The Wall

Last week I made mention of what I refer to as “The Wall.” Now what I mean by that is “culture shock.” Have you ever gone on a trip and when you reached your destination realized that they do things very differently then what you are used to? Do you remember that feeling you had? Perhaps it was something like what the Oxford Dictionary says, “The feeling of disorientation experienced by someone when they are suddenly subjected to an unfamiliar culture, way of life, or set of attitudes.”

This is a real struggle when you move to a foreign country. I can remember when I first ran into this; it was when I went to Moldova on my first missions trip to see and work with my friend David Gross. I was there for two weeks and about a week and a half in I went to him and told him that I just felt weird and that I was ready to leave so that I could get back to Subway, McDonald’s, a language I understood etc. David looked at me and said that I was going through culture shock. He then said that it is like a wall and there is no way around except to climb over it. He said that culture shock is a wall that everyone hits and when you hit you only have two choices 1) you get up and climb over the wall, or 2) you let the wall stop you and you turn back.