Assumptions

Assumptions can be dangerous. Especially when they are taken to the extreme and we assume things before reality proves assumptions untrue. Like any other warm-blooded human being, I've fallen privy to an assumption or two in my life. It's often normal to assume things, even though it can be detrimental in the long-run. Detrimental because sometimes we hold assumptions for so long and they become so hard to break, that they can essentially become our beliefs.

Then, there's always the possibility that our false assumptions won't be debunked by fact, but assured by false advertising, propaganda, and mis-reporting. Television, word-of-mouth, and advertisements can be so...convincing.

What am I getting at here? Well, taken into context the nature of my existence here in Thailand, as a minority, as a Westerner, as a young female, I've come face to face with assumptions more in the past year than I have my entire life. More specifically, assumption about me. What this experience has taught me is that assumptions, no matter how innocent they may start, more than not cause misunderstandings, hard feelings, and distance between people. Well, one of my life goals is to fill in the gaps, to lessen the distance between myself and others, and share in the common human condition. Which, has challenged me more here than possibly anywhere else before. Because it's one thing to say I can live in harmony, I'm open-minded, I'm patient but, it's quite another thing to practice these mantras.

All this came full circle one day a couple weeks ago. I took a field trip with one of the villages. I'll be honest, the major motivator for me to go on this field trip was that I would spend the whole day on an air-conditioned bus ride. It had been extremely humid and miserable and I was just looking for a little relief. Well, you could say karma was working against me this day because around 1 PM, the bus's air-con broke down and we were stranded for 3 hours in a random town (obviously not on the agenda). In the meantime, I was getting to talk to some villager I had never met before. They asked me the usual... what's the weather like at your home in America? Isn't is really cold? (it's common assumption that it doesn't get as hot where I'm from as it does here) What do you eat there? Bread? Steak? Potatoes? (this is a common assumption that all Westerners subsist on these as staples). Along the conversation, I started to think seriously about patterns of assumptions. Later on, we visited ancient Khmer ruins and there were some German tourists there. While strolling along, one of my Thai friends asks me why I didn't want to talk 'my friends' (in reference to the German tourists). I've gotten this many times before.

It's commonly assumed among some Thai's that Westerner's all speak the same language (thus we're all 'friends'), that we all come from the same common place and background, that we eat the same, look the same, and live with the same cultural practices. Now, this has from time to time tested my own ability to be patient and understanding. Especially when I've been living here for a year and people who have known me for some time now still ask me if I eat white bread for breakfast every morning and why I don't talk to other local foreigners (since we're all foreign, we get lumped into the one homogeneous category). But, I usually play it cool, shrug it off, and laugh about it even.

In fact, it is a laughing matter once you really start to dissect it. Let's be honest, some Americans make strikingly similar assumptions in reverse. Even before I came here, I couldn't hardly distinguish between someone of Thai descent and someone of Chinese descent, Asian languages looked and sounded very similar, and indeed, people from the East seemed to have a common resemblance in demeanor. Of course, once I got here and lived here for a while, I realized the absurdity of my assumptions and just how wrong they were.

I also came to understand the assumptions I had made about rural living in Thailand and 'developing countries'. We came here to help develop the country? To make it more like America? Some people assume that. But, it couldn't be farther from the truth. Can we assume that people are underdeveloped and uneducated because they don't use machines to plant crops? Can we assume because people only have completed education up to an 8th grade level that they are not contributing to the value-creation of their local society? No. I came to seek the truth and that I have found. Planting rice by hand is a part of culture, part of tradition that runs through people's veins which, is not to say they don't know about agricultural technologies that exist. It's not all black and white, wrong or right, superior or inferior. I also learned that people here know far more about the natural environment and live more harmoniously with it than many Westerners. People practice traditional healing rituals through honoring spirits because it's their ancestral custom of which they sincerely believe helps in the healing process. And who am I to say (or assume) that's wrong or nonsensical?!

So, assumptions shmumptions. I want to challenge everyone to stop making them and seriously think about some of the assumptions that may currently occupy the spaces of your mind. Trust me, it will help fill in the gaps between you and others. I'm only one person but, little by little I'm etching away at all those little 'white bread and potatoe' assumptions...and it feels great (to get the story straight for once!)