Member-only story
I had a Breakdown in the Produce Section
Coming home had some unique challenges
I spent three years of my life with the Peace Corps, an organization that placed me in the west of Madagascar. I wrote about that place in several pieces you can read on my profile, but my personal favorite is this one. I hope you check it out.
I mention them because just before I left the country, every foreigner I knew with the organization assured me I needed to prepare for one specific problem once I landed in the states.
“You will definitely get reverse culture shock,” the other Peace Corps volunteers teased me on my last night. We all sat together in the big, chilly Peace Corps house in Antananarivo, sprawled on an ancient sectional in the living room. I tried to picture myself shaking from fear in a movie theater or eating nothing but toothpaste for a week. It was hard to hold the image in my mind, but I also knew reverse culture shock was no joke. It happened all the time.
“I guess I will,” I told them. “I’m just wondering when I’ll feel it.”
What happens after a long time away
Reverse culture shock affects people who leave their country for extended periods of time, adjust to their new home, then go back and find their own country overwhelming, even…
