The Return

I have been doing some research for an upcoming job interview in the study abroad field. One of my potential employers has a fantastic resource on all things related to cultures and study abroad. As I am reading, I am realizing that I am still very much going through what in the field we call "reverse culture shock". This basically describes the re-entry process and the challenges and joys that happen for most if not all people when they return from living and traveling overseas.

Typically, the reverse culture shock process is longer than the cultural adjustment phase that a person goes through when they go to a new country. There are a lot of reasons for this. I knew all of this before I came home. Don't we all like to think we are special and somehow above or beyond what "normal" people go through?

I think I have fallen prey to this sneaky little hope. That somehow I could maybe...well, not totally avoid this whole messy deal of smashing these radically different experiences together into a coherent and synthesized whole, but that maybe just...I could shorten it, or skim it, or shirk it, or control how I experience it, somehow.

I have an announcement to make though. I am just like everyone else. I am still experiencing both visible and invisible manifestations of this process. Did I mention I'm not very patient? That means that not only is there a small part of me that is annoyed that people who know about this whole deal and tell students about it as a part of their job aren't somehow immune to experiencing it themselves but that I am doubly irritated when I'm not sure how long this process will take!

There is a sweetness too when I give myself over to accepting that I am going to feel the way I feel for a while. Maybe a long time. And then, I can embrace this whole re-entry process and learn from it. The overseas experience is not complete without it. Perhaps if I am fortunate enough to get a job in study abroad in the near future, I will also be a better advisor because I remember what it was like. What it is like. I will know how they feel. I will be able to relate to them in a way I would not have been able to otherwise.

It is always exciting and interesting and fun to talk about and remember going abroad and adjusting to a new culture and country. People will ask what that was like. But what the photo album doesn't show and the part that is hard to talk about to friends and family is the part when you come home and have to sift and sort everything into something that makes sense in light of your past, your present, and ultimately your future. It is the Return and it too is a journey.

Falling Whistles

In Venice Beach California, there is a little garage behind a house with cars, surf boards, and bicycles. This little garage also contains an office where people are campaigning for peace in Congo and igniting dreams of change in this war-torn African country and also in our American society. Welcome to Falling Whistles.

Falling Whistles started with an individual on a journey who encountered the realities of the "world's largest war." The story is best told by its author at www.FallingWhistles.com but the origin of the name comes from the front lines in the Congo. Child soldiers who are too small to carry guns are given whistles and sent to the front lines of battle. The founders of Falling Whistles are hoping to turn their weapon of war into a symbol of protest and peace in the United States.

The Congo feels far away. It doesn't seem possible that over 5 million people have died in this conflict in the last decade. I cannot absorb that number and I'm not sure I want to. It is tempting to put this and many other facts into the part of my brain that tries to cope with the fact that Darfur, Gaza, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Burma still exist they way they do.

The truth of the matter is that a part of the Congo is in the computer that I am typing this on. It's in my cellphone. It's probably in yours.

Congo is one of the most resource rich countries in the world. In addition to having the capability to feed the world's population until 2050, it is rich in minerals. Gold, copper, tin, coltan. This last one is the one that ends up in the small electronic devices we buy, such as our cell phones, iPods, digital cameras, and laptops because it is able to generate a powerful electric charge. Illegal exportation of these minerals is funding the conflict in Congo.
What does this all mean? Easy answers are not available but people who can start thinking about these issues are. If we pay attention, we may discover new ways (however big or small) to use our privilege, power, mobility, and money to enact change. Holocaust survivor and peace advocate Elie Wiesel challenges us to do everything within our domain to stop oppression and injustice. this means in your backyard. Your backyard may be bigger than you realize.

The founder of Falling Whistles said something this past week that made me think about things in a different way. He basically commented that while the human death toll is horrible, the real tragedy lies in the loss of human potential and creativity. We will never know how our world would be different had 5.4 million Congolese people had the opportunity to reach their human potential.

What could have been...In a world where my cell phone contains a piece of the Congo. My liberation as a human is bound up with another.

The place to go from here is to start where you are. Visit Falling Whistles and read the story, learn more about the situation and how you can become more involved. In the future, you may be able to support a bill in Congress that would push for more accountability in conflict mines in Congo. You can start to think about how your life choices affects the human in the room next to you, or the house next to you, or the state next to you,or the country next to you.

You can buy a whistle and wear it as a symbol of protest against the atrocities in Congo. If you buy the whistle off of the website 100% of the proceeds go to an organization in Congo that is working to rehabilitate war-torn children.

You can tell the story of the Congo to others.

The world is changed by those who speak out. Whistleblowers. Rarely understood in their time, history looks back and calls them courageous. (Falling Whistles)