Culture shock creeping up on me: From birds chirping to dogs brawling

By Kiasia Baggenstos

On a typical morning in Portland, I’d wake up to birds chirping, my siblings arguing about who would eat the last chocolate Z-bar, and my mom yelling “It’s time for school kids.” I despised being woken up by such chatter every morning until I soon discovered that 5 weeks without the noisy routine would make me start to feel homesick.

I now wake up every morning to a new routine. I find my roommate Suenia fast asleep, our apartment is as quiet as crickets, I’m brushing my teeth with bottled water, and wild dogs are on the street barking one another’s ears off. If I’m being realistic, they are probably biting their ears off sometimes. I never thought I would miss the annoying blue birds that chirped at my window every morning, but I do miss them because that was a routine that I got used to in my new life of being adopted.

The change in my morning routine is a very small cultural shock moment for me, but it is still a significant difference. Anyone reading this might say “Get over it, you’re in Ghana,” but what a lot of people don’t know about me is that change is not new to me. I experienced living in over 20 different homes within my 19 years of living. It was not by choice because I was in and out of the Oregon foster care system.

My experience with the change that I’ve been navigating while living in Accra has been different from my time in the system. When I find myself feeling anxious and ready to change my flight to leave for the next day, I like to remind myself that I have power over my experience here in Accra. That is different because I never had power over my whereabouts as a child. As I now step into adulthood I know that due to my trauma as a child, I will always notice small changes that are happening in my life such as my new morning routine, but I now hold the power over how I react, how I choose to experience every moment and what I can or cannot handle.