Lesson 1, 2 and 3: The CICM Identity, The CICM missionary as pioneering and daring/CICM as

an international and multicultural organization

Assignment #2: ‘Living outside your familiar geographic and cultural settings, with unfamiliar
people.’
I.Output: An essay on the students experience of living outside their familiar geographic and
cultural settings, with unfamiliar people. This essay integrates the values, strategies, wisdom they
have learned from the previous discussions on dealing with new experiences.
II.Rationale: University students will face new cultures and places as they go their way. Through
the examples of the missionaries, students will be able to re-appropriate the values, strategies,
and wisdom in dealing with new experiences.
III.Specific Guidelines: The assignment shall not be longer than 1,200 words, Times New
Roman, font 12, single spaced
IV. Evaluation Tools: For the online mode, students will upload their work in Google Class for
peer review and asynchronous discussion; eventually, the facilitator will conclude and evaluate,
following the criteria stated below. For the offline mode, there will be no peer-review; after
sending the text (whether on USB stick or in print format) through speed mail to the facilitator,
this one will evaluate the assignment. Criteria:
Content: Faithfulness to the facts: 10 points
Content: Creativity and authenticity of thought: 10 points
TOTAL 20 points

Interaction and communication with different people will never be easy, especially when you are
unfamiliar with the area or location. All the time, we experience culture shock and changes.
When we go to some unfamiliar places, we need to build relationships with other people. It is the
key in building diverse communities and be a diverse person. Based on my experience when I
joined a volunteer work in one of the places in Mountain Province. Though I am from Mountain
province, specifically in Bontoc, I am still not aware of traditions and cultures. And whenever I
go home to our province, I always stay in our area, Bayyo and Talubin only. When I join
volunteer work, the place was so unfamiliar to me. Anxiety overcomes my excitement because
you don’t know how the people think in that area. When it comes to their traditions and beliefs, it
was not new to me. Because I am from Cordillera, there are similarities. The only difference is
their perspective and way of thinking.
Since we are staying for two weeks, we need to adapt the essential thing in this situation.
Adjusting to new cultures doesn’t mean you need to change your values; you need to respect
other people. It is hard to adapt, but you’ll eventually get used to it as you learn and
communicate. It is normal to be curious about the culture of unfamiliar places. And to satisfy our
curiosity, we need to share with other people. We can politely ask a question, and we also need
to understand them if there is a question that they cannot answer. I talk to some people in the
community since I can understand their language since we have similar languages, and the
difference is just the tone. I know them, but I cannot speak their language. I also learned that
even though you are free to wear what you want, let us also be sensitive about our dress code.
Especially when we are in the area that is sensitive about dressing, I noticed that in the
community, no one wears short shorts, crop tops, or spaghetti strap tops. One of our members
wears short shorts, and the people in the community keep on looking at her and start to gossip. I
realized that we also need to be mindful of our dress code. We also experienced eating exotic
foods and different delicacies. In this situation, you don’t need to be picky and demanding.
Stereotypes and discriminations are the most important attitude we need to avoid. When going to
other places expect that we are different. From their habits to their way of living is different that
is why we need to remove discriminations. In dealing with people you can always makes
mistakes and it is normal. There are things that we not knowledgeable of that is why research are
very essential when going to other places. We also need to enhance our observation skills
because through observations we can learn and acquire information’s about the people. There are
threats and worries but amidst of those uncertainties, the experience is totally worth it. This
experience makes me love joining volunteer works because I’ve learned so much through this
journey. I learned different styles, habits, foods and cultures and that is fun. It enhances my
communication skills and experience wherein I can learn new languages, new knowledge and
accept differences.
There is always an experience that is new to us. Even the missionaries when going to other
places they also experience anxieties and worries. They also experienced rejections and tragedies
when visiting other areas especially that people are not open before. And when they did the
missionary, they also adapt to the culture of the people. They may have the hard experience to
learn the language and their ways of life, they tried their best to do it. At least this makes it easier
to convince and evangelize the people. The missionaries also learn a lot from their experiences
and that what makes them brave to continue their mission. They tried to evangelize people by not
breaking their cultures instead they accepted their culture while proclaiming the words of god.
They are patient, tactful and most importantly their faith brings them to success. Because of
these brave missionaries, the CICM was all over the world.