March 1, 2005: Headlines: COS - Moldova: Reverse Cuture Shock: Humor: Tufts Nutrition: Peace Corps Volunteer Jessica Barney returns from Moldova
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March 1, 2005: Headlines: COS - Moldova: Reverse Cuture Shock: Humor: Tufts Nutrition: Peace Corps Volunteer Jessica Barney returns from Moldova
Peace Corps Volunteer Jessica Barney returns from Moldova
"I felt like I was going to explode," she recalled. "I was so nervous and tense. I was wringing my hands, and my sister said I looked like a deer caught in the headlights. It was just all those chips. Who needs 150 kinds of fattening, cholesterol-raising, cancer-risk-increasing chips? I had to get out of there."
Peace Corps Volunteer Jessica Barney returns from Moldova
Coming home
The secret stress of the humanitarian
By Julie Flaherty
Tufts Nutrition
Spring 2005
Excerpt
Everyone had warned her about the supermarkets. As Jessica Barney (N'06) was finishing her two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Moldova last summer and looking forward to starting classes at the Friedman School, fellow expats cautioned her that adjusting to life back home in the United States would take time. They said that some things, like shopping, would shock her.
"The one thing people kept talking about was the grocery stores," the Utah native said. "And I remember thinking, I know what grocery stores look like. I know what America is like. How could I forget what a Wal-Mart is?"
Her second day back in the United States, when her sister asked if she would like to go with her to pick up a few things for dinner, she agreed with little trepidation. Walking into the store felt normal enough, although the automatic doors and the bright lights seemed a little odd. (In Moldova, electricity is so expensive that even schools usually leave their lights turned off.) It wasn't until Barney turned down the chip and soda aisle that her heart started racing.
"I felt like I was going to explode," she recalled. "I was so nervous and tense. I was wringing my hands, and my sister said I looked like a deer caught in the headlights. It was just all those chips. Who needs 150 kinds of fattening, cholesterol-raising, cancer-risk-increasing chips? I had to get out of there."
Barney thought she would be the last person to have a breakdown in the local supermarket. Yet for the next two days, she did not -- could not -- leave her sister's house. "I stayed on the couch, just laid there," she said. "I felt like an agoraphobic. I couldn't go outside. I couldn't even go on the deck."
The world's nutrition crises have drawn Friedman School students, graduates and faculty to all corners of the globe. Whether they teach health classes with the Peace Corps in Eastern Europe, study nutrient deficiencies in Latin America for an internship, or advise a hunger relief agency in Africa as a consultant, their work often means helping people facing poverty, hunger, starvation, disease and war.
Returning home from these missions would seem like the easy part: seeing loved ones again, sleeping in a comfy bed, speaking your native language. But re-entry comes with stresses all its own. Humanitarians who return to the United States can be overwhelmed by the apparent luxuries and abundance that are a stark contrast to the poor living conditions they may have seen. They may have trouble connecting with family or friends who have not been through the same experiences. Emotions range from anger, guilt and disgust to confusion and loneliness. For some, the realities of the hardships they faced overseas only become apparent when they are back on home soil.
For those who spend their careers going back and forth between the field and home, coping with the stress of coming home becomes part of the job. They learn to make the adjustment between the two worlds in their own way. They have to keep functioning, they say, because the work has to be done.
When this story was posted in July 2005, this was on the front page of PCOL:
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Story Source: Tufts Nutrition
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Moldova; Reverse Cuture Shock; Humor
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