Culture Shock - Reverse

Greetings all - With the exception of two weeks in "first world" enclaves in South Africa, Patty and I have been in the "third world" for almost 7 months. "First" and "Third" worlds are controversial labels that conjure up all manner of generalities and unfair comparisons. However, it took me less than a day to recognize the profound differences when we fled India and arrived in the UK on Sunday.

Now safely holed up on the wonderful Pembrokeshire coast of Western Wales, we are both unpacking our experiences while unpacking our bags for an extensive laundry treatment!. We are in a small coastal village called Porthgain - a former slate quarry port now thoroughly gentrified to cater to weekend escapees from London. We are having fun with the tongue-twisting lingo of Welsh place names and find ourselves, strangely enough, located between "St. Elvis" to the south and the "Preseli" hills to the north. The contrasts to last week are startling and many. On Saturday, we were sweltering in the heat and commotion of Delhi amidst its 15 million inhabitants. Yesterday, on a five hour walk on the coastal trail, we saw fifteen people. For the first time in months, we are wearing fleece and raincoats and loving every second of it. The extent of contrast can be reduced to the welcome and simple act of opening a tap, pouring a glass of cold water and then drinking it -something we have not been able to comfortably do the better part of half a year. I have seen grinding poverty and humans reduced to beasts of burden - women smashing rocks to make gravel, Nepalese porters shouldering unbelievable loads, cycle rickshaw drivers in Delhi facing the sledgehammer 40 degree+ heat. I have experience and learned to tolerate disgustingly filthy hotels and public "conveniences" (Squatters? just say NO!), waded through more garbage and cow shit than I will want to remember and suffered the stinging eyes and ratcheting throats brought on by the extraordinary pollution in places like Kathmandu and Delhi.

And yet there is much I will miss - about my Third world experience. I will miss:
- the sense of joy and pride manifest in people who have nothing.
- the hope and determination, against all odds, to meet what we would consider in the West very limited aspirations for one's life and labour (As Paul Simon said " One man's ceiling is another man's floor").
- the simple, unadorned and genuine friendship offered to strangers who find themselves in very foreign settings and cultures.
- fresh mangoes for a dollar a dozen!
- the fiery passion about sports - football in Africa, cricket in India
- at the slightest instigation, the unabashed public eruption into song, dance and music - from the wondrous singing in Lesotho to the clatter of temple bells and chants in India and Nepal.
- the profound and multi-faceted spiritualism that you see everywhere, every day in India - from its cartoon gods to the moving worship of a river as a lifeblood for a people - the Ganges.
- the dramatic and tortured interpretation of the English language - topped by the colourful lingo of the Indian media
- the proud struggle to conserve and enhance natural assets where the funding required to do so is so much in demand for more urgent social needs - the Serengeti in Tanzania, the Annapurna circuit in Nepal.
- Cycle rickshaws weaving bravely in a swirl of road traffic (safely said now that we have survived all of our trips in these vehicles)
- the carnival atmosphere in Indian trains - with their ever-changing on-board "markets"
- monkeys galore! - a pest to most but a constant source of amusement to me
- unabashedness about sleeping in public in the hot,hot afternoons
- the sense of sharing from people who need all they can get and the demonstration that one can live with a whole lot less in life - even if this is by necessity rather than choice.

A shortlist indeed to which I invite others to add. Now off for a fine Welsh pint (another distinct First world benefit!)