How to Deal with the People Back Home
I'm starting this thread in light of the guy MIA en route from Panama to Colombia.
I met a Quebec couple who told everyone, Don't expect to hear from us for six months. And didn't give anyone their email address! I thought that pretty extreme, but there's some sense in this. It was THEIR trip, they'd worked hard for it, they'd earned it. A point of many people's travel is to have some kind of 'rite of passage,' like Aborigines going walkabout. We've completely lost that in our culture. Even college is paid for by parents. How are you supposed to become an adult??? Internet makes this more difficult. More than once I've been pissed off when desperately trying to find an internet cafe where there are none, just because I told someone I'd respond to an email on a certain day. And of course, they're completely oblivious and have forgotten about the 'date'.
I applaud anyone in this day and age who can break away from internet cafes. My suggestion is tell people back home, I'll email you by a certain date. And make that three times longer than you expect. Getting them used to a certain pattern can be a mistake!
Anyone have other solutions? It's horrible to worry about other people worrying about you...
Lorraine
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