Culture Shock?

In preparing to come to Cambodia, Rick and I read several books about the mission field. In one book, it mentioned that the wife not being able to handle the culture shock caused the highest percentage of failure for couples going into the mission field. So I thought I would share some of the difficulties I have experienced so far. Of course the greatest is the separation from family. I have also been missing our church family that was a part of our lives for so long. So with that in mind, here are some other things that go through my head.
In a country where I am actually tall, why do I have to step on something to hang my clothes in the closet? Culture shock? Maybe. When I try to speak Khmer, they look at me funny like I’m speaking a foreign language. The temperature has been somewhere from 95 to meltdown and the people wear long sleeves and jackets. Since it is so hot, you look forward to a cold shower and all you get is warm water. In class, when asking a student if they understand, they say “Yes”. So I say “Yes, you understand”, they say “No”, I say “No, you don’t understand or Yes, you understand”. They say “No”. So “No, you don’t understand”, “Yes”, I am totally confused and we start over again.
Maybe this is culture shock and maybe just my crazy thoughts. As long as I can laugh about situations, I think I’ll be ok, and need to just realize that what we do at home is not what will necessarily fly here. Gail