Quintuple Culture Shock

When Stan and I returned to the United States on December 20, 2020, we found ourselves again confronted with culture shock.  This is not a surprise for us, as we have had to do it in our comings and goings over the years.  However, this time it was a bit more challenging.

First, we did not choose to return. Our request for another year’s residency card was denied. We believe that we will be able to return this coming year but on shorter term visas. However, we returned feeling a bit ripped from our hearts as we had many things we wanted to do there during the final days of Advent, Christmas, New Year’s and Epiphany.  However, it was a comfort to be able to reconnect with family and friends in North Carolina during this holiday time.

Second, the temperatures were bitterly cold for us coming from a tropical climate. I began to put on three shirts, a sweater, a jacket, two pairs of socks and sometimes a hat. And all that was just inside the house!  We also had snow on Christmas Eve, a beautiful sight but quite different from Matanzas. And the first time I washed clothes, I hung them out on the line to dry.  I had to leave some outside in a bundle before hanging them up and go back into the house to get the rest, and by the time I got back, they were frozen!  I still tried to let them dry on the line, but it didn’t really work.  Late in the day I had to bring them in to thaw out! 

Third, we returned to a surplus supply of food and a convenient surplus at that.  We could just go in a store that had shelves stocked with all kinds of things and with our credit card purchase what was in our cart. Or, we could go online and order from way too many options and go and pick it up. In Cuba, the food supply had been scarce, and there has been less and less available in the stores as well as in the street venders’ carts. I remember seeing my friend Wanda getting her boys’ toothbrushes ready for them after meals, and as they didn’t have much toothpaste, she put the tiniest amount on the bristles to make what they had last as long as possible. I think about that when I brush my teeth.  And now the scarcities are even worse.

Fourth, we returned to a political climate that was so hostile that I felt like I had been transported not just to another culture but to another universe. The combativeness and personal attacks were palpable, the emotional volume was excruciatingly high, and the delivery was immediate, repetitive and invasive.  When we would watch the news in Cuba, it was controlled, calm, courteous and informative. I am not making any comment on the difference in content of the news between our two countries, nor am I saying that the US does not have some reporting that is calm and courteous;  nor am I saying that there are not strong emotional aspects to the news in Cuba, but this is a general impression of the overall atmosphere.

Lastly, we had been living in an urban setting, sharing space with our beloved friends/family, Wanda and Orestes, their young adult daughter and their two small boys. Every morning we would hear the sounds of the boys, Orestes making coffee (a welcome sound for Stan), cats, dogs, traffic, phones ringing, voices from the workplace below, and the birds.  Here, on the mountain, it was quiet. The lone sound in the morning (and for that matter most of the day) was our friend the woodpecker. She (or he) would be either searching for breakfast or crying out to her pals where they could get a good lunch. And the sound of snow. This silence has been giving us an opportunity to rest from the swirl of emotions and settle into our hearts and remember who we are, what we are about, and how we are even more valuable to God than that amazing woodpecker. It has been a challenge for me to let the swirl settle so that I can rest in God’s loving arms.

The best thing I have found to do to help me regain my center is to clean out the many springs that are hiding under tree roots, leaves, muck and twigs. I just have to add a warm jacket, scarf, another hat and two pairs of gloves to venture out in the cold. But the cold is worth braving for the a joy it is to find a source of water, open a path and here the water sing out happily as it finds its way to join the creek on its journey to the sea. The little cascades over rocks is one of the most beautiful things I have seen and heard, and somehow it connects me with my family there and my family here. And it connects me with the Creator in every drop of water that I have seen and heard skipping along its way. Thanks be to our Creator who can calm any kind of shock and turn it into a time of deepening in the silence of my soul.

I decided to try and put the heart of the blog to the tune of “My Favorite Things” from “The Sound of Music.”  I am completely indebted to the creativity of my friend Amy Storey who was inspired to do this with her family’s Christmas card greeting , which was ingenious and marvelous!  I enjoyed the card so much, I thought I would give it a try!  

Thanks Amy!

From warm tropic breezes to snow on the treeses

Shirts with no sleeveses to wet clothes that freezes

We had to get out lots of long underwear

Oh what a shock for our bodies to bear.

From empty shelves and the long lines for food

Hours of waiting would dampen one’s mood

Here with a click we had food in big crates

No need to ration the rice or Colgate!

When the  tv

Blares the news out

It makes us truly sad

So we remember our good friends down south

And then we don’t feel so bad.

From sounds of the city—the traffic and cat fights

From shouts of young boys and unending phone lines

A woodpecker’s calling was so strange to me

We had a difficult time listening

We brave the cold to find underground springs

Hearing the water’s a beautiful thing

Clearing out muck so the water can flow

Gives hope of a spring in the midst of the snow.

When we wake up 

in the darkness 

not knowing where we are

We then remember our family and friends

Thank God for love near and far