Week 9 Posts Due April 19
The second time I traveled to Thailand, I went to attend a traditional wedding ceremony in the rural Thai village of Ubon, near the border with Laos. We traveled for most of the night by bus from Bangkok, arriving at 4 am and then passing out on pallets in the loft of the bride's family home, while her extended family partied and continued preparations below. After a two hour nap, I was advised that the shower was available. Now, I had traveled in Thailand before and considered myself pretty open minded, but if my friend hadn't stopped me on the way downstairs and said, "You do know it's a traditional shower, right," I would have been confused and probably embarrassed myself by returning unshowered to our hostess. "Shower" in my experience has always denoted an overhead faucet with water running down; never has it conjured pictures of a dripping mid-waist high pipe filling a large garbage can with a smaller bucket and pail beside it. A traditional shower means that you stand close to a hole in the bathroom floor, pour water over yourself with a pail, soap up, and then rinse off with another few pailfuls of water, all the while attempting to keep your dirty water from getting in the large garbage can. Incidentally, the same pail is used to pour water into the toilet for flushing--no handles.
Consider some experiences you have faced while traveling, either in the US or abroad, in which you found yourself forced to expand outside of your normal experience. How do such circumstances affect us, both short term and long term? Why are they valuable for both ourselves and the people that we meet along the way? What advice can you offer your classmates for how to enjoy, rather than feel intimidated by such experiences?
Isaac Fernandez
ReplyDeleteOne time where I was forced to go outside of my normal experiences was when I first came to the USA. I had to adapt to an entirely new weather patterns and people celebrating holidays that I was not used to. One of these holidays was Halloween. In Dominican Republic we do not celebrate Halloween so coming to the US and having my first school celebrate it and having all of the faculty and students where customs was something that felt strangely off for me. But, as time progressed I have been a lot more open to celebrating or at least acknowledging differences in culture, specially holidays and celebration.
Experiences have the opportunity to allow people to not only learn new things about a new culture but also about themselves. By being exposed to a new cultures people are able to see more in-depth things that they enjoy and other things that they might dislike.
Probably the best thing about being forced to experience new things, especially if they are off your comfort zone, is that you are able to grow. New experiences help you develop yourself on a critical and fundamental level. I always said that traveling is an amazing form to learn to materials of life.
One of my favorite things about other cultures is celebrating their holidays! One time I visited Panama during their New Year's festivities, but they were also celebrating a day for the three wiseman in the Christmas story, which is when they exchange presents down there. Anyways, I totally agree with you that by being exposed to new cultures, we get the opportunity to see things more in-depth. When we can observe how other people do things, sometimes we might realize that their ways are better, and then we can try to integrate their ways into our society.
Delete-- Ashley Blake
Celebrating holidays from other cultures is so much fun! When I was living in Taiwan, some of my Taiwanese friends invited me to their home to celebrate the moon festival. Although the foods and cooking methods were new to me, and delicious, the sense of togetherness was just like home.
DeleteThe high school that I went to, Fletcher Academy, has a relationship with an orphanage down in Honduras, so they would take a group of us down there almost every year that I was in high school. The first year we went down, some of the locals asked us to hike up to their mountain church on a Sabbath evening. When we heard the word "hike", we immediately put on our hiking shoes, shorts, and t-shirts, and walked the strenuous trail up the mountain. However, upon arrival we realized that the word we should have paid attention to was "church". The members were all dressed up in their finest clothing, men in suits, women in long dresses. Meanwhile, we all looked like total trash! I will always remember that moment because it showed me how serious the Honduran people consider church to be, and how when we prepare to go out in public in a place that is culturally different from ours, we need to consider the frame of reference of the local people around us. I do look at this experience positively though because it taught me a lesson about reverence in the church. As Americans, we only consider church to be a place of worship when we're actually attending the church service. Those locals in Honduras always considered their church, however small it was, a place of worship because they felt that the presence of God was in that little building. Maybe we should take a step back and consider our church buildings a little more seriously as well. Our church is God's house after all.
ReplyDelete-- Ashley Blake
It is so interesting how various words take on more meaning for us after experiences abroad.
DeleteI went on a mission trip to Nicaragua a few years ago. We flew into the capital city and from there had to take a bus out to the small village we would be working in. The ride ended up taking about 36 hours. The bus was very old and the roads were very bumpy. This combination lead to a lovely chorus of noise from the loose bars rattling against the windows. The age of the bus also contributed to the fact that it leaked terribly. Of course, it rained all night. We all woke up from a sleepless night to find mud and water all over us and our luggage. To make matters more interesting there was no bathroom on board the bus. The bus driver’s method to remedy this was to stop in the middle of the road and send the boys to the front and the girls to the back of the bus to take care of our respective business. Needless to say this was definitely an experience outside of what I was used to. When we finally arrived at the compound we would stay at all I could think about was a shower. We soon learned it would be a “traditional” shower experience and that because of water shortages we would each get only ½ a gallon of water to shower with. That night before going to sleep we washed all of the clothing that had fallen prey to the flooded bus. We put it out to dry on the bars that were across the windows of the building we slept in. The next morning someone had stolen all of our clothes.
