Stranger Danger vs. Stranger Friend

My Malian friend (of the unpaid variety) was relating the tales of his recent travels to me the other night. It was his first time traveling outside of West Africa despite the fact that his understanding and insight belies his life experience. He went to Dubai and was full of tales of events and when he got to reflections he brought up something we had talked about in the past- interactions with strangers. He essentially related how he didn't fully understand what I meant about other cultures being a bit more private when it comes to people they don't know until he was standing in an elevator in disbelief as the only other person in the elevator didn't talk to him.

Of course I almost never talk to people in elevators and when I do I mentally congratulate myself on what a nice person I am. So it got me thinking about why. A generous assessment of my own behavior goes like this: "I don't want to bother people, they've got stuff on their minds, places to go etc." However, perhaps a more honest assessment is "I've got stuff on my mind, places to go etc. and can't be bothered."

But I was also thinking about being programmed from a young age not to talk to strangers. You know, there is always that 1 in a million chance that you tell a stranger your name and they become a stalker or try to kidnap you after being entranced by your smile you so naively displayed. Stranger Danger!

But really, how dangerous are strangers? According to Malians- not at all. And I'm starting to sympathize with this view. In fact, it's sort of nice to be in a place where there is so much blind trust. I have been in several situations which would (and after reading this blog probably did) cause my mother heart palpitations. But it all worked out. Strange taxis late at night. Weird guides following me around. All these things are probably not the safest in the US model but they all worked out. They might not always work out but I sort of like working with the model of "innocent until proven guilty" or rather "good intentioned until proven otherwise".

I know Anny reading this is saying in her head "oh great, the last thing Laura will have written before being abducted is some shit about trusting people". So I'll try really hard not to get abducted until I'm able to post at least one more thing :)