On Making Cultural Adjustments and Such

I've really been getting into reading Peace Corps blogs in depth, now that we know the specific region we're going to. Before I pretty much just read anything that was interesting, but mostly about life in Eastern Europe because I was so sure we were going there. It's begun to sink in that despite all of my years of having live in Latin America, those 27 months spent living in Central America will be unlike any two years I've ever lived. Why?

Well, when I lived in Latin America my father was in the military and I went to either DOD (Department of Defense) schools or international schools, we housekeepers, gardeners, nail ladies, etc. The people I associated with on a daily basis were mostly kids from other countries, although I was friends with a few of the local students. The relationship we had with some of the people who helped around the house such as our housekeeper and driver(s) was more of a friend type one rather than a strict employer-employee basis. We went over to their houses for birthdays and dinners and they came over to our house for the same. It was obvious that I lived in somewhat of a privelaged family because of plain differences in living conditions, as they mostly lived in rather rural areas with very simple houses and furnishings, much like the community I imagine Will and I will be living in next year. I didn't know what their lives were like or what their children's schools are like or anything like that and because I was a sort of expat child I didn't have to abide by certain norms and conventions of the country I was living in. Well, that is all about the change in a few months time.

I found this interesting except from a volunteer in El Salvador where she speaks about cultural differences she was told about during training:

- women shouldn't wear pants
- men can have more than one wife
- teachers should always answer the question and appear to be correct (authoritative) even if they don't know the answer (Americans tend to get upset over this point)
- telling the absolute truth to someone's face (Americans tend to think this is a good thing, some other cultures do not)
- Americans value the act of saving for a rainy day
- Americans always tend to be in a hurry and talk about time a lot(spending it, wasting it, etc)

These are all interesting things to think about. I really enjoy learning about cultural differnces, but I hope the majority of stuff I will "learn" in training is not redundant, as I'm not a TOTAL stranger to Latin American culture.