My father and I went to a remote country in North Eastern Africa called Mauritania.
What started out as a quest to collect sand from the highest dune turned into a fascinating cultural experience.
We were lucky to have a guide because my french was poor and the native language is a local Arabic dialect. My first impressions of Nouakchott, the capital of Mauritania, were that of a very lively but unorganized city. The roads consisted of sand and the airport was half the size of my school.
But there were culturally rewarding aspects to this trip too. That our american guide was able to communicate with the locals helped because not many foreign people speak the Arabic dialect. Also, the people who live there don't tend to speak English, so his abilities made them respect him as their own. He opened a vast cultural door for my father and me.
Every town we visited, the three of us were invited as guests for tea. They diligently followed a cultural ritual when preparing the tea where they would shake the tea, pour it into small glasses, pour them back and forth and then pour it back into the kettle.
Not only was the ritual interesting to me at the time, but just the idea that complete strangers invited us into their home was astounding. They didn't even have a solid floor but they just asked us to come in and offered us what little they had.
It should have been us who should have showered them with gifts. Especially considering the difference in our standards of living.
This whole process could easily be dismissed as a cultural norm for the Mauritanian people, but I think it is more than that.
The trip taught me that sometimes background, culture, social opinions and upbringing do not matter. Sometimes it's important to look past these things and just do what you can to elate people around you.
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Did you take that picture in Chinguetti? The common area looks like one of the libraries that I visited there and the guy looks EXACTLY like the owner.