When I was preparing to move to Costa Rica, I expected some things to be different. I tried to prepare myself for the inevitable culture shock (even though I wasn’t quite sure what that was or how it would effect me). Although culture shock seems to have a negative connotation, its part of why a lot of people sign up for a program like World Teach or decide to travel – to learn about another culture by experiencing it first hand. Most travelers read a bit about the country they’re visiting to prepare themselves for these new experiences. But what I’ve learned after living and teaching in another country for almost a year is that culture is more than the things we can read about in books. It is more than just the food we eat, the holidays we celebrate and the language we speak. And while I’ve always had an appreciation for differences (cultural and otherwise) my year here has continually challenged my ability to accept those differences. It has enabled me to see my own culture and recognize its influence while opening my perspective to include other ways of seeing the world in any given situation.
One of the hugest challenges this year has been learning to speak Spanish and just generally trying to understand what-in-the-world is happening on a regular basis. I’ll admit I probably went about it the hard way, having never studied more than a few weeks of Spanish before arriving. My site visit was the first time I really seriously questioned my ability to actually stay the whole year and live and teach here. I didn’t understand more than maybe 5 or 10 words of what was said to me the entire day. It was a great day, but I had no idea what was going on. Everyone was talking so fast and I was not yet confident in my limited abilities to express myself. I thought I’d never be able to communicate.
And yet here I am, after ten months, able to carry on a conversation, even with complete strangers. But as my language skills developed I began to realize there was something else that was causing miscommunications: cultural differences. People would explain things to me, and I would ask questions to clarify (you learn to ask lots of seemingly repetitive and obvious questions just to make sure you understand) and yet I would find myself still not quite understanding. I understood the words but not the meaning or reasoning behind them.
September is Mes de Patria here in Costa Rica. The fifteenth is Independence Day and it’s a BIG deal. I asked near the end of August for some sort of calendar or schedule to have an idea of how to plan my lessons. Finally, after asking a few times, the other teacher at my school told me there would be actos civicos pretty much every day but we worked out a schedule where I could still teach all my classes. So I went ahead and planned out my unit and lesson plans only to be promptly disappointed. The schedule changed everyday with Acto Civicos interrupting everything. My classes were canceled or rearranged and my lessons plans were in ruins. How could I do all the fun activities I had planned? Why didn’t anyone else care about teaching? When I try to talk with the director and figure out the reason for all these schedule changes she explained that they had to decorate the school for the 15th. As if this was a completely reasonable explanation for canceling class. So while I understood the words coming out of her mouth, I struggled to understand the reasoning behind them. Where I was coming from the entire thing was disorganized, unprofessional and counterproductive (especially for those of us crazy enough to try to teach!) But then again I am coming from a culture that prizes hyper-productivity and efficiency, where work is the center of nearly everything we do and more and more schools are being run like factories that teach, test and produce “smart” students. Mostly I was just really frustrated that decorating was ruining my awesome lesson plans. I just did not get it.
After a frustrating few weeks the fourteenth of September arrived. There were no classes (of course) and we all gathered at the town entrance to receive the torch from the neighboring town. The passing of the torch throughout the country is an annual tradition to commemorate the way the news of independence from Spain was originally spread throughout Central America. While allowing 10 year olds to run with a live flame and gasoline seems like a “bad” idea, I had to let that one go and appreciate the authenticity.
Later that evening we gathered for the official celebration. The girls at the school had been practicing baile tipico (traditional folk dance) and I had joined them during the week mostly as a way to kill time between my morning and afternoon classes. Next thing I knew I’d signed myself up to dance in front of the entire town. September 14th is the night communities gather together, bringing their homemade lanterns (faroles) to celebrate with a night time procession. After the typical acto civico activities (national anthem, pledge to the flag etc.) the children sang and we prepared to do our first dance. I was so nervous and regretting my decision to participate. But there was no turning back. Finally the music started and we began to dance and people were hooting and hollering. I hadn’t expected that but the energy of the celebration was taking over me as I danced with the girls. After our first two dances we lit our lanterns for the procession. The darkness of our mountain road came alive with the wavering lights of dozens of patriotically decorated lanterns. And as I walked among people taking pictures and admiring the creativity of different lanterns, the light seemed to illuminate a new understanding inside me. This feeling of pride, of patriotism, of love for your country and your community is what it’s all about. And I felt so lucky to be a part of it that all my anger and frustration of the past month melted away in that candle lit procession. I realized that my version of “right” or “wrong” doesn’t really count here. That it was time to see people and things here the way they really are instead of the way I wish they were. Seeing all the hard work come together in that night of celebration, I finally felt like I got it.
While teaching is extremely important to me, and the main reason I’m here as part of WorldTeach, I’m also here to learn. In these last ten months I’ve learned more than I ever could have from reading a book or taking a class. By stepping outside my comfort zone, away from my culture and all the things I thought defined me I have done more than just imagine another perspective. I have lived that perspective because where I am right now, that’s the only one that makes any sense. And I’ve learned that culture is not just the food we eat, the holidays we celebrate and the language we speak. Culture defines the way we see the world and the people in it, it’s how we decide right from wrong, it’s what motivates us and yet it’s so subtle that we could go decades before we recognize it’s influence in our own lives.
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