Be gentle with your cultural shock

- August 30, 2022

It has been a long journey to get here, but here I am.

I was accepted in April for the Junior Psychosocial Support and Organizational Development position in Ghana. Then I waited until June for the training, both on-line and in Bulgaria with a wonderful group of people (I feel very lucky for that), and then my vaccinations appointments and visa process took some sweet time (I am Italian, paperwork in my country is never a pleasure); so I waited even more. As “the cherry on top”, on the 1st of August after 5 hours of delay my flight from Brussels to Accra was cancelled and I needed to spend one night there and to take one the next morning …

However, after this VERY LONG waiting and postponing I have made it! On the 2^nd of August, I arrived in Ghana and I started my deployment!

Therefore, I spent more months between the acceptance of the role and the actual deployment than the deployment itself, that will be for 3 months and 19 days exactly. I think that this particular timing detail has influenced my first weeks here in Ghana. From the very first days, I felt that I needed to say yes to every opportunity. Every trip, meeting, festival, food or drink (I said yes to a paper box red wine very doubtful and I immediately regretted it hahah) that I wanted to try just because I have waited so much to be here. I was eager to be part of it. Nevertheless, to be hurry is never a good idea, especially when you are in a new country completely different from yours. For example, my body put the brakes on the local food tasting (too spicy food too many times is not good for beginners) and I decided to buy some food that I would also find in Italy. I even bought pasta to make a simple one with tomato sauce at home. It’s not homesickness, it’s just that we are who we are also because of our culture and it is a part of ourselves that comes with us, no matter where we are going. Abandoning every old habits just to embrace a new different life style is not a solution. We need to find a balance between the old and the new, welcoming new things and new culture (food wise is just the smallest example), always keeping in mind that there will be things that we like and dislike, even in a new country. Finding this balance is part of getting over the cultural shock (yes, it is real!) and do not be hard on yourself about it: it is normal. You just need to be always gentle, with other people (for example when you need to say that you didn’t like the paper box wine eheh) and with yourself too. Therefore, now that my first month is almost over, I think I am in the process to find my own balance. I have some comfort food. I bought a yoga mat for my routine exercise. I am starting to learn when I don’t feel comfortable and when I do (many people here wants to have a picture with “obruni”- a white person- but I don’t like taking picture so much, so I learnt that sometimes it’s better to politely decline and explain why rather than force myself). I think this will help me to appreciate my time here, but it will also help me to integrate better and to work better.

Speaking of work, this first weeks were full of meetings, with the staff of the two centers (the FCP center in Ashaiman and the WEM in Aiykuma) and with some beneficiaries. Together with Richmond, Rays of Hope director and my mentor, we are already talking about many ideas. Among my tasks as Junior Psychosocial Support and Organizational Development position, I am here to support the staff taking care of the psychosocial well-being of the young beneficiaries, but also their well-being in the work. I started to gather information about the needs and the activities that were made by the previous volunteer that had the same role here, in order to evaluate if they need refresh training or new training on different topics. The main purpose is to make all the activities sustainable and repeatable even without external help, especially because in 3 months I will be gone but the staff will continue to face the same challenges. Since it is school break, most of the beneficiaries are not attending the centers (there are only 11 out of 22 in WEM and a very small group during the day in FCP), so I will need to wait until the second week of September to meet them all.

In the meantime I am attending my personal Twi lessons (Twi is one of the 46 local languages in Ghana, the most used one in the area where we are living) to become more integrated with the community and with the people. The Twi pronunciation is really different from the Italian one, but my teacher (the amazing Senior Peter) told me that I am making real progresses!