Perception vs. Reality
The work that I am fortunate enough to be a part of at Quicksand often takes me to places that are not only off-the-beaten path but also ostensibly dangerous, at least on the surface.
In the past two years I’ve spent time in Mali, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Tanzania, and the Philippines for work, whilst also living in India and traveling throughout the subcontinent. As with any country or even region in the world’s “emerging markets”, there are certainly challenges in each, ranging from frustrations related to insufficient infrastructure to concerns stemming from political instability and related shortcomings in security.
During our projects in some of these locations on the fringes, there have certainly been some close calls and near misses, though we have been inordinately lucky to avoid any significant issues. These, naturally, act as rallying points for friends and family to express concern and suggest that maybe, just maybe, future travel to such places be curbed if not eliminated altogether. Whilst empathetic to the consternation and stress that these trips can cause, it is far better to proceed than it is to give up and give in to fear.
Fear is a most fundamental human emotion, and one that is inextricably linked to our survival instinct. It is as plausible to eliminate fear from your hardwiring as it would be to remove happiness or sadness; it’s just simply a fool’s errand to even entertain such a notion. I get asked a lot if I’m ever afraid when I go to some of the countries we work in. The answer is that of course I do. It is not an absence of fear that allows us to operate in the fringes, but rather an acceptance of it and a conscious effort to counterbalance such feelings with the responsibility and opportunity to engage with people in their contexts to collaboratively change things for the better, even if it’s only in some small way.
It’s critical to keep in mind that the places you visit are home to someone. For better and for worse, where someone hails from will always remain a fundamental part of their identity; home is where the heart is after all. And even attempting to judge or evaluate a place through your lens (e.g., that of an outsider) is dangerous as one person’s paradise may be another’s poison; a local perspective will win out over an interloper’s every time. So many of the programs and interventions developed in the humanitarian space, for example, fail for precisely this reason. As challenging as it is, it’s always best to let those with the most intimate understanding of a place guide you as they simply know more than you do.
I tend to try and read up on a new location prior to visiting it in an effort to educate and prepare myself as much as possible. The past several years, though, I’ve done this less and less. I often say to people that one of my favorite aspects of visiting a new country is to realize just how off or wrong my preconceived notions of it were. The actual experience is almost always far better than what I expected it to be.
Now, in the cases of countries affected by conflict or crisis, it is a good idea to do your research. For example, when going to South Sudan, I was anxious to know where most of the fighting was taking place and then check out where we would be traveling to. In the very least, it was a bit of a relief to know we’d be hundreds of miles away; but it was also important that we have a foundational knowledge of where the conflict stemmed from and an understanding of the cultural nuances and implications that fomented and exacerbated the tensions. One certainly can’t claim ignorance for offending people or the like when it’s you visiting their country and not vice versa. However, it is important to keep yourself grounded when conducting this research as a another’s account, particularly those of foreign media, is just that: an individual perception of a location and experience that is filtered through an internal matrix that emerged from a lifetime of experiences and biases. We’re all snowflakes after all; your worldview and mine simply cannot be the same.
Many of our problems in the world stem from this reliance on other people’s perceptions to guide our realities. In this age of “fake news” and hyper-nationalist sentiment, relying on secondary resources to inform our opinions is simply crazy. It is obviously not possible to experience everything happening in the world firsthand, but allowing our opinions to calcify or ossify around some talking head on TV’s take on things is dangerous.
For example, I recently made a few trips to the Philippines. I was in-country as ISIS and Abu Sayyaf laid claim to the city Marawi and the entire island Mindanao fell under martial law, all while a near-genocidal war on drugs continued claiming lives at an unprecedented scale. The news reports out of the country were dire, to say the least, and the travel warnings marched in lock-step with them. My experience there, though, could not have been better. The Filipino people are unbelievably generous, charismatic, and welcoming. Their country is facing some major challenges, but like anywhere else, the “average joe” is simply trying to make due for themselves and their families. Every country is the sum of its parts and not the sum of just one part, thankfully.
The most valuable belonging I have is my passport, and it is priceless. As an American, so many borders are open to me; it takes nothing more than an airline ticket and a willingness to suspend my own fears and apprehensions to experience an entirely new country, culture, and people. What an incredible privilege that is! Travel is the great unifier, the bridge-builder that allows us to champion our own individual foreign policy.
The moments in my life that mean the most are the times in which I have found myself immersed in a place wildly different from my own “normal” and with people seemingly fundamentally different from myself, whether through color, creed, orientation, or political affiliation. I’ve had moments where language has prevented direct communication, yet felt profound bonds with others simply through a shared experience, breaking bread together, or simply smiling at the setting sun. The world, and its people, is only as different as you allow it to be.
There are a million and one reasons to be terrified about the what the future holds, at least if you’re an avid consumer of news media and if you allow others to dictate your world view for you. It is our individual responsibility to control our own narrative though; it is patently unfair to abdicate this responsibility to others, irrespective of their credentials. Seek out that which seems uncomfortable, reach out to engage with those you fear or loathe, question any pretense you have that’s not grounded in personal experience (and even those that are!), and travel, travel, travel. The world needs more bridges than it does walls, and the onus is on each of us to build them.
