So this post I actually wrote like forever ago and forgot about it but I am actually really excited to share with
everyone because it is about the stark cultural differences between the US and
Namibia. I’m sure more will be added to this as time goes on but a lot of our
eyes have been opened to not only to a new way of life but to what and who we
are as Americans. Us as American Trainees filled out post it notes of all the
parts of the Namibian culture that we witnessed that was different from our
own, and the Namibian trainers did the same thing (Theirs was a little skewed
though because the only Americans they have come in the most contact with has
been Peace Corps Trainees) I am going to try to organize this the best I can
but please bare with me.
Greetings
In Namibia you say Hi/Good Morning/
Acknowledge EVERYONE. Since I am American Namibians do not always do it first
and for reasons I will specify in a minute. But no matter where you are, what
you are doing, who you are with, you say hi to every person you pass. Its just
what you do. It is SO rude not to greet someone. What more important thing are
you doing that you can’t say Hi to someone you walk by. One of our trainers
gave us insight into why this is: She said “If you walk by me and ignore my
being there because you are looking for someone else, what happens if you can’t
find that person. Do you think that if you come to me asking if I have seen him
or her do you think I am going to answer you? You walked right by me and now
that you need something, now you talk to me?” Alright, she made a valid point.
In the United States though when
walking down the street we tend to walk with our eyes down, not paying much
attention to what’s passing us by. If someone goes out of their way to say
hello to you you feel awkward, like they want something or maybe that they are
coming on to you. The trainers also pointed out a pet peeve Namibians have with
Americans and that is the fake smile. Maybe you do acknowledge people as they
walk by you but do you quickly smile then relax your face again. Is it really
ever genuine? I know I am guilty of this, but maybe because smiling is just a
habit of mine and I do it as a response for everything. Their frustration can
be understood though, why do we smile at someone and then relax our face when
the person is still in our eye sight? Are these acknowledgements of presence
ever really genuine in the US?
Offering Help
This brings
me to another situation that more critiques the US. Our trainers asked us why
we never accept help when it is offered. For example, when we all arrived in
Namibia we were all trying to juggle two 50lb bags and a carry on or two. In my
case it was a purse, a backpack, and a Vera Bradley duffle that had a weeks
worth of clothes, an extra pair of shoes, my keep sakes, and a giant pillow. Some
people brought guitars, some people brought hiking backpacks. Regardless we
were all clearly struggling in one aspect of another. Whenever a Namibian or
anyone for that matter offered to help us we all quickly replied no that we had
it under control and that we were fine but thank you anyway. So our trainers
asked WHY? Why would we do this to ourselves, we all looked silly and everyone
knew we could have used some help. One
of us replied that the Peace Corps made it very clear to make sure that we could
manage our own bags and to not need to rely on help (We’ll get into other Peace
Corps specific things that confuse Namibians.) So anyways, that was one reason.
Another person suggested that being an American, one of the values that we hold
near and dear to us is our independence. We don’t want to be perceived as weak,
we want to make sure we can do things for ourselves, and reassure to ourselves
that we don’t need others help. Whether you agree with this or not its still a
subconscious state of mind and all of us agreed that this was probably the
reason for us refusing help with our bags.
Then one person spoke up and we all
were shocked with what came out of his mouth. He said that in the US, people
offer help all the time. People also always refuse help or deny the offer. Now
this doesn’t apply to all Americans but generally, when someone says “hey can I
help you with that” its not genuine, its polite, but they are also expecting
you to say no and deny the offer because that would be polite. Why would you want
someone else to suffer with carrying your bags when you were the one that over
packed them. You wouldn’t want to carry a stranger’s overweight bags, that’s
not your fault they can’t manage them. On the occasion that the offer isn’t denied
its not the end of the world, but in all reality, who really wants to carry a
bunch of stuff for a stranger or go out of their way for someone they don’t
know, especially if there is no material reward other than a feel good feeling
in your tummy. Now when our fellow trainee was explaining this, some of our
first thoughts were NO that’s not true, that’s looking at the worst of people,
that’s not what Americans are like, there are many good ones out there.
However, what was a second thought to us all was that we were those good ones.
We’re Peace Corps volunteers so goodness sakes. We are giving up Western,
modern comforts to live in huts eating questionable meat and sandy sides in
order to contribute to the betterment of the world. Unfortunately though, once
we realized that us and the people we were surrounded by in our lives were the
cream of the crop that were actual genuine people, we realized what kind of
culture and world we unfortunately lived in. Now I cannot reiterate enough how
I know that this isn’t ALL Americans. This also isn’t an overgeneralization.
Its more just the culture we live in.
Religion
Namibians are uber religious. Even
if they don’t go to church every day or every Sunday. Religion is a huge part
of the Namibian state and as I am here longer, I realize that more and more. While
the United States has its fair share of religious influence (that is also often
debated) as well Namibians take it to a whole other level and this could be for
many reasons from colonial missionary influence to ethnic traditions. To begin,
Namibians are very positive optimistic people, something I admire about them.
The reason for this seemingly national happiness is their strong belief that
God will sort everything out. Even if someone wakes up in prison during his/her
life sentence they wake up with the attitude that it is a new day and God wants
them to live it. Even if they are not actively religious (ie going to church,
daily prayer) they believe God has a plan for them that will work out.
Unfortunately there is a down side to this: Namibians are apparently horrible
planners because of this mindset.
Another interesting note about
religion in Namibia comes from an observation while watching TV. Let me preface
by saying I watch a lot of TV. Like the entire time I am at home in the
evening, the TV is on. Some popular shows that I watch with my family including
my 11 & 6 year old host siblings include Criminal Minds, CSI, Under the
Dome, and the ID network (which is all crime scene shows). Images, stories and
thoughts of violence and adult themes are apparent during these shows and yet
instead of beeping out swear words, they bleep out anything that takes the
Lord’s name in vain. This includes anything from Goddammit to Oh my God to
Jesus. Let me just interject and say it is quite difficult to fill in missing
dialogue when you aren’t expecting them to bleep something like that out. Also
on the note of TV and religion in Namibia, apparently there is a huge
popularity with other host families in watching televangelism. Us trainees will
sometimes debate whether watching that or the same Disney Channel episode for a
double digit time is worse.
More interesting notes on religion:
they are strong believers in superstition and this is apparent throughout the
entire country. I do want to preface this by saying I completely respect all
differing view points and fully recognize that people have different reasons to
believe what they do and who’s to tell them this is wrong. And also lets be real, we are in Africa,
there are many different beliefs here. So anyway, at some point before our
service we were told that there were many people who believed in things like
witches and vampires (Hopefully it was Twilight that they were convinced by and
not Dracula or some other creepy story). They believe this so much so that they
sometimes do not let their kids out at night in fear that a vampire or
something will get them. I didn’t actually believe this until I actually heard
this. The first week we were here there was an announcement in the middle of
church service that there had been sightings of a large dark winged creature
around the town and that everyone was advised to be inside before dark fell.
Our trainers later stood up in training the next day and assured us we had
nothing to worry about contrary to the priest’s suggestions. In my own personal
opinion, alcoholism is extremely high here and so my first hypothesis is that
there is a connection here. But then again there is no way to actually know. I
guess for me it’s a good thing I am ready to pass out by 8pm and don’t have to
worry too much about being out after dark.
They also believe in the
Illuminati. I don’t know much about this though other than many rich and famous
people are a part of it and therefore anti-Christ. So for example apparently
Beyonce is the queen of it but since her music if good some people just pray
before listening to it. Sounds legit.
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