Hello Mister

This is a story about culture shock. Culture shock is a phenomenon familiar to people who have traveled extensively or lived outside of their own countries. It happens when strangers confront customs and ways of doing things that differ from those familiar to them. Seeing 'how they do it' as compared to 'how we do it' at first often strikes travelers as amusing and sometimes even ludicrous. But coping with culture shock over a prolonged period of time can quickly become frustrating. Finding ones self constantly committing faux pas or encountering difficulty in executing simple day-to-day chores because one does not know local custom is exasperating. The cure begins with understanding that there are many ways to approach problems and that most solutions, especially those with tradition behind them, will work. Realizing that different does not mean inferior or odd and hence gaining an appreciation for variety is the most important souvenir the traveler can bring home.

This is also a story about the Peace Corps. The Kennedy Administration created the Peace Corps in its early optimistic years. The President and his advisors hoped that an outpouring of young idealistic Americans would succeed in the twin tasks of helping underdeveloped nations and spreading the teachings of a libertarian, democratic society. The effort was a cold war tool used by cold war presidents to present a positive side of the United States to a world that had seen too many American films, television programs, and tourists.

Then, as now, the Peace Corps was a diplomatic, humanitarian, and propagandistic notion that gradually changed its methods and operations. At first the organization sent energetic dedicated students, with or without college degrees, into the nations of the Third World to 'go native' and show them, by example, how they could improve their way of life. During training those early volunteers bivouacked in swamps, hiked for miles, and foraged for their food. When they arrived at their appointed stations they found jobs to keep themselves busy and tried as best they could to live like the people around them. Dedicated and often even utopian in their outlook, they tried to be helpful. Unfortunately they frequently involved themselves in local politics which host governments failed to appreciate. Without training in areas like architecture, agriculture, or medicine, and without the ability to teach, those first Volunteers found contributing much of value nearly impossible.

Consequently, the Peace Corps changed. Its officials looked for college graduates with backgrounds useful in underdeveloped countries. They screened out anyone deemed too politically active. At the same time, the escalating draft for the Vietnam War provided a growing supply of eager, if somewhat less idealistic, applicants.

Somewhere about the middle of the process I joined and served two years with the Peace Corps. I lived in the northwestern part of Iran called Azarbaijan. The contribution that I made and the things that happened to me were in no way unique. Everyone who has served in the Peace Corps, then and now, has a story worth telling. Some day one of them will write the great Peace Corps novel - there is certainly ample material for such a project.

Of the thousands who volunteered, some returned with a sense of helpessness. Others came back, if they did come back, radicalized, believing that only force and revolution can redeem the world and set it straight. But most simply resumed their lives enriched by the realization that slow determined work on an interpersonal level, while difficult, is the best way for people to communicate with and help each other. They had gained an appreciation for another culture - something that enriched them and the people around them. This might not satisfy those who demand instant change, but it will eventually bring change and without chaos. The Peace Corps may have moved by inches and it made mistakes but it has helped.

Anyone finding ammunition here for belittling Iranians misses the point. In living with them and knowing them, in seeing their weaknesses and foibles, their strengths and ancient traditions, those of us who were there, or in any other society, gained a better perspective on ourselves. From their point of view, it is our society that appears strange and different. Dealing with us gives them culture shock. Had we understood this and had we known the Iranians better, our relations with them over the past two decades might have been much different.

In my narrative I report many conversations. I can hardly remember exactly what people said more than thirty years later, but what I have written attempts to recreate the essence of things done and said while I lived in Iran. I have also tried to indicate the unique syntax pattern common to Iranians when they speak in English. At the same time, I never gained any degree of fluency in Persian (more correctly called Farsi), and nothing I could write here would do justice to the damage I did to their language when I attempted to use it.

The Dome of the Blue Mosque in Isfahan

I met many people when I lived in Iran. In a first draft of this narrative I attempted to include most of them. The result became confusing and in revising, in order to make things less complicated, I have eliminated some of them. This is unfortunate because it gives the impression that I lived in a more isolated setting than was actually the case. I spent two very full years in Iran and I treasure their memory and the memories of the many people I encountered. More than anything I want to emphasize that the people I met and knew were friendly, kind, helpful, and loyal to their country. They were devout Moslems justifiably proud of their religion and their heritage. Sadly, events since I lived in Iran have given Americans a distorted view of the Iranian people and this is very unfortunate.

Terence O'Donnell, another American from Portland, Oregon has written a book about his life in Iran. Garden of the Brave In War: Recollections of Iran is a sensitive description done by a scholar who found beauty and harmony in Iranian society and who gained a deep understanding for its people and their world view. His book is well worth reading. It presents pictures of Iran that complement and contrast with my own. Iran is a country of contrasts. An wareness of this and a sensitivity toward Iran and its problems may help Americans understand and interact with this complicated nation.

The part of a mosque that faces Mecca

Iran is a proud and ancient country with a fierce dignity and a long history that includes its having survived extended periods of turmoil. Today its people are trying to find a way to cope with the modern world while at the same time preserving their culture. It is a difficult task that may yet tear their society apart and will, at least in the short run, make any partnership with the West a contentious one. I hope the efforts of the Peace Corps helped Iran and that at least they did nothing to complicate that process.