The Amazing Culture Race

One of our family traditions here in Africa is watching episodes of the Amazing Race. I won't mention how we acquire them, but we have a good time on weekend nights watching the show. So far this season I'd been a bit disappointed in the destinations of the race, finding them to be beautiful but too "easy": the US Virgin Islands, the UK (they didn't encounter foreign languages until leg 4!), Scandinavia, Morocco (the only African country was time spent at a tourist trap in this country), Italy, Malta, and Singapore (even the most exotic places on the list are plush and tourist-friendly). Finally, however, on the past episode, they arrived in the Philippines, and culture hit the 4 remaining teams in the face.

I was fascinated to watch how the 4 teams responded to their surroundings. While there are probably more than 4 ways to respond to foreign (third world) culture, I thought these were pretty representative:

Team 1 (a team we root for and has many, many good qualities) said "let's just pretend we don't smell anything" and "we decided to just stay away from the water here." Although it was only two quotes, their general attitude was to IGNORE. They seemed to want to treat the culture like any other place, and not engage in it at all.

Team 2 (a team we find annoying often) was absolutely disgusted. They retched at smells, they complained, they turned up their noses. Their reaction was REJECTION, plain and simple. 

Team 3 looked around them on the "taxi" ride and couldn't help but notice the poverty. They were heart broken at seeing unclothed kids in the streets, often just sitting alone. They were astonished at the dangers of every day life. They said they definitely felt that they were CHALLENGED by what they saw, and that it gave them time to reflect on how blessed their lives really are.

Team 4 was giddy. They looked around them, saw how everything was different, and it made them laugh (in a good way). They talked about how they got to get right into the culture and pretend to be a part of it for a little while. They sought out what was different and enjoyed it. They EMBRACED the cultural differences.

Now, you might think I'd say that there is a hierarchy of how you "should" react to cultural differences. But things were (and are) a little more complicated. The team that rejected everything around them took up a challenge hauling in fish in the water. Initially disgusted, they jumped into the challenge, and when it started to rain hard, the hardship got them to dig deep, and they ended up embracing the challenge. Maybe they didn't embrace the culture per se, but their attitude changed dramatically. Sometimes I suspect that people living (or visiting) overseas may at first be overwhelmed by all the changes and the smells, and the sights. But through perseverance, they realize that a lot of those things don't really matter in the end. I know that our family can relate a lot to that.

The couple that was moved by the poverty was inspiring, and the TV show doesn't say what comes next for them. But this often happened on service projects I've been on. Your eyes are opened to the worldwide problems of poverty, and it makes you realize how much you take for granted. But...what next? Too often,we are moved to either throw money at the problem to make ourselves feel better, or maybe even try to pretend we never saw the problem, or try to rationalize it away ("nothing I do could make a difference because of all the corruption in that society"). Challenge is a good first step, but what comes next can be really tricky and complex. The book "When Helping Hurts" is getting short-term mission organizations to really stop and think about the impact of sending rich white Christians all over the world to try to "help everybody with their problems." I wish I could offer more insight in what SHOULD come next after being challenged. For me, it meant making a longer term commitment -- to try to live in a place where I could do some good, and not just visit. But I don't know if that's what everyone should do.

And the team that embraced their surroundings was off to a great start, but again in a limited TV show, who knows what happens next. Too often, ex-pats have a great honeymoon period overseas, astonished at all they see, but then they crash when those differences cease being exotic and fun and start impacting their lives negatively. (That's the true definition of culture shock.) And is embracing culture always the best thing? In their giddiness, could the team have been blinded to the poverty and problems of that culture? Would they be effective agents for change in a culture that needed it?

But of course it's easy to judge Team 1 harshly, the team that (seemed to) choose to ignore the culture around them. Who would do that? But it's a real temptation for missionaries here, including myself. It's pretty easy to walk home from my air-conditioned computer lab and go right into my comfortable, big villa that overlooks the ocean each day. It's easy to "hole up" on the weekends and only leave if absolutely needed. I struggle to learn the language and have figured out how to say "asante" in various ways in order to get through every social interaction with a local Tanzanian. So, yes, ignorance, even while living in a place for 15 months, is easy to embrace.

(EDIT: New Ending)
What's important here, I think, is that you become aware of how you are reacting in a foreign culture. That's more important than the reaction itself! How you initially react to a strange place can be difficult to predict or control. After all, you might be planning to whole-heartedly embrace your new surroundings, only to land in a potentially dangerous situation, or be faced with poverty unlike anything you imagined.

But being aware of that reaction is key to moving to a new stage of cultural awareness and sensitivity. Whether we tend to try to ignore cultural differences, reject them, be challenged by them, or embrace them, we all have a similar journey moving forward. We keep ourselves moving ahead by small steps, in prayer and faith, trying to build God's diverse kingdom in a complex world. Search for WHY you react the way you did. Probably, the root cause will tell you something about yourself that you never realized before. Maybe you'll realize that beliefs you long held to be absolute truth are a bit, well, bendy. Maybe you'll discover that there are beliefs you should be holding on to even tighter. If you're honest with yourself, you might find out that God is bigger than you ever imagined, and that He loves people more deeply than you could ever comprehend.