Assignment #4 Culture Shock

LOOK OUT BEHIND YOU!

[My heart starts pounding a mile a minute, in fact, I can feel it in my throat]  I'm sure there is absolutely no one around me.  I have checked, rechecked and double rechecked my surroundings.  I was walking back from the beach to my hostel and it has been open (open like the prairies are flat) and no one was around me.  Cars are zooming by like always.  No car has stopped.  The guy screaming was the only one nearby. 

My hands come up to block my body and my face, I do a quick turn.  There is nothing.

As he gets closer to me, his initial look of fear in his face changes.  He breaks into a HUGE grin and starts to laugh.  There are lions over there!

I'm well aware of the lions thank you- the circus is in town.

My name is Francis and I have culture shock.

Of course, this story could have had a much different ending.  But I'm sure that this man's joke will be a great story.  I can imagine that when I'm older, my grandkids will ask me, "Hey granddad, can you tell us the story about the time when you were in Durban?"

And of course, I'll start by telling them about the coke head that was a really cool guy until he started his sketchy story about money.  And how he was really cool that I wasn't into doing lines.  Then I'd talk about my walk to the beach.  How I watched as one man beat another man in broad daylight in the middle of the road with a rather large stick.  Seeing as how they were preoccupied, I hurriedly sped off to the beach.  Then I will tell them that the beach was still segregated and how the beautiful parts of the beach were.  And end with the story of the man shouting.  Cause the rest was just normal.

[With my heart at a constant state of panic, it's unlikely that aerobic exercise can boost my heart rate any higher.  High blood pressure anyone?]

I'll be honest, if it were not for the ever-present sense of danger that I get when I walk, there really isn't much to be shocked about.  [However, I feel that that shock is about safety and less so about being somewhere new]  Unfortunately (?) for me, I've seen most of 'problems' in SA already.  But dealing with it has been the shock.  I just don't feel as confident walking down the street.  Imagine wearing hot pink pants, clown make-up, something lacy and strolling through the city.  Does that make you feel uncomfortable?  Well that's how I feel a lot of the time.  (Not like I'm wearing hot pink pants, make up and something lacy but that uneasiness that I can only imagine that comes with it.)

Routine is probably the worst part behind it all.  Everything is SO routine.  I wake up at 6 something AM.  I get ready.  I go to work.  I come home.  I read.  The girls will drop by to say aiyoba! I go to bed.  Every weekend is special.  I only get to do fun things then.  If it were not for those weekends, I don't know how I'd get through the mundane monotony.  So it's the traveling that has been keeping me going.

Don't get me wrong, my internship is very fulfilling.  I'm loving what I'm doing.  It's just the parts that surround it (aka LIFE) that is a bit of a downer.  The mini bus is the only way to get around.  There are metro buses, but like the mini bus, there are no schedules and no defined routes.  To get from one side of the city to the other is a bit of a risk.  I'm told that all the transportation in Joburg works with the old apartheid system.  People just stick to what they've always known.  Therefore nothing is direct.  They go through all the same routes that they were forced to go through years ago.  So everyday, you kinda just take part in a system that was supposed to be abolished years ago. Oh and when it's dark, I'm inside.  Well, except when I'm having fun.

I don't know how 'intense' this culture shock really is.  I mean, when I look around, it certainly doesn't feel like I'm in another world.  The shops are the operated many of the same TNC's that dominate the every landscape I've ever been.  In fact, I've noticed that many of the stores here, JayJays, Mug N Bean, Gloria Jeans and Nandos remind me very much of Australia.  (Ushaka also reminded me of Australia, with the big name surf companies out in full force.)  It is only when I'm out to nature, out in the middle of nature that makes me fee in awe.  But then again, that's just the magic of natural surroundings.

For the sake of this assignment, I've described what could be culture shock.  However, I have no idea what that shock really entails.  I don't have the typical symptoms (as described in the assignment), I don't suddenly eat like a cow -

Francis, you've always eaten like a cow...

No, no, I don't tend to chew as much and I also don't eat like a bird.

What about the bread and cheese meals when you travel?

Tradition.  My friend from Idaho would be quite taken aback if he found out I changed from the Adventuriser Diet.  Although I must admit that someone at the hostel was hungrier than I.  That someone stole some of my bread and some of my cereal.  (I hope it was as filling as it looked).  I did buy juice, so a small deviation... just a lil bit.

My drinking habits haven't changed.  And the only reason to feel blue is when I run out of milk.  The organised chaos that is Joburg, is just that - chaos.  It doesn't quite work but it's getting something done.  I don't mind it so much.  But I guess that the TTC doesn't seem so bad in comparison.  [Wait on, yes it does, at least you know what to expect here.  There is no pretense of something 'better.']

So I guess I am traveling MORE, to deal with the fact that I am away from home.  [Does that even make sense?]  I guess that I am living like I do when I am having fun to deal with culture shock.  [Again, what?]  Pft, what do I know?  I just got back from Scuba Diving with manta rays.  It must be the nitrogen in my blood. 

[Edit June 24]

If I were a South African, I would be classified as Black.  Mark my words, I officially have culture shock.  A landmark ruling by the Pretoria High Court has classified all 10,000 ethnically Chinese South Africans as Black.  Read more here:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article4168245.ece

What a interesting place I'm working in!