En ny dag med blanke ark og fargestifter til

Today is a new day after I realized how culture shocked I am. Culture shock is contrary to its name because it sneaks up on you over weeks and months by building your stresslevel slowly up up up. So it usually does not come as a shock. It works as a reaction to a different environment adaptation process. Or as I would word it: Your body refusing to deal with everything and setting up mental defence in curtain areas. Demanding time to grasp it all, meanwhile acting all confused.

Classic symptoms of longterm untreated culture shock is: Sleepiness, apathy, compulsive eating and drinking, depression and isolation.

I am extremely sleepy these last two months, slightly apathic when it comes to the dying people around me at the underfunded hospital (I mean WHAT CAN I DO!?), I eat chocolate and easy or lacy food all day when I am not working, I sometimes feel like staying home and avoid going out (not to much though, I still really enjoy getting out of the house) and logically after my realtionship breakdown the last month I have been small time depressed and sad (Most likely it is more sadness than depression and I just feel it stronger now while it is passing through my system).

Realizing what is the reason for your feelings and reactions, and therefore knowing what you are going through and why it is hard, is in it self calming and some stress dies down. That is why I feel a new day today. In the time ahead my own treatment is guitarhero at a friends house, beer with the chinese, following through the workplan to help people and keep reading and asking questions to understand more of the situation and culture I am in at the moment (This last one is essential because mental orientation/ understanding of your environment gives "standing ground" for your mind to navigate from. For example if you know why the people is sooo slow when they plan to do something about a problem, you won`t annoy yourself as much and focus more on how to speed things up in the local settings) And you would think after 7 months I would have a good idea about the whole setting here now, but no. Sudan is infinately complicated for someone so outside as Norway. And it would take me another year at least before I would have a more comprehensive understanding of the culture and political progress.

I hope, by sharing this most intimate thoughts with you, I give you some perspective on culture shock and how you can avoid it when far away from home or some wierd place close to home. Hehe (Culture shock is not limited to international travel. For example it also sometimes occure when we move within our own country and region). Awarness makes me able to act and change the reasons for my feelings. Right now I am enjoying a book on Sudan with an italian cup of coffee under the blue sunny sky by palms and the Red Sea, remembering how much I looked forward to come here.

Picture: From our Red Cross briefing in Norway days before we left for fieldwork. This is a method of learning using drama, where I am acting a superhero in efficiency and coffee was like Poppeys spinnache. We were 16 youth delegates all in all here who could not wait to go into our designated fields.

Good luck in your work everybody

Thomas