18, my love for Africa was combined with my new found love for the Lord, and I set my sights on going overseas. An elective confirmed that that was a real possibility with my Physio training progressing, BUT it was really hard work being isolated at a rural hospital with no-one to share the ups and downs of the day with. So I returned with a renewed burden to pray for a like minded partner. It wasn't till a while later when I finally gave in and agreed with God that actually I would go overseas even if I weren't married, that I met Simon. Ironic, or is it? I have often felt that God does love to grant us the desires of our hearts, but sometimes we need to depend more fully on Him FIRST.
Simon was training as a GP, so we both carried on preparing professionally. He gained experience in AIDS Care and Community Paediatrics and I in Paeds. As we started to look for a place to go overseas, we began to question whether there really is a role for Missionaries in this day and age. We heard of the rapid growth of the churches in Sub-Saharan Africa and wondered whether we had anything to contribute. So we decided to make a visit to see for ourselves. We found lots of enthusiastic Christians who were doing great evangelism, but with low literacy rates and minimal education there was a lack of good Bible knowledge. We also saw many of the keen Christians going into full time ministry, leaving few people actually living out their faith in the workplace. So we felt we did have a role to play after all, but wanted to be with an organisation with a genuine view of partnership in Mission, acknowledging that Westerners have as much to learn from being overseas, as to contribute to the local church. We joined Crosslinks, a small Anglican Mission with a real vision for training non western Christians to be involved in church growth in their own Countries. A year at Bible College and 2 children later saw us finally ready to leave for Tanzania.
Dodoma
We made it to Dodoma one rainy day in March 1996. It was lovely to see the sodden grey green countryside. Not only did it remind us of England, but it was also the promise of a bumper harvest that year. The one and only time we saw it, as our home was to be on the edge of a drought zone, so a good harvest only came every 3 years or so. Dodoma lies right at the heart of Tanzania – a glorious country on the East Coast of Africa, just below the equator. A colourful mosaic of cultures and peoples who blend together to give a great richness and diversity. We found ourselves invited to the homes of wealthy Indian businessmen with marbled floors and air conditioners and the best curries I've even eaten, and believe me as a student in the East End of London, I've eaten a few!! And then to the homes of some of our church friends who shared their chicken and rice stew with us, with Simon and I sitting on the only two chairs in the house, and the dry wind whistling through the mud roof of the house.
We were working with the Anglican Church, Simon running a busy GP practice with two Tanzanian colleagues, a dentist, a laboratory, a vision unit and an AIDS programme. I did a bit of Physio training at the local mission hospital, and started a Sunday School at our church, taught a course at the local Bible College, oh and had another baby!
Physiotherapy, theoretically is fairly well developed in Tanzania, but in practise is still a rather limited 'luxury' service. Most government hospitals would have one therapist, who would cover the wards in the morning and then be busy with private patients in the afternoon, to pay his way. Government wages do not meet basic requirements like education and so on, so most of the doctors and teachers have private jobs too.
There is an excellent joint therapy school in Moshi at the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre, which provides an thorough training including aspects of appropriate technology for the developing world. Students actually come from all over East Africa to train there. There are some good academic lecturers in anatomy and physiology, but there seemed to be little emphasis on caring for patients, especially the marginalised and those unable to speak up for themselves. I am not sure why this is, but feel it may be related to a cultural expectation of genders, that men tend not to be the carers, but 'professionals', so to combine the two is very difficult. Most of the therapists tend to be men. This was underlined by the scanty provision of services locally for children and those with long term disabilities. Disability still has many stigmas attached and those affected tend to be marginalised and often unable to fulfil any significant role in society.
Three years is a relatively short time to learn a language and understand a situation, so we feel like novices, and know that we have learned a great deal more than we have begun to contribute.
Coming Home?
As our three years, were drawing to a close and we reviewed our time, we felt that Simon could be more effective in influencing the health of the community, with more of an educational role. So we returned to UK for an extended period while he does a MSc in Public Health at the School of Tropical Medicine in London. People in UK said 'Oh how lovely is must be for you to be coming home', but for all three children Dodoma was home, and for me, three years in Tanzania was the longest period of time in my whole life that I had stayed in one country. Only people who had been in our shoes were really able to share in our sorrow at saying goodbye to our friends, packing up a home in one continent and moving to another for a while.
So what did we find on our return? Well seeing 'modern' living through the eyes of our kids who had never seen escalators or electric doors before was wild! Commuting to London on Day two of our re-entry had the whole carriage looking at us as though we were from Mars, with the comments the children were making! And what about the Church? Well we had the privilege of visiting a number of churches as part of our Mission Education programme set up by Crosslinks. We were longing to share some of the experiences which had taught us so much, but many people just didn't ask! They were happy to talk about the weather (oh so British!) or our family life, but anything about our colleagues or those with whom we had worshipped was not discussed. We wanted to talk about how we had learned a new respect for older folk from our Tanzanian friends, and also gained a deeper understanding of hospitality and community responsibility even sometimes at the expense of the individual, but again this was not on the agenda in many places. I began to think that maybe I had missed the point, but fortunately read Philip Yancey's excellent book The Jesus I Never Knew and was reminded that Jesus never paid out monthly for his mortgage, nor climbed the well-oiled career ladder, but instead had a radical concern for the poor and under-privileged, those who have no public voice, and he gave them dignity, and respect and fed them too. So, has the church here, missed the point? I think, even within the church, we have been sucked into the rampant materialism of our society and endless pursuit of more and more money at all costs and in so doing risk missing the essence of the Gospel.
Conclusion
Well, you may be saying, that's OK for you to say, you're just about to escape again back to the Bush, you don't need to face the realities of Western living like we do. True, I don't, but I still think there are plenty of things we should be doing with a bit more fervour! You don't have to rush off to the other side of the world to support the world wide church, actually quite a few of us do need to stay put to support by way of prayer and also financially. I think I was shocked by people's idea of giving … not necessarily in the churches, but I think it is a problem there too. On Comic Relief day we were all slapping ourselves on the back for being SO generous, but the same amount is made each week on the lottery… I mean profit, not just the prizes. Now that's scary. We saw folk in Tanzania giving up half a bag of maize to the church offering, knowing that was one less day they would be able to feed their family before another harvest. We just have no concept of that sort of sacrificial giving … but we should.
The other thing I was surprised by is people's lack of interest in other people's lives and struggles, so I challenge you to keep informed. Getting nitty gritty information has never been so easy, with the Internet on hand, you can really find out. Do it! And then support organisations who are campaigning for economic justice, like Jubilee 2000, www.jubilee2000.com They have lots of ways planned for each of us to pressurise the government to be fairer on the poorer countries, many of whom got into debt because our greedy banks were offering irresponsible handouts.
Bibliography:
The Jesus I Never Knew by Philip Yancey, Marshall Pickering
Esther Clift
Article orginially published in Interact, Spring 2000 - A Global View
