"When I saw them drink from the tap, my heart stopped" – People who grew up in poor countries, what shocked you most in the West?

I grew up in Cairo, and the strangest thing when I arrived in Europe was that cars actually stop at traffic lights and let pedestrians cross. Back home, signs and lights are mostly decorative, and everyone just honks. There are no accidents, just organized chaos with constant honking. Seeing calm, disciplined traffic blew my mind—especially when drivers politely stopped even without a crosswalk to let people cross.

The first time I saw my roommate drink tap water in Poland, my heart literally stopped. In Mexico, where I’m from, doing that could easily give you cholera.

As a Kenyan woman, I couldn’t believe I could walk home alone after 7 PM in Germany without fear of being attacked or robbed. My family still can’t believe this is normal here—it’s unimaginable where I come from.

I grew up in Lagos, Nigeria, where it’s normal to have no water several times a week or to have tap water so polluted it’s unsafe to drink. We either buy bottled water or get it from water trucks. Everyone keeps a few buckets at home to fill when water is available. When I first came to Japan, I looked around wondering where the buckets were.

I grew up in Nicaragua, where we don’t have formal addresses. To find your hotel, people describe how far to go right or left from the rising or setting sun, the beach, or other sometimes imaginary landmarks. We use a unit called "vara," about 2.5 meters, nowhere else used. When I went to college in the US, I was shocked how short addresses were and wondered why they didn’t say things like “we’re 50 meters left of the library on the corner.” My classmates just looked at me like I was crazy.

In Venezuela, 4 Mbps is the fastest internet you can get. There’s simply nothing faster.

In South Africa, every window and door has thick bars, often even inside the house on the bedroom windows where we keep valuables. Houses are surrounded by three-meter walls topped with razor or barbed wire, sometimes electrified just to be safe. Cameras are everywhere because without them, you’re basically inviting burglars to break in and harm you. I still can’t wrap my head around how in Norway many people don’t even lock their doors when they leave.

The absence of empty bottles on stone fences caught my eye. Back home in Mexico, we cover fence tops with broken glass to hear the clinking if someone tries to climb over. I’ve lived in Belgium for years and still find it odd that fences don’t have bottles on them.

In Albania, there are many stray dogs that roam in packs. I was surprised to see in Switzerland that many people walk their small dogs off-leash without fear of wild dogs.

In Peru, emergency care means waiting one or two days for very basic medical treatment. The idea of walking into a hospital and being treated immediately—as in France, where I live now—is unbelievable to my family back home.

Photos: istockphoto.com