I don’t feel awkward around folk who haven’t been to Kenya/abroad.
I only disapprove of America slightly more than I did when I left.
I feel like I’m not having reverse culture shock because I see everything I’ve experienced since January 14th til now as normal. Not normal as in “everything’s okay,” but normal as in status quo: Every healthy farm, each drop of brown water trickling down open drainage ditches, every belligerent WASP who thinks s/he is right all the time, each perfectly manicured blade of grass, all the self-employed merchants, every wildflower swaying peaceful despite the fact that its home is a landfill is, for better or worse, the standard for the area its found in.
Because I define normal/status quo in local terms, I understand my perspective on my time abroad as a manifestation of glocalization: the idea that the global community is comprised of local communities that can identify and solve their own problems. Lamenting the woes of the world and America’s responsibility to rectify them, then, is meaningless if one does not acknowledge a community’s own power to create their own solutions.
As a world citizen with a glocal perspective, I find it more useful to pay attention to the world’s problems, see how local communities are solving the problem, understand how my country can help, and then figure out how I can help. Unfortunately/fortunately, “most help” may mean not getting involved because we (as a country and as individuals) may not have the understanding, skills, and genuine desire to be of use to really be helpful in certain situations.
Clearly, a glocal perspective can easily turn into apathy. For instance, there were so many times on my internship where I reduced my involvement and justified it with, “I really can’t be useful here.” In actuality, I just didn’t feel like working. A better response would have been, “How does this experience relate to my life at home? How can I use this connection to integrate myself into this activity?”
These questions will guide how I live the next few years of my life. As I apply these questions to various situations, I will gain a better understanding of who I am in the time and spaces I find myself in. It’ll be interesting to figure out where and when I’m completely impotent, extremely powerful, or simply a helpmeet.
