I am fascinated by different cultures. This USA Today article illustrates how differently similar creatures can live. We're all people, yet sometimes it is very difficult to survive in each others' worlds.
The article describes the challenges of a Somali Bantu family adjusting to life in the United States. And not just learning a new language. Not understanding how to exit an apartment because it has two locks. Not knowing how to turn a doorknob or never having seen a two-story building. Never used a pen or fork.
Wow. We're all so similar as people yet live so differently.
And I'm not insinuating that doorknobs, locks, forks or pens are superior in any way. I (and I anticipate most people in the US) would have similar challenges obtaining food and living in a thatch-roof hut without electricity, telephone or running water. And that doesn't even touch on the language or cultural differences. I don't believe that either is better, just different.
Considering these challenges and how fulfilling it must be to learn to survive in an environment so incredibly different makes me think about the Peace Corps as an option again. Talk about learning to really understand the idea of humanity and our perseverance.
I thought the challenges of a slightly different culture and another language in Chile was tough...but I'm a much better person for it. Maybe making another commitment to understanding someone else is the key.
Certainly the story of the Somali Bantu family also involves persecution and slavery and all the other things that have made them refugees. Although that is all important to the story, it's not my focus here. My focus is to seriously contemplate trying to understand the world in which I live...from many different perspectives...although I also know that will never really happen, I certainly have a lifetime to try.
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