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MISSIONARY MINUTES:
When ELCA missionaries attend an orientation program, they learn not only about 'culture shock' but also about 'reverse culture shock'.
Ian and I remember well our first experience of 'reverse culture shock'. After 18 months of being in Papua New Guinea, ELCA Global Mission gave us 6 weeks of "medical leave" to go to Australia so that our bodies could have some respite after numerous incidents of malaria; it was also to be a time to see a tropical diseases specialist about other preventative and treatment options. We (Ian and I plus our three children) arrived in Cairns in northern Australia where someone had kindly said that we could house-sit for a few weeks. One of the first things our three children wanted to do / have was a pizza.
We found the phone book and the phone number so that we could call and have a pizza delivered. Then we had a problem: we picked up the phone and we didn't know how to use it! It was a phone system that had not been in use when we had left Australia 18 months earlier. We tried a number of possibilities of what we were supposed to push before dialing the number (dialing the number directly clearly didn't work), all with no success. We finally had to give up. We were frustrated, we were tired after traveling, and we were hungry.
Then the phone rang. It was our friend who had arranged the house-sitting for us. She was able to explain the phone system and after she hung up, we were successful in placing an order for a pizza to be delivered.
It was a little thing, but it's a good example of what 'reverse culture shock' can be like.
Ian and I are less aware of 'reverse culture shock' now when we are in the US or we visit family in Australia, but we still do experience it: we try to push a door open when we should pull it; without thinking we greet everyone we walk by and then realize that people are not responding; we want to turn right while driving and the windshield wipers go on instead of the turn signal; we put on shorts in the morning and we both feel a bit 'naked' after dressing because I don't have my knees covered with a long skirt or dress and Ian isn't in long pants ….
About half of the ELCA missionaries are in the US on 'home assignment' for 2 months like us this summer, visiting their ELCA supporting congregations. Remember us all in prayer as we go through different degrees of 'reverse culture shock', but not only us: lift up also those who return from military service after being stationed overseas for they experience 'reverse culture shock' too. Those who go on mission trips may also experience the same.
Pastor Joyce & Ian Graue - ELCA missionaries in the Central African Republic
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