{"id":178,"date":"2005-08-19T06:40:26","date_gmt":"2005-08-19T10:40:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/longestnow\/2005\/08\/19\/goodness-and-trust-in-strange-land"},"modified":"2005-08-19T06:40:26","modified_gmt":"2005-08-19T10:40:26","slug":"goodness-and-trust-in-strange-lands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/longestnow\/2005\/08\/19\/goodness-and-trust-in-strange-lands\/","title":{"rendered":"Goodness and trust in strange lands"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

Shako Mukulu<\/strong> is one of those people I think of every month, though we have not spoken since my last visit to his hometown of Kibwezi<\/strong>
\nover 5 years ago.  He taught me many things while I stayed with
\nhim, off and on, for two months.  Most importantly, after “never blow your nose on anything but tissue paper <\/em>(or you’ll get sick),<\/em>” was his maxim not to mistrust anyone without very good reason.<\/p>\n

I once came home after a day of packed matatu <\/strong>rides
\nwith a neat rip through my pants pocket and missing a 1000 KSh note
\nthat had been there the day before – my luxurious budget for last week
\nin the country.  I worried that it had been stolen<\/strong>;
\nShako reproved me roundly, saying “don’t think such things if you don’t
\nknow.”  I checked through all of my belongings, and found I had
\nturned my pockets out into a small bag without remembering it.  <\/p>\n

Trust is a funny beast, but it is in many communities the right
\ndefault.  This is a complex topic, worthy of a few chapters of a
\nbook, but of particular relevance to travellers in strange lands with
\nprofessional pickpockets. 
\nDifferentiating between these pros and everyday people, and the milieus
\neach group prefers, is the difference between prudence and prejudice.\n<\/p>\n

My mother left behind a makeup case – stolen?  perhaps.  I
\nleft behind a stack of newspapers and a baseball cap (the Sox… you
\nhad to ask?), and retrieved both of them once I found the right people
\nto ask.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shako Mukulu is one of those people I think of every month, though we have not spoken since my last visit to his hometown of Kibwezi over 5 years ago.  He taught me many things while I stayed with him, off and on, for two months.  Most importantly, after “never blow your nose on anything […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":135,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[213],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-metrics"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/longestnow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/longestnow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/longestnow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/longestnow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/135"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/longestnow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/longestnow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/longestnow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/longestnow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/longestnow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}