Now that the houses are getting busy again and our new programme managers in Ghana, Nepal and Dar & Zanzibar are settled in, we’re getting lots of stories back about student experiences living and working overseas. Although in some ways there are many similarities to living and working in a developing country regardless of the destination you are in, there are also some fascinating differences triggered by the culture of each country. To highlight these differences and help anyone out who is still trying to decide which destination suits them best, each week I send the same question to each of our programme managers to discuss with the students at dinner. The responses are always hugely varied and regularly make fascinating reading….

This weeks big question was “What are the biggest cultural challenges you have found living overseas?”

Train timings beat UK!

India came back to us first, with transport at the top of their list. “It is very difficult to bargain with the auto rickshaw drivers and they blow their horns all the time (along with every other vehicle) which is very irritating”. Crowded transport was also hard work – “ in India traveling in a public transport is very difficult, especially on buses because it is always crowded and you cannot be sure of getting a seat – particularly for the boys. Males can sit with other males only and the same for the females. Also, seats are reserved for the women where men are not allowed to sit”. It’s not all bad though. Daniel and Andrew found it funny that “train timings and services are much better in India than in UK.  The trains in India always arrive and depart at the schedule time”. They also found that men and women are treated differently in other ways too.  Two of the girls went into a liquor shop to buy drinks for the weekly barbecue and “the salesman looked at us with huge surprise – even though some Indian women do consume it,  it is not the done thing for women to buy alcohol in India! “

In terms of their electives, there are always plenty of differences between India and the UK. This week the students focussed on the diagnosis and treatment procedure. “In the hospital, doctors always explain the diagnosis to the relatives and carry out the treatment after getting the consent from the relatives which is entirely different from what they see in UK”. Some of the students also commented on the heat and working conditions “the temperature in Trivandrum is approaching 35degree Celsius. It is very hot even for the Indian people, but there is no air conditioning at the hospitals. You just want to wear shorts or T-shirts to work, but of course that is not professional”.

Our Nepalese makes the kids laugh!

Over in Nepal, language seems to be the biggest challenge. Rosie commented that it was tough “when you can’t put your words across to the other person. It becomes difficult to communicate and this can create problem.  The other day at the hospital I was changing a dressing and there was a girl who smiled at me, I smiled back but this girl just wouldn’t stop giggling after that. She couldn’t really ask me anything and didn’t understand me, so I guessed it was because she was just shy of me as a I’m a foreigner“.  Sundeap seconded this “when talking to other nurses in the hospital (except for the ones who speak english) and patients, or even the conductor in the micro bus, it becomes quite difficult even to work out a yes or a no sometimes. It’s even harder to work out what that person is trying to convey or if he/she understood what we said to them”. Sunil, our Programme Manager has encouraged them both to practice their Nepali. “Rosie felt that even if she tried to speak a little of the Nepali she learnt, others would laugh at her because of the accent. But i told her that wasn’t to put her down or anything but if people laughed it was just because they loved hearing foreigners speaking Nepali with their accent. They really appreciate the effort”.

Interestingly, Sundeap who has an Asian connection felt that aside from language there isn’t too many cultural differences. Rosie found the differences between the UK and Nepal were quite noticeable though. “It was quite weird the other day when a junior Nepali doctor(male) bought me lunch. I’m not used to others paying for mymeal unless he/she is a very close friend. Back in The UK, guys don’t do that, If they do… there is probably an intention!”

Our Tanzanian destinations were super busy this week, but finally sat down to have a chat and send me their thoughts.  The Arusha house said there were cultural differences noticeable all the time. At work “having the patients put all their trust in the doctors is very different. At home we tend to discuss patient’s care with them and get their opinion”. This “all powerful” role of doctors came up as a comment in several of our destinations, highlighting how different western and developing healthcare can be. On a lighter note, some of the boys felt “the biggest cultural challenge is the fact that you have to bargain when buying things in Tanzania – something we are not used to doing in the UK”. He went on to comment how useful it is to read the comments book and “hear from previous students about how much they had paid for items/taxis. It’s a very useful guide to avoid paying way too much”.

The only way to cool down is to jump in!

In Zanzibar they had a good chat over dinner.  Language popped up again with Christina commenting that “in town and hospital most people will try to talk to me in Kiswahili. They laugh if I don’t answer, then they try to teach me!”. It all seems very good humoured though and several students felt there were no real challenges with the people or culture of Zanzibar. What they have all noticed is the heat and humidity. For months Zanzibar has had no power, and although we run the generator at set points to help charge phones etc, it’s not environmentally friendly to keep it chugging away all the time. Unfortunately that means there is no escape from the heat. Aleem said “ sleeping without fan when I arrived was difficult to cope with. It was very hard during my first day but thank GOD the power is back”.

As all the students from Ghana had headed off on a trip, so no-one could comment. Joe, our Programme Manager, wrote his own blog based on his chats with housemate Karen though. Click on this link to read what she wrote about life in such a colourful country.

So finally, the quote of the week comes from Arusha – we think it sums up what most of our students have said at one point or another……. “probably the biggest cultural challenge would have to be hand washing our clothes – we never seemed to get them back to their normal colour!” 

To read more about any of our destinations, click on our destination page.

This week we are asking students to talk about “travel essentials – what one thing did you take away that you can’t live without “.  To check out what they thought, follow our blog!

If you have a question you want us to send to our overseas teams next week, post it up as a comment.