Reverse Culture Shock

If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him.
~John F. Kennedy

There I was...in one of the biggest airports I'd been in or seen in the last few years. I was at London's Heathrow airport. Destination: the US of A, my home away from home. Or more specifically, my more permanent home.

I had just gotten off the airplane that had flown me from Nairobi's international airport to London where I was to have a layover before the next flight to Dallas. As soon as I got off the plane, I experienced the biggest single episode of culture shock that I can recall. It is hard to describe what actually took place inside my mind but I'll try anyway: As I was walking from one gate to the next, I saw a large electronics store located inside Heathrow airport. Now coming from a small town in Kenya where such stores not common I was completely and utterly blown away. More than anything I was flabbergasted by the amount of advertising for all the electronics one "needs" and absolutely cannot live without. The newest products such as e-book readers, digital cameras and camcorders, all kinds of smart phones and of course all the possible accessories for every single item in the store.

Having been accustomed to the simple life, in a manner of speaking, where advertisements are not as common or as overwhelming. Certainly there are advertisements for goods and services - though I've found that many many times the advertisement materials are used more for decoration than to actually indicate the goods the store has to offer.

I was so taken aback by the number of electronics plus the advertisements for all the electronics that I actually felt I could not take it, per se. I ended up going off to find a quiet place away from the advertisements to find the smallest shop that sold food - so that I could avoid the overwhelming feelings of advertisements as well as the overwhelming number of choices.

Even having found the smallest shop that sold food and snacks - which happened to be a bakery that had bagels - I still had some difficulties in figuring out what exactly I wanted to eat. Breakfast bagel with egg and who knows what or maybe just a plain bagel? Or a sandwhich bagel with veggies and such in between the bagel? Toasted or untoasted? And the biggest choice of all: which kind of the bagel I wanted to have... well there were approximately 20 or so different types of bagels to choose from.

My search for simplicity ended with a tragic end as I was still confronted with a plethora of choices that was enough to lead to my shutting out the world as I found a quiet corner to sit in and read a book as I waited for the next flight... Trying to avoid the crazy outside world of so many choices and also trying to make sense of it all.

While this one example was definitely drastic, it is actually what happened to me. On my trip to the US, the first time I had gone back in about two and a half years, I experienced the worst reverse culture shock at the airport en route to the states. Once I arrived in the States, I still experienced some culture shock though nothing as terribly pronounced as this particular episode.

Something else that took me a bit of getting used to was driving. Not having driven a car in two and a half years certainly had an impact on my driving back home during my leave. The first time I tried to drive I was accelerating way too terribly slow.

Certain things like driving, and using a microwave oven to prepare a snack or even a meal all seemed like such foreign concepts to me on my arrival in the US. Yet at the same time, in the back of my mind I remembered another life when using such things was the norm for me...a time when I didn't have to worry about having electricity or running water in my home. A time when I could choose, by the turn of a knob - to have either cold or hot water flowing out of the pipes. It all seemed like memories from a previous life and yet I was reliving such things.

Now, it seems, I am back to my reality where water and electricity may not be there when I get home. Where I sleep under a mosquito net to be able to have a pleasant night's sleep.
A reality where instead of being able to drive around I use public transport for almost all my travels (though sometimes I walk when the distance is short).

I live in a world where greeting my neighbors and other people in the streets is common, even if you don't know them. A world where life is relatively simple.

Realistically, I like living in this world. Though I may not live in this world for the rest of my life, I honestly wouldn't change anything.

The Fear of HIV

"An estimated 17,000 people died of AIDS in America in 2009 alone, yet increasingly AIDS is seen as an ‘overseas’ or an ‘African’ problem, rather than something that directly affects American citizens." ~ Avert.org

The Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), considered a pandemic by the World Health Organization, is considered to be a death sentence for anyone who contracts it. HIV, we all know, leads to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS).

In the developing world, or more specific to my experiences, in Kenya - there has been and continues to be a mass educational campaign to reduce the rates of HIV infections throughout the country. Certainly, there are many myths and misconceptions regarding HIV (for example, that drinking camel urine every day for a year will cure HIV). As the educational campaign continues, certain communities are seeing a drop in the number of HIV infections.

Part of the educational campaign includes encouraging people to make sure that they know their HIV status before engaging in copulation. Testing is free of charge and generally available in many parts of the country - almost all clinics offer testing and counseling services, as do hospitals. That's not to say that the education does not just stop there. The education approach to HIV also includes youth groups doing activities and just about any activity from sports to environmental clean ups to just about anything can have an HIV component - include a pre- or post- event discussion and wham! HIV education is part of the activity.
Image: an education poster in Kenya; image taken from avert.org media gallery.

Now, let's contrast this to the U.S.

If my memory serves me right, the only time I remember having any kind of discussion or talk about HIV/AIDS in the U.S. was in my high school driver's ed and health class (interesting how those two subjects are combined into one semester, right?). The topic of HIV in that class was simply a subtopic when discussing sexually transmitted diseases/infections.
In fact, I wouldn't even really know where I'd go for an HIV test if I even had thought I'd possibly might have been exposed. I suppose I'd probably end up going to a hospital.

In terms of the actual HIV test, here in Kenya - many people have a fear of being seeing going to a testing location for fear of finding out that they have been given a death sentence: a positive test result.
Or at least that has been the perception: HIV+ means death. But in more recent times, more and more Kenyans are realizing that even contracting the HIV virus does not mean one's life is over. There are antiretroviral drugs (commonly called ARVs) which, combined with a healthy diet, can lead to many wonderful years of life having contracted the infection.

In the U.S., I've been told by a person who's gone through it, the HIV testing procedure is kept 100% secret. The only people in the room are the pathologist who is performing the test and the patient. Everyone else is asked to leave the room. Only the pathologist knows what's going to happen until the room is empty at which time the patient is told: 'you're going to be tested for HIV'.

This brings the question to mind: is there more fear of HIV in the U.S. than in Kenya? I mean certainly the rates of HIV in the U.S. are the following:

• Estimated 1.1 Million people living with an HIV infection, out of an estimated population of 300+ million
  
• by the end of 2007 there were 470,902 people living with an AIDS diagnoses in the United States

By comparison, in Kenya:

• Estimated 1.5 Million people living with an HIV infection, out of an estimated population of 39 million

Statistically speaking, the chances of getting HIV are certainly less but that does not mean that HIV does not exist in the U.S.
Perhaps it is time for Americans to wake up to the reality that HIV affects Americans as well, not just members of developing countries.
The website Avert.org, the source of the aforementioned statistics, states "Of all the industrialized countries in the world, America is home to the largest number of people living with HIV. Tens of thousands of people are newly infected with HIV in America every year"

So what can we do? First we need to wake up the reality: HIV is not an African problem. Once we have debunked that myth we can begin to come up with educational systems in place to increase awareness and one day eliminate the fear and stigma of living with HIV.