I felt moved the other day to write about the tourists at the Giraffe center. It turned into something of a big reflection for me. though it may be quite incomplete in the extent of my beliefs.
On tourists (I write this like I've never been one, though I am surely guilty of the same)
Part of my time at the Giraffe Center really bothered me to the core. Maybe some people understand me when I say "I don't want to be seen as a tourist" or just that people who have bad tourist habits really irk me! It's mostly that I want to be culturally and personally sensitive to and aware of the people and things around me. There is a mentality that I choose to describe with the word "taking." Maybe not as a lifestyle or even a majority of the time, but these people only act in a way that they are taking from whatever is around them. They're taking as many photos as possible. They're taking up as much time at a certain thing as they want. They are taking in as many experiences as they possibly can. And those things can be all well and good except when they are not respectful to people, animals, the environment, etc.
Pictures, time, experiences, etc. are all good things. Moreover, it's the way of approaching these that is stereotypical to a careless tourist that I desire to keep a huge distance from. It's being told that the giraffe will head-butt her and still walking up to the railing to get next to it's head so her husband can take a picture. It's reeling back and screaming when the giraffe gives a warning nod and still staying there making the wild animal nervous, poking at it to try to get a picture of her petting it. It's knowing the giraffe has just done this and sending her daughter or some other young girl over to repeat the same sequence even though the Giraffe Center worker stopped everyone to make his point of safety clear. Saturday it was issues of safety, common sense, and thinking for a second before taking from the situation. Other times, it's been other things.
A philosophy of sorts...
I seek to be courteous, respectful, aware when I go to new places. I have to try to understand how things are done. It's not to "live like the Romans" while I'm there. It's to be able to gain something deeper from my experience. I don't think I'm the first person in history to say this, to say that tourists and travelers see two, very different things going to the same location. Especially being in one place for so long, I want to see things as the locals do (if for nothing more than to gain another perspective) even if I don't end up liking things the way they see it. At least I won't be speculating...
I want to know, from the people who've already done something, how to do it. I will not simply go through this world so fast that I only think about how I would do something. I want to continually learn. I want to figure out what it takes to live or be in a particular situation so that I can adapt, so that I can save the energy of struggling against the tide with ways that don't work, so that I won't waste my time beating my head on a door when I simply need to turn the nob, so that I can find success in the way things work I find that being open to other ways allows for fruitful integration and interchange between very different cultures.
I've experienced, genuinely, things that I only used to talk about. I've actually gone out of my comfort zone. Finally! I'm breaking down preconceived notions by having real experiences in places and with people I had only heard about years ago. This is how I am choosing to educate and mold myself.
...though I may fail frequently in ignorance. (I have the hope of the Resurrection, and that changes things)
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