Greetings
Two summers ago, I was fortunate enough to go to Nairobi in Kenya with a group of people from my school where we helped to renovate a primary school located on a farm. On top of many life lessons that I took home with me, one outstanding aspect of the culture that I experience there lied in the way that I was enthusiastically greeted by complete strangers. Everywhere we went, whether it was driving clumsily down bumpy roads or walking through bustling streets, toddlers and small children would run up to us shouting “How are you!” with the brightest smiles on their faces. Also, waving to random locals from the bus windows was almost always appreciated and completely normal. When we were working at the school, the children would come right up to us and ask us questions whilst running their fingers through our hair and touching our clothes.
During the evenings when we had free time to rest before dinner, we would talk about the hospitality and gratitude that we were being greeted with and how we wished it was the same back in England. I wondered why the differences between cultures was so extreme. After much consideration, I realised the reasoning behind the saying of how people who have nothing are much happier than people who have everything. The places that we visited in Kenya were surrounded by poverty and the smallest things that many of us take for granted everyday could bring the greatest joy to the people that I met there. In their society, it was totally acceptable for them to welcome us with such openness because, I suppose, they had nothing to lose. In comparison to our society, where I feel as though my every movement is being judged by my peers according to silent socially constructed rules, the pressure of losing respect in terms of my social status outweighs any possible benefits that I may reap by greeting another person in such a loud, vulnerable way. With all these complex concepts in mind, a simple smile given to a stranger would probably stir some sort of negative suspicion.
When it comes to making life long friends, maybe it is better to keep one’s guard up until one feels that their friend is trustworthy enough. I must admit that those happy greetings will be missed greatly whilst I’m away.