Was it Culture Shock or Was it Love?
2004 Boaz Rauchwerger
What would happen if you took an average American family to Africa for nine days to live with a traditional tribe in the barren desert of Kenya?
Were talking about a middle class suburban family from New Jersey that includes the parents, a teenage daughter and two younger sons. At their destination, there is no electricity, plumbing or phones.
Would your comfortable American family be willing to undertake such a drastic culture shock for a few days? The Palmers of New Jersey did and their adventure was chronicled in a new adventure series on the National Geographic television channel.
The program is called Worlds Apartand it transplants American families into remote cultures to experience authentic lifestyles. This is a crash course in cultural diversity as the program transports a different American family each week to another part of the globe.
Heres a rundown of some recent episodes: A Birmingham, Alabama family was sent to a farming village in Ghana, a Virginia family traveled to one of the Trobriand Islands about 100 miles off the coast of Papua New Guinea in the South Pacific, a Detroit family went to the splendid heights of Perus Andes Mountains, and a North Carolina family was sent to live with a tribe of former headhunters in the jungles of Malaysia.
I found this fascinating program the other night. The episode I saw dealt with the Palmer family from New Jersey. Thinking this would be an interesting experience for them and their three kids, the parents applied to National Geographic.
As the Palmers found out, the title of the program, Worlds Apartis very appropriate. After a long plane flight from New Jersey, they found themselves in the capital of Kenya. From there it was a shorter flight on a smaller plane to a patch of barren desert within the country. Getting off the plane, on a makeshift runway in the middle of nowhere, they met the Orguba family.
Although most of the tribes in Africa are still quite primitive, the Orgubas are part of a tribe that has been westernized to some extent. They speak English. That aspect helped the Palmers feel welcome upon their arrival.
Stripped of all their material possessions and hectic schedules, the Palmers quickly underwent a dramatic transformation. Their accommodations, as kindly prepared by the Orguba family, consisted of a simple hut where everyone would sleep on blankets on the ground.
There was no electricity and no phones in this camp. This was a drastically different lifestyle that could trace its roots back thousands of years. Toilet facilities were primitive and there was an abundance of mosquitoes and bugs.
By the second day, the excitement of the adventure for the Palmers was replaced by some harsh realities. Mr. Palmer was instructed by Mr. Orguba that the men tend to the goats and the women take care of all the food. He seemed to deal with his role better than Mrs. Palmer. She had to help Mrs. Orguba prepare meals from whatever existed in the surroundings and quickly found the experience to be a lot of work.
The kids, missing the comfortable surroundings of their New Jersey home, got edgy quickly. The younger son missed his video games and the teenage daughter was disgusted by the fact that everything they ate had sand particles in it.
On the fifth day, everyone witnessed Mr. Orguba slaughtering a goat that became one source of the familys food supply. The kids found the sight of a goat having its throat cut difficult to watch. The Palmers middle son was asked if, in order to be declared a warrior, he would sip just a little of the goats blood from a cup. He did, found it disgusting, but seemed proud to now be an African warrior.
At some point, perhaps the fourth of fifth day, as everyone in the family was getting eager to go back to the comforts of America, something happened. Maybe it was the fact that Mr. Orguba would take the youngest son for walks whenever he would get upset and just talk with him. Maybe it was Mrs. Orgubas kind and understanding reaction to the Palmers middle son when everyone else was very upset with him. He had unconsciously scooped the dogs drinking bowl in the fresh-water well and temporarily contaminated the villages source of drinking water. Maybe it was the peacefulness and love that existed in the middle of nowhere among primitive conditions.
Whatever it was, the Palmers found themselves undergoing a dramatic transformation while they developed deep bonds and respect for a people who lived a drastically different lifestyle.
By the ninth day, when it was time to leave, the two families hugged each other and took pictures together. They vowed to write each other, send pictures and keep in touch.
The most powerful part of the program was the small plane taking off from the barren landing strip in the desert. Close-up shots in the plane of each of the Palmers, parents as well as the three kids, showed each one crying. The loving bond they had created with the Orgubas was so powerful that it hurt to leave.
I encourage you to watch this National Geographic program. Maybe you, like me, will get the underlying lesson. Although this African tribe lacked all of the material possessions we have, they had two emotional possessions that are priceless: love and peace.
An Affirmation of Peace
I focus on the non-material possessions in life love and peace.
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