a 17-year-old boy who had shared a small mud-and-thatch hut with five other boys in a dusty
There is an episode i watched about a 17-year-old boy who had shared a small mud-and-thatch hut with five other boys in a dusty, fly-infested refugee camp in northwestern Kenya. His parents were long dead. His bed had been a wicker mat; his bath, a tin bowl; his toilet, a hole in the ground; his one meal a day, a mushy mixture of ground corn and water. But his life had been consumed by one obsession: getting a good education. One day his hopes and dreams were finally realized. Andrew was one of about 3,800 Sudanese–mostly teenage boys and young men–who were permitted to settle in the US. He was so excited, but little did he know of the culture shock that awaited him.
Andrew came from a society that strictly observed African traditional values and culture. They were taught good manners and social mores. For instance, they were expected to be well-behaved in private as they were in public. When they arrived in the United States, they were shocked to see men and women holding hands and kissing in public. Furthermore, they were surprised to see women wearing very short mini skirts, which was against the folkways of their culture. The society expected women to cover their whole body as exposing their legs in public was a taboo. Moreover, it was attractive to them to learn that American husbands may not beat their wives–a practice that is considered a norm and form of social control in their Dinka culture. Because of their ethnocentrism, they were equally surprised to learn that sometimes a man cooked his food, even if he was married.