Culture Shock

In the two and a half months that I have been in American Samoa, I think I have been handling myself very well. Yes the food situation sucks but I feel as though I have adjusted well to the culture, made some new friends and learned a lot about myself. People always talk about culture shock as something that is hard to articulate or define in a concrete way but one certainly knows the feeling when it creeps up on you.

This past weekend I dealt with my first real sense of culture shock here in American Samoa. I was at a BBQ on the beach surrounded by 20 people or so, but I felt like I was the only person around. The other 19 or so people were Samoans who didn't really open up to me. For the majority of the 4 hours that I was there, Samoan was the only language that was spoken. How can I contribute to a conversation when I don't know what is being said? How can we learn from each other and share ideas if you they include me in their conversations?

I hate to say this but the only thing I wanted was to be with my palagi (white) friends. And I certainly didn't come here to meet more palagi's. I came here to learn about a different culture, grow and learn as a person and experience something new. But on saturday all I wanted to do was to curl up in a palagi ball.