We've been home for just about 8 weeks now. The time has flown by, what with Christmas, New Year, going back to work, etc, etc... I certainly haven't meant to leave this blog so untended for such a long time, but that is certainly what has happened. But here I am, back to update you on how things are for us at the moment.
We're living at home with my parents, my two sisters and my brother. It has been pretty crowded, although that's not much different to how we'd been living anyway! We both started working again 2 weeks after we arrived home; Kat back with The Salvation Army as a foster care case worker, and Cliff [temporarily] also with TSA until the end of Feb (and will probably end up with a more permanent job somewhere else in the next couple of weeks). We have spent many afternoons and evenings out catching up with the friends we missed while we were away and are starting to feel like we might be up to date with most of them!
We feel like we've adjusted pretty well to being home. We haven't really experienced much culture shock in the 'whoah we just left a third world country and reentered a first world one' sort of way (South Africa's like a constant ongoing experience like that); what we have experienced is much more subtle.
Living at Refilwe, our entire life was on our doorstep. Our respective work places were within a 65 second walk from our door, our friends lived next door, our coworkers (and clients!) lived next door as well. If we wanted to spend time in nature, we walked outside. If we wanted to play sport, we walked across the bridge to the courts and field. If we wanted to spend time alone, we drove a whole 3 minutes down the road to the local pie shop. If we wanted to spend time with our friends, we yelled at them from our porch to come over (on the down side, if a student left their homework in their classroom, guess who got the knock on the door at 8 at night?). It was a culture we adjusted to without thinking twice about it; life was intertwined, messy and convenient.
Living at Refilwe, our entire life was on our doorstep. Our respective work places were within a 65 second walk from our door, our friends lived next door, our coworkers (and clients!) lived next door as well. If we wanted to spend time in nature, we walked outside. If we wanted to play sport, we walked across the bridge to the courts and field. If we wanted to spend time alone, we drove a whole 3 minutes down the road to the local pie shop. If we wanted to spend time with our friends, we yelled at them from our porch to come over (on the down side, if a student left their homework in their classroom, guess who got the knock on the door at 8 at night?). It was a culture we adjusted to without thinking twice about it; life was intertwined, messy and convenient.
'Home' has a very different culture. By nature of the infrastructure that our lives are built around there is an element of fragmentation that occurs. We live far away from where we work. We live far away from our friends. If we want to spend time with them, we have to plan in advance. We have to use these things called phones if we want to communicate with them.
If we want to spend time in nature, we get in the car first. We certainly don't see our coworkers after hours, and god forbid our clients figure out where we live. If we want to spend time alone, we stay at home. Life is not messy, on the contrary it is quite compartmentalised- no part of my life has to touch another part of it unless I choose to make it so.
The culture 'shock' that has gradually crept up on us is the realisation of the differences between these two. The first is very communal and community-oriented, yet on the down side much of that stemmed from convenience. The other can be quite isolating, yet on the up side it demands intentionality with both time and relationships. Both have their rewards and their challenges, but at the end of the day, they are very different cultures that require us to live our life in different ways. And that's what we're navigating right now!
If we want to spend time in nature, we get in the car first. We certainly don't see our coworkers after hours, and god forbid our clients figure out where we live. If we want to spend time alone, we stay at home. Life is not messy, on the contrary it is quite compartmentalised- no part of my life has to touch another part of it unless I choose to make it so.
The culture 'shock' that has gradually crept up on us is the realisation of the differences between these two. The first is very communal and community-oriented, yet on the down side much of that stemmed from convenience. The other can be quite isolating, yet on the up side it demands intentionality with both time and relationships. Both have their rewards and their challenges, but at the end of the day, they are very different cultures that require us to live our life in different ways. And that's what we're navigating right now!
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