Cultural Differences

All of us with our host families

Underlying the actions that comprise daily life, navigating cultural differences is of supreme importance. Last Monday after class we went to Sam’s house and all of our families joined us and we had a bilingual discussion with a staff member to facilitate translation issues. Though many of things we had already observed I’ll recap some of the big topics that were covered and some other major cultural differences that may be unanticipated in general.

Keeping in Touch

For most Americans, keeping in touch is something that takes a lot of effort and time. If you haven’t talked to someone in a while and if you want to catch up with them or let them know that you are thinking of them it is typical to give them a lot of your time, either for a(n obtusely) long phone conversation or to a long email or letter. By contrast, here one shows that they are thinking of you/keeping in touch by, first of, not waiting as long to catch up, and secondly length is not as important. In cases where we might be offended, or at least disappointed, by a quick call to say hello after a long period of not talking, that would be perfectly acceptable here. Just to express in any fashion that you are thinking of someone, be it a short call or even a text message is fine. This issue was pressed because of our host fathers had previously hosted a girl who after leaving their home had basically fallen off of the face of the earth and the man was really saddened and offended. He wanted to know if he should attribute this behavior to an American characteristic and brace himself for the same thing or if it were just her or what the deal is. Apparently this other girl had lived with them for 2 years. We decided that the answer was somewhere in the middle, no we don’t communicate as much, but yeah, she probably should send some sort of message BUT the greater message we received was that our families really want us to keep in touch and would like to see us again if possible. Ideally they want to hear from us at least twice a month, preferably once a week. I still think that is excessive, haha, but in fairness, I assume I’ll try to at least send a text monthly. It’s not like I’ll have to have a serious conversation. Also, my whole stage is returning to my site for two weeks of training in February so it would definitely behoove me to be on acceptable terms with the family when I arrive. I have already told them that we will be back then and I do plan to see them.

Tea

Tea is a way of life. In poking jest at both Americans and Moroccans, they refer to their variety of tea as ‘Moroccan whiskey.’ It is appropriate at all times of day, in large quantity. It is drunken from small cups and is made with a lot of sugar, green tea, and usually fresh mint, though sometimes instead of mint it may have rosemary, verbena, lavender, spearmint or other herbs.  I have become a kind of purist. I like it in the common variety, without the special spices (it is true I dislike both lavender and rosemary) and often. It is probably something I will miss upon leaving this place. Strangely, I do sometimes think of my life after here in a quantity that I find to be exceeding large… but, this is not the post for that digression.

Things I don’t want to try that friends have been served: coffee with oregano. I’m just gonna have to say no. ;)

Common Spaces

The idea of privacy is not understood in the same way that we conceive of it. Separate bedrooms for family members are not necessarily common. It was written in the family agreements that volunteers must have their own bedrooms and even some of them initially did not receive such accommodations but that was worked out. It is common for family members to sleep in the living rooms as the walls are lined with seating called pounges. In my own room their were two pounges and I slept on that and not a mattress. In my home, Bouchera and the mother slept in the television room and the grandmother slept in the other sleeping room, all on pounges. Though this is very common, many apartments do have proper bedrooms. I guess it may be most accurate to say that there are many different varieties of normal sleeping arrangements here, many of which we may consider to be contrary to our own experiences.

Salutations

Greetings here are mad intense. When you walk into a room that is occupied you go around and greet every individual person and if you don’t you are being rude. Greetings here are also a long process, more than just a simple hello, and often include some kind of kiss for members of the same sex or, if neither is too religious, some hand shaking for members of the opposite sex.

Leaving

Where in the States when we make a huge deal of leaving, people here simply slip out sometimes with barely any notice. Kind of like how we enter places, I guess. Ha.

Visiting People

So in the States it is not commonly acceptable for people to drop by others’ homes unannounced. I think this is mostly because our time is so highly scheduled that beyond you probably not having time for an unscheduled visit you wouldn’t want to be so rude as to put your potential host on the spot like that and force them to rearrange their time for you. Here that is not at all the case. It is commonplace for people to drop over creating effects that reverberate throughout the society.

Food is shared. Food is created not to feed the individual serving but to feed a mass, thus meals can always include guests and in fact are planned to accommodate the uninvited guest. Saying hello is a big deal because it is such a surprise and happy occasion to see someone. Saying goodbye is not such a big deal because it is assumed that you will see them again soon… and with the liberty of visiting that exists in the society, it is likely true.