Preparing to Volunteer: Confronting Your Comfort Zone

Although you will probably not experience the intense emotions most refugees experience, don’t be surprised if you also suffer some culture shock through working with them as a volunteer. This is because you will be traveling outside your comfort zone.

Your comfort zone is the protective space of familiar activities, environments, and people that surround you. You feel confident and comfortable in that zone because you know and understand how to function in that setting. In fact, you are so comfortable in your comfort zone that you are probably not even aware of it until something pushes you outside of it.

“Your comfort zone is the protective space of familiar activities, environments, and people that surround you.”

As a Gateway volunteer, you will experience awkward moments. You may travel to areas of the city where you have never been, try new foods which look and smell different, or wait uncomfortably through long pauses in conversation. On a deeper level, you may feel that your personal space is infringed upon, be uncertain about how to interpret comments or criticisms from refugees, or feel out of place in your refugee friend’s home.

These experiences outside your comfort zone can be frustrating. They may create feelings of anxiety, nervousness, insecurity, or ambiguity. With time, as you and your refugee friend get to know one another better and become more familiar with your cultural perspectives, the feelings of discomfort and frustrations will lessen.

At the beginning this is undeniably a hard process. Fortunately, as you first enter into new relationships there are certain postures that can greatly help in navigating these feelings and experiences at ease.

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Six Key Attitudes for Communication Across Cultures

• 1

  A willingness to suspend judgement

• 2

  A willingness to listen and learn

• 3

  A sense of humor

• 4

  A low goal/task orientation

• 5

  An ability to risk and fail

• 6

  A willingness to share yourself