Culture Shock

I am no one to tell you what to do or what not to do, and I hope you have realized that by now in reading my blog and listening to my weekly podcast (the appleworm podcast), that I want you guys to know about my journey into becoming successful. My dreams and hopes in life have had and will have ups and downs, so all I can do is humbly tell you guys what I think as a result what I have lived  and am living, and in that process hopefully you guys will find something that interests you or even better, helps you with your life endeavors and adventures.

Having said that, the title of this entry is not a title, it is a prescription! I highly recommend people try out Culture Shock to get some perspective as to the world we live in and who YOU are in it. I have had the awesome privilege to try out culture shock many times and every single one is different. It is not something that you try once and then know how every other time will be like. It will enrich your life every single time in a different way.

yes, that IS an air-hug

Her name is Hamsa, she's from Bahrain (a country that I knew NOTHING about at the time). We met in Japan and she is just one of those people that come into your life to make you feel like they were MEANT to meet you. We really clicked; we could not stop picking each others mind about what we thought about life, passions, leadership, politics, culture and so much more. And yet... there was one BIG thing that we had to figure out even when we had so much in common: both of us are very spiritual people (I will explain on a later post why I do not like to be called "religious"). Me being latin-american from Costa Rica, we tend to be very "warm" physical catholic people, we hug a lot and say hi to women by kissing them on the cheek. Her, on the other hand, a middle eastern bahraini muslim woman does not come into contact with men at all.

As you can see in the photo, there was no problem figuring out "air-hugs" were to be our way of finding common ground between our cultural differences about embracing someone you have a fond friendship with. We spoke at large about her cultural practices and mine, her spirituality and mine, her idea of friendship and mine... I cannot stress enough how STRANGE and ODD it was for me to understand that this person who I wanted to hug as a sign of friendship could not be touched by any man! I had to know why! We talked for hours in one of the most enriching conversations I have ever had:

She taught me that it is a choice; some bahraini men decide the same towards not touching women. Your relationship with God can have many or no rules at all. As you can see in the picture she wore a hijab and can only take it off if there are no men in the room she is in. "Some of my friends do not wear a hijab, some others do not take it off even with only women around, and while it does serve a spiritual purpose, I do have friends that wear it all the time because they feel it makes them prettier". 

I was so happy to feel ignorant about the hijab and muslim women, she taught me that tolerance towards people and cultures you do not understand is not just about respect. It is about truly acknowledging that each individual has the right to decide on their spirituality and cultural customs, and the fact that you ignore the reasoning behind their customs does not allow you to decide what is right and wrong.