Culture shock is a totally natural, well-studied, and known experience for me. The hard part? I don’t why I can’t seem to avoid it! Despite coming to Guatemala with open mind, few expectations (warmth, cheap), I still find myself going through the stages of culture shock as if I am some kind of neophyte traveller. Heck, I have lived abroad, travelled a ton of times internationally, and came here with a short agenda.
Ahhh…I just found the problem: I came here not with a lot of expectations of Guatemala, but of expectations of myself.
This is why I am feeling so low. Despite taking precautions, a stomach bug laid me flat for the last couple of days. Alex has been a wonderful travelling companion, both taking care of himself and of me during these last two days. ( Thanks, Alex!) So it has not been that miserable an experience. But in the periods between violent expulsion of bodily fluids, I wondered why we came in the first place, why I got sick, and why I was wondering these thoughts at all.
The answer, of course, was that I expected to be healthy, strong, have all the answers, and be able to figure out the rest. Yup: Paul the almighty.
Time to let expectations of self go bye-bye. And get on with making the rest of the adventure as magical as it deserves to be.
Grounding
One curiosity about travelling while in unfamiliar territories is how much I need to stay grounded. It can be something as simple as a set of habits that I follow every day. Or being able to get on the internet. Or eating a type of food that is familiar to me.
This time, while being ill and not being able to have my usual grounding habits and things, I found a new one: A nice air-dried cotton towel. The cotton bits were hard from be air-dried. It smelled of nothing – which is exactly what my overstimulated olfactory glands craved. Guatemala is full of unfamiliar smells that often triggered nausea in the last 2 days. The towel was clean, white and felt delightful against my arms and face. Today, on the recovery end of the bug, I have loving feelings toward my towel. Thank you towel.
Grounding: If you get sick while travelling in unfamiliar lands, find something that grounds you. Whatever works.
The Presidential Election
We enjoyed being in Guatemala during the American presidential election and having a few good chuckles with people about the race between Obama and Mittens. The contrast between the rhythms of life here in Guatemala and those back home in North America made the election seem surreal to me. The sheer amounts of money spent on the election could have raised the standard of living for the whole Guatemalan population a couple of notches, for example. Just one interesting thought the contrast brought out.
Another interesting thought was from reading Time, which a nice Israeli-American in the room next door gave to us. The thought was something like this:
No matter how sophisticated a country, people, or system, we all just play our roles in life and every day we just bring the best or worst of ourselves to the table. The article on the election in Time made it seem so important. But in the end, it is just who we decide to be right now, right here, and right in this very moment, that counts.