The White Massai

Culture shock is one of the most difficult phases that people have to live when they are involved in another culture. As the movie showed, most of the time traveling to a foreign country could be exciting because going abroad means new experiences, new friends and more knowledge. Despite of the benefits we can get from new cultures, we can obtain disappointments.

In the movie, when Carola saw Lemalian, she immediately felt something special for him and she took the risk to share how much she was interested in him so she asked him to dance, even though the music and the way they danced were different, in that moment her life had already changed and everything was interesting. However, Carola’s boyfriend could not understand why she was interested in that culture or why it was important for her to have met Lemalian, so he gave up and went back home.
I think it is understandable not to have the chance to explore somewhat we do not to acculturate if the person thinks that he/she cannot be able to assimilate it. In the movie, Carola fell in love with Lemalian and she left behind everything she had in her country to begin a new life with him. I think there are situations that we cannot avoid like love and that makes us change our lives and adopt another lifestyle where we try to live in harmony like in Carola’s case. According to some psychologists, that phase is called “recovery” because after a long time living in a different place or just sharing and meeting peculiar people, we can feel comfortable.

However, there are several traditions and beliefs that we are not able to understand like the situation that Carola had to face when she realized that “female circumcision” is one of the important traditions that she couldn’t change, even thought it could be terrible for other people.
Another example could be the mistrust that Lemalian felt because of the way that Carola smiled to people when she was talking to them and how she assisted people in the store. That behavior confused Lemalian since he thought that Carola was flirting with them; also he assumed Carola had a lover, as a result, they had lots of problems so their relationship ended.
Finally, I feel we really have to think if we are able to understand or assimilate the new culture or not, so we can make the clear decision of trying to live with that or just leaving it behind.