Culture Shock

On Tuesday, I re-entered my air conditioned, tap-tap free, faster paced life. I was prepared for culture shock because I experienced it after returning from Romania. However, this time, it’s different. Almost nothing has overwhelmed me and I can accept all the excess of everyday American life. I wasn’t even fazed by all my options grocery shopping today. What I’m struggling with is talking about Haiti. I assume people want a nice condensed tale - a story about helping a patient or some funny incident, basically a summary of a blog post. But I can’t find a nice tidy story. So, for now, I’ve kept pretty quiet. I can’t find a way to explain the good and the bad and do it in less than an hour. There is beauty in Haiti and there is sorrow – I don’t want to talk about just one.

I say almost nothing has overwhelmed me, because one sight in the Fort Lauderdale airport definitely overwhelmed me and my travel buddies. There are now these Best Buy vending machines in airports. I can definitely see the benefit if you forgot your phone charger or your ear phones. But also inside the machine are iPads and iPhones. Who is walking through the airport and decides on a whim they need to buy an iPad??? That one purchase, let alone the airfare that got you in front of the Best Buy vending machine, costs more than most families, in Haiti, live on for a year!     

Mike, Pat, Rigan and I trying to take in the vending machine

While I was bracing myself for culture shock, I was much more concerned with the shock that would hit our little traveler, Edwina. Edwina has lived her whole life in rural Haiti and she was traveling with us to have surgery in Wisconsin. In the Port-au-Prince airport, her eyes about popped out of her head when I showed her the hand dryer. But, by the time we landed in Fort Lauderdale, she was looking right at home eating her first ever piece of pizza, sipping on a soda and playing on the iPad. In Dallas, she paid for dinner by herself. The cashier even gave her a 10% discount for being a first-time shopper in the US. Tomorrow I start my M3 year. After being away from medical school for a year, I expect to be overwhelmed. I’m going to try and channel Edwina and make the transition with as much grace as her.   

Edwina already looking like an American

Her first solo purchase