Great read: http://www.mcgillreport.com/laffairbreast.htm.
It's by a friend of mine, Doug McGill, who writes about his visit to a travel medicine clinic at Mayo prior to his trip to Ethiopia. I had the same experience and felt the same message as he did: go abroad, but be sure to avoid anything and anywhere that may pose the slightest risk to your health or safety. Where you're going, that applies to pretty much everything and everywhere. This way, you can go to a foreign country and avoid the hassle of experiencing the culture.
Before I went to China, doomsayers abounded. Surely, I'll die in China, or catch a terrible disease, or get scammed by my employer, or starve, or get locked in the gulag, or race straight back to America when I see the wretched condition of Chinese toilets.
First, such concerns are disrespectful. Implicitly, they suggest that China, home of 1.3 billion people, is barely habitable, a place best avoided by anyone not forced to live there. What does that stance say about the doomsayers' respect for Chinese people and culture? My philosophy is that, anywhere on earth, a lot of people somehow manage to survive. Why would my odds of survival be any different?
Second, these concerns are cynical. They mock or ignore the one value most essential to human relations: trust. Do I know everything about where I'm going? Am I in control of my situation every day? Of course not. Nor do I want to be. But, I trust my own instincts and, more importantly, I trust the people -- total strangers -- who surround me every day. In every case, in every country I've visited, this trust has been affirmed.
And so, when I'm in America, I do my utmost to return the favor, and affirm this global trust, every time I see a harried traveler looking lost. It's what makes the world go round, and what makes it so absolutely invigorating -- and, indeed, necessary -- about going around the world.