ReplyDeleteI write all of this not to complain but to prove a point. Before this trip I took so much for granted about my life. To this day I am much more appreciative of simple things in life like paved roads and bathrooms with walls. The most impactful thing about this trip for me was not my trials but how content the people who lived with them everyday were. Since they lived such simple lives they were far more grateful for simple things in life. The best advice I can give my classmates for situations like this is to be flexible. Sometimes circumstances are out of our control and we just need to roll with the punches. If you focus on the positive aspects of a negative situation you will have a much more impactful story to tell later.
-Rebecca Oxentenko
I love what you said at the very end. In the moment, we might not necessarily be enjoying the situation we are in. But afterwards, there will always be a story that come out of these unique dilemmas we face when traveling.
DeleteWhen I was in France, I was not used to the late dinner time. One day, I was waiting in my room, starving, till about 9:00pm, fearing that that I had missed the call for dinner. But they simply eat dinner late into the evening, sometimes very late. It took me a while to get used to this at first. I would come to the dinner table famished, until I learned about snack time which is around 4:00pm for them. I grew to appreciate their treatment of this meal. It was a time for the family to come together in the evening and enjoy each other's company. It was not rushed or taken lightly. In the short term, I started eating 3 1/2 meals a day. In the long term, I have come to admire and miss what a good family meal can offer. What I love about traveling is learning about different cultures and seeing what they value and consider important, and then taking that information and reflecting on it, thinking about what I can take from their culture and putting into my own lifestyle.
ReplyDeleteThe advice I would give is to not worry about looking like a fool at first. We are visitors, we do not know everything. Do not let that stop you from trying new experiences. Make the mistakes at first, stand out as the obvious tourist. But soon, you will understand the culture and the habits of the locals and soon be acting like them.
I actually had the same frustration with French dinner time while living there. I never found out about "snack time" though so I never learned to like it.
Delete-Coby Federowski
DeleteCoby Federowski
ReplyDeleteWhile I was in Peru, I was invited to a party/celebration that the local town was putting together. It was early fall and the days were still reaching 100 degree+ weather. The town was called Ñaña, and is located 30 minutes out of Lima in a very poor section of Peru. The towns people had been telling me how exciting the party was going to be and all the good food they were going to have. The night came, it was 90 degrees out and I showed up to the compound to find a six foot wide bonfire and people dancing around it to traditional Peruvian music. It seemed that other towns had been invited because there were people there that I had never met before. My friends saw me as I walked in and rushed me to get some food. They had prepared an enormous pot of chicha morada (a drink made from corn), an assortment of caramels, and a small bowl of gummy worms. I had a drink and a couple gummy worms when a town elder came a took me to the fire. The elder called his granddaughter out from the crowd and told her to stand next to me. He then took his belt off, folded it in half and gave me one end and gave her the other. Without any warning, he shouted and everyone went into chaos. The girl yanked the belt out of my hand and spanked me with it. She darted away before I could ask why she did that. Then two middle aged men came in front of me, bent over, and taunted me by shaking their bottoms at me. I spanked one of them and then he took the belt from me and started chasing people trying to spank them. Once a person was spanked it was their turn to spank someone else. Bizarre! The most intense part of this game was that in order to be considered "off-limits" you had to leap over the 6 foot wide bonfire. If you made it, the "spanker" had to choose a new target and you were safe until there was a new "spanker".
It was the most bizarre and fun game I have ever played.
Wow, that would be so startling! What a strange game, but also a great reminder of how strange many of are own customs and games must seem to others. That's great that you just jumped right in to take part after overcoming your initial surprise.
DeleteOver this past spring break i went to Morocco on a uquest trip and the whole trip was great, we got to experience the culture and meet many Moroccan people and become their friends. the was one point nearing the end of our stay where they came and brought us their traditional food. It was Cuscus with some veggies on top, but it was cooked and served on a huge clay pot for at least 6-7 poeple to eat from at the same time. Some of the Moroccan people also told me that they normally eat it with their hands. So here i was sharing a dish, and eating with my hands. I felt gross, and when i saw other people doing the same all i could think about was wether they washed their hands or if they were touching the side i was eating from. Nearing the end i kind of got used to it but still i was something completely new and different to me.
ReplyDeleteSimilar experiences really let us see how others live and can help us value what we have and also to appreciate different cultures easier. We begin to be more open and aware of other peoples culture. It helps us relate to more people, not just those who are from our same culture, which makes it easier for us to get along with people and establish relationships with them.
I would say that a lot of these experiences are of intimidating, but we need to come to the acceptance that yes, it may scare us or make us uncomfortable, but there is so much that we can learn and so much growth that comes from such experiences. The best way to go about it, is to realize you are no longer in the comfort of your home and society, so learn a little something from the society you find yourself in and take that experience to understand those people more and grow closer to them.
-Rodny Aquino
Communal plates are common in China as well, but you are expected to use the chopsticks you eat from to get food from the dish on to your own plate first.
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