Community visit

I nervously drum my fingers on my colleague’s wooden kitchen table. As we talk about teaching in Benin, I talk to my hands; he runs the key to his motorcycle along a crack in the table.

It’s slightly awkward.

I’m at his house to collect some information about tests and assignments for the upcoming school year. Cultural norms in these situations dictate that I spend a little time here talking to him. Cultural norms also dictate that silence is not awkward, which works for me in many circumstances.

It also makes it a little hard to find an appropriate time to leave. Normally, I would just leave when the conversation trails off. But here, it’s perfectly fine to sit a little longer than an awkward pause to see if you think of anything else to say. But if you don’t think of anything else to say, that’s fine too. It may be more than slightly awkward, but I sit there for a little while longer before I reach for my backpack.

I believe I’ve just figured out how to determine whether I’ve been in the community enough that day:

Have I felt awkward today?