We all have encounters with locals of a country we are visiting or relocating to. They could be awful, surprising or enjoyable, and we all have these thoughts running through our minds, but we are much to nice to put it like we hear it in our heads; exclamations, curses, sneers and all.
I came up with some basic rules, five, it was a struggle to keep it under ten but I didn't want to get lost in a rant, as are the commonplace these days on the internet. They are simple as well as straight forward, I hope they help.
Dear Local,
1. Be curious but stay on safe topics e.g. food, weather and travel i.e. until you get to know me better. Random comments like 'I heard you almost have no electricity in your country...' won't take you anywhere with me.
2. It's common courtesy to learn something positive about my home country, it's not all death, corruption and disease. So please do not bombard me with the usual regurgitation from social media/international news of disasters that happened or other unfortunate incidents that you assume neither I nor my loved ones were victims of.
3. Please Please Please if you suck at geography best stay silent and fiddle with your Google Maps when I say I'm from Country 'X'. Get educated, at least know from which continent I am from and understand the continent and country name cannot be used interchangeably.
4. So I know I have encouraged you to use Google, but please don't just google my country and copy paste all that's about my country. Telling me how my countrymen are fast runners (p.s. I only run when I'm trying to beat the red light crossing the road), all the wildlife I must see everyday (Hey, the animals are locked up and I have a day job, I don't just wander through game parks all day every day)
5. DO NOT assume I am escaping my country, after all the grass is greener where you water it. So most probably I may be smiling through my pain, just maybe.
I figure I am pretty open minded and I understand that we were all brought up differently so I have not written you off just yet, but now you know.
For now I am living away from home, and so far I am enjoying it, experimenting with new culinary delights, cultures, language basically the newness of everything, for now. It's not absolutely comforting knowing that all my possessions are in a large suitcase and another much smaller one for the next year or so. It's difficult letting go of that attachment to possessions and the familiar rhythm that was a common place back home, but it definitely gets easier. (more on this later)
Definitely, this list of rules will grow longer as I continue to meet more people in the course of my adventure here so feel free to add on as well. We could all learn from each other!
