Thank you for sharing your experience! I so enjoyed reading this, as I recognized bits of my own experience living in Africa. The long, hot bus rides cross-country, shoulder to shoulder with people who all seemed to know one another and whose language I tried to understand. Overall, being a minority gave me a perspective I’ve never forgotten. Other than the children being afraid of me, I was not accorded any “special” status due to white skin. If anything, people ignored me out of politeness, considering me skinny and rather ugly. It was properly humbling and healthy for a 20-something.