Engineers Without Borders

General Meeting 5/27/09

May 28, 2009 at 6:36 pm | In Meeting Minutes | Comments Off

Announcements:

• This is the last general meeting of the year.
• Kenya project update: They talked to one of the local contacts successfully. They are also now accepting travel applications until next Wednesday
• El Salvador project update: They have been talking about fundraising lately and are trying to have a bake sale before the end of the year. The TAC report for the next project is also underway

Presentation: Cultural Sensitivity, from Julia, Susannah, and Daniel

1. Examples of conflicts people have experienced in other cultures:

• Dr. Boston – conflict with a Hindu Indian and book titled ’sacred cows make the best hamburgers.’
• Kelly – In China her Chinese boss showed her a place he thought an American would love, but it was ugly in her eyes.
• Scott – eye contact is very different in Central America; people seem to be looking away and ignoring you when you talk to them. Staring is also not as rude.

2. Group discussion of scenarios involving:

• Greetings
• Language; sense of humor and  gestures to make up for lack of language ability
• Food – especially when vegetarians are confronted with eating meat
• Clothing – they are more conservative in other countries and we are expected to dress professionally
• Time – people are often very late in east Africa