anti-provincialism

When I was in Ethiopia, 'lo these many months ago, in Lalibela, I admired the lanyard on which one of the guides wore his id, and he gave it to me. Like many North Americans, I am uncomfortable with being given things, perhaps because I myself have an inborn urge to KEEP KEEP KEEP my own MY VERY OWN things, an urge that I frequently have to fight, but the fact is that not everyone is as wedded to their possessions as we are here, and it is extremely ungracious not to accept the kindness of strangers anywhere in the world, and so I thanked him profusely and accepted the lanyard. And it is, frankly, an awesome lanyard. It is red and yellow and green, the colors of Africa, and says, "I [heart] Ethiopia" on it (only with a real figure of a heart, not the word).

When I first started my current job, right after I got back from Ethiopia, I got an id that came on a plain black lanyard, which I promptly ditched for a series of clips with retractable strings, all of which broke in succession due to the weight of the keys that were also attached. I initially considered using the Ethiopia lanyard, but I was concerned about fitting in or something stupid like that (as if I'm ever going to fit in. ha. have you ever heard of the hidden immigrant concept? where you look like everyone around you and you can act like them but inside there is a whole different world going on? this is how I often feel in the States). So I did not use the Ethiopia lanyard for a long time. On Friday, I broke the latest in the series of retractable clips, and today I brought in the Ethiopia lanyard, and it's making me so incredibly happy. Sometimes, I need little things to remind me that this life here is not the only life I've ever lived. Wearing this Ethiopia lanyard, like saying, "I bought it in Rwanda" when the cashier compliments my bag, is my own little way of saying, The world is bigger than this, and I refuse to forget that.