Musings on Community

Last week I met a Canadian living in Adelaide with her husband and son for 5 years.  They are  gainfully employed but their son, now 18, has struggled. She told me how difficult it’s been for him to meet kids, and that he fell in with the wrong ‘mob’. She said that she and her husband haven’t made friends outside of their work colleagues. She called Adelaide ‘clicky’. Others say the same. 

Her negativity caused me to reflect on my situation.  I came here with names of local people, one I’d met, two were friends of friends. Although I reached out to them they never reciprocated. However my landlady, who has lived in Adelaide most of her adult life has included me in her social life. 

As you’ve seen on the blog my friends are other students and transplanted colleagues. People a long way from home who find community with others in the same situation.  Maybe it’s because as Caucasians we fit easily into the culture here and don’t feel the need to gather.

Adelaide is full of foreign students from East Timor, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, the Philipines, India, China, Saudi Arabia, and Iran. When I speak with them I find  they have formed their own communities which host celebrations for religious and other festivals where they sell food and local handicrafts. In fact, some of them complain that their community has too many activities going on when they need to study.

Students from developing countries look up to western cultures and think that we have it all.  But we don’t. We’ve lost community. We no longer go to church or get together in our neighbourhoods. We are an individualistic culture.  Social capital is about the networks you are involved with and is seen as a determinant of health. I see such support and the strong sense of community and kinship in these countries having a positive influence on health and wellbeing.  

So I enjoy socializing with students from these countries, as in these recent photos.