CULTURE SHOCK .....................................................

People have always talked about - and experienced - what they call "culture shock" when they go to live in another country.  I never had that expeience going to Africa. Even though I had been living for some years of my education and early marriage in the United States before we went to Africa,  once we got to our village in Africa, I was content as can be.  Loved the little village, the scantily dressed people, the heavy rains and the sameness of the weather every season.  I was not bothered by hearing another language, as everyone spoke Jula to me and I could do that.....  I think often Dad must have wondered how on earth I could be so content in that small village with no mod cons, as everything was so strange to him!  He knew no language , the people were so poor and lived in extremely extenuating circumstances (from his viewpoint) and he was supposed to live here and be happy for the rest of his life??? No way!   But you know how quickly and well Dad adapted and loved his long life in Burkina Faso.

More recently here in the States I have been going through what I finally recognized as culture shock!!  Not just the fact of coming back to live permanently here in the USA - although that too has been difficult!   But in these past months being associated with a totally different people from any I ever knew in my lifetime.  This group of people is those associated with our jail ministry.  It almost seems to me like they come from a different planet.  There are areas in Toccoa - and Dad seems to know them all! - where unshaven, unkempt people roam the streets or stumble through the piles of refuse to get into their houses.  Years of abusing their bodies through drugs and improper eating habits has taken its toll on their looks.  Their hair is brittle and stringy; they have few, stained teeth in their mouths; often their clothes are baggy and need to be washed. 

If you visit in their homes, they are heavy with cigarette - or drugs - residue smoke, Dirty dishes abound in the kitchen sink. The chair cushions are not clean.  It is difficult to walk through the yard to get to the side door as the refuse is so deep.  There is an overlaying odor over everything in the house. And there is usually a very large screen TV blaring at any time you choose to visit.  Which they seldom turn off, so you have to listen and talk above the noise! 

Sometimes I say to Dad, "Why do they do this or that - or why can't they change their ways?" And his answer is, "They have always lived this way!" When we are invited to a block party by these people, they lavish money on expensive gifts and grill steaks and chops (which we can seldom afford).  But this is part of their culture.  They will borrow money for a big party, money that they will probably be unable to pay baack any time soon! 

When you visit these people in jail - because so many of them seem to end up there - they are the nicest people. Of course, there they all wear the same garb - orange, yellow, green or black stripes, the color signifying the type of crime they have committed.  But almost without exception they are just the sweetest people to talk to.  They love to sing Gospel songs and to ask questions about the Bible.  But some of them are charged with murder, theft, drugs, all kinds of crimes! 

Just yesterday we went to court for a girl I have made friends with in jail. They brought the prisoners in first yesterday and there were many of them - only one female and this was my friend, Crystal.  We were in court with her one other time recently - her husband wanted to divorce her and this happened right there before our eyes. She has custody of her ten year old daughter.  They bring the prisoners in, dressed in their (mostly dirty and unkempt) prison outfits.  They are brought in heavily guarded by officers with guns in their belts. They have a hard time walking correctly as they are heavily chained. Their wrists are chained together and they are chained around the waist with the long chain hanging down in back.  We were sitting with another friend from our church and Crystal's mother, and Crystal smiled at us as she shuffled to her place beside her public defender, a very nice lady. She has been in jail for most of a year, and so after some admonitions, the judge pardoned her and she went out of the courtroom free!!  She was jailed for passing an enormous amount in bad checks. So now she will live in town with her parents and her little girl but she has to find a job (in this bad economy) to pay back the money she stole through the bad checks.  And somehow worm her way back into civilization again. 

And so I am going through my culture shock a little late in life!  But it is real nevertheless.  Some days I feel like I am crying on the inside.  Other days I can handle it all OK.    But I finally realized that this for me is the first culture shock I have ever experienced in all of my long life!  And it is not comfortable - yet!