Those of you reading this who have ever spent a long period of time abroad may have experienced a peculiar feeling on returning home. Perhaps you lived for months in the depths of the African jungle, with only a forgotten, battered Hello! magazine to remind you of your former life. Or maybe you found a home from home in suburban Tokyo, despite initially feeling like you’d never fit in. Regardless of where you went or the sense of foreignness you first felt on your arrival, the chances are, that feeling was nothing compared to the reverse-culture shock that hit you when you suddenly found yourself back in the UK, speeding up the M1 away from Heathrow airport in your parents’ car.
That was how I felt, anyway, after 6 months volunteering in Ecuador. My volunteer teaching and caring placements in the southern city of Cuenca were without a doubt the most incredible, life-changing experiences of my life. Having said that, my time in Ecuador was not without its challenges. Despite abundant experience of the Ecuadorian transport network over the course of my placement, my stereotypically-British punctual nature could never accept many bus drivers’ “relaxed” attitude towards timetables. Funnily-enough, they seemed to have the same regard for me, somehow conspiring to make my last Ecuadorian bus journey a memorable one: the journey to the airport took 6 hours rather than 3, causing me to miss my flight home by a mere 7 minutes. Elsewhere, I shall never forget the first time I saw one of Ecuador’s finest culinary delights roasting gently by the roadside: my long history of keeping rodents as pets meant I was never able to embrace the nation’s penchant for barbequed guinea-pig.
However, when you are living in a country where the culture is very detached from your own, you eventually grow fond of these cultural differences, and even begin to adopt some of them yourself. By the end of my 6 months — even though my punctuality and love of guinea-pigs were still deeply entrenched in the core of my being — I felt at home in Cuenca and with my Ecuadorian colleagues and friends. In the end, some of my fondest memories were in fact of the epically-long bus journeys to hidden corners of paradise and of trying such delicacies as chicken-foot soup. Also, if I am really honest with myself, had I been organised enough to consult the bus timetable I would have realised that there were no direct buses to the airport on the afore-mentioned fateful day…
So, for me, the most uncomfortable experience of my gap year was, in fact, coming home. Because even though everything was familiar and I could still speak English and remember all of my family members’ names, there was something very unsettling about not being in Ecuador. About driving along perfectly tarmacked roads and not being surrounded by Spanish-speakers all the time. I completed my Lattitude placement almost 5 years ago now, but the memory of my placement and the feeling that I have a second home half-way across the world is still going strong.
Tags: ecuador, Reverse culture shock
