Journey Commonplace #3

The journey I found myself on was when I was thrust into Afghani culture.  It was a very rude awakening and was not at all what I had expected.  When i arrived I was instantly confused by the language and gestures they were using to communicate.  The local language is Pashto but that is also regional, so if I were to travel north 100 miles they would speak a completely different language.  This made communicating very very difficult.   On top of that I was working with the Jordanian Armed Forces and they also spoke a different language than the locals, Arabic.  I had an interpreter but that was little help seeing as my interpreters first language was not English, so his accent was hard to understand.  Also being in that country their values and ways of doing things are very different from ours here in the United States, they value relationships more than anything, which cause them to move slowly when doing work or anything of that nature because they are spending most of their time socializing instead of working.  Also they do not have a very high value on physical appearance and cleanliness outside of their religious practices.  They will leave their house and go to the local bazaar without bathing for days, sometimes weeks.  That is in part because they are a very poor country and also water is scarce.  This changed me very much, especially when it comes to me valuing the little things I have and enjoy.  While I was in Afghanistan I was not able to have or use my cell phone, as well as I didn't have a television to watch.  Also showering was a precious commodity that I will never take lightly again.  Also their philosophy of treasuring and growing relationships I adopted and use in my everyday life, but only to a certain extent.  "A little goes a long way" I believe in this aspect.  Also their religious beliefs are very different from mine as well as different from most of the United States' beliefs.  They are all Muslims which if you do not know is very strict when it comes to what you can and can't eat, as well as non-Muslims touching religious things.  This was very hard for me to understand because being raised in a christian household I was taught to allow anyone to talk to me about religion as well as let any one touch and read my bible.  Also the food and drinks there are immensely different from our own.  There the drink of choice is tea, whether that be tea with sage or green tea, unlike here were is you go into someones house and they offer you a drink it is most of the time coffee.  Also they eat an immense of lamb.  They do not eat pork because of it being against their religion, much like the Jews.  All in all there are massive differences between the two cultures and at first I was very hesitant and sometimes afraid of submersing myself into it; but as I became more comfortable it became easier to thrive there in that place.  I learned a lot from them and hopefully they learned something from me.