hyatum Mon May 21, 2012 3:35 am
Hi Judith
I am sitting in Windhoek, Namibia just got comms for the first time in two weeks and reading your post. It reminds me of two books that I have read, 'The White Masaii' written by Corinne Hofman and 'Married to a Bedouin' by Margeurite van Geldermalsenn. They are both biographies of women who met and married 'locals' on holiday. For some bizarre reason some women on holiday lose all sense of reason and self-preservation, and develop a romantic notion of the men that they meet, (especially those in the tourism industry). Hofmans story is one that has been repeated very often in Africa. We have tourists here that we call 'smellies'. They are foreign over-landers that most often come from northern European countries. They back-pack and travel in big trucks from country to country and have a tendency to co-habit with all the local guides, barmen and drivers. They get the name 'smellies' because they have an allergy to water and soap. These daft women (much like the numpties who go to Turkey) come to Africa looking for adventure and young black men and they have no idea of the culture and background of the people here. Their insensitive behaviour is totally offensive to local people, and most often the young men are from very poor families, with little education, and have migrated from their ancestral home areas to work in the tourism industry (sound familiar?). So I geuss this behaviour happens all over the world.....and is not confined to Turkey.
Nicks
xx
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