Strangers and Islands

We were talking about personality traits the other night, and Joe recapped this game he played with monks while staying at their convent in Korea:

“You were in a storm and land on a random island: you don’t know where you are, and you don’t know if anyone lives on the island.

1) You come across an apple tree and are hungry; you also don’t know if you’ll be able to come back to the tree later. How many apples do you take?
2) You then come to a house in the middle of nowhere. Describe the door on the house as you visualize it in your head – is it open, closed, what does it look like?
3) You manage to get inside of the house and you see something dart by the window, what was it?
4) What do you do then - Do you decide to stay, come up with the plan, leave the house etc?
5) You go back to revisit it and notice a trunk full of candles. You stay in the house for the night – how many candles do you light?”

Your answers to the questions are supposed to reveal personality traits. How many apples you take apparently is indicative of how you deal with finances / money, whether the door is open reveals how open you are to strangers, or how open you think they are to you. The answer to 4 represents how you make a decision, and how many candles you light evidently represents the number of people you are willing to let into your life.

Not sure if all of my responses accurately depict my traits regarding these questions, but I think my answer to the door question pretty accurately represents how open I am to complete strangers – I described a rustic red door (bright but with peeling paint) and a brass handle, that was mainly shut but was propped a little bit open and could swing open or closed at any time depending on how it was pushed. Read: a little intrinsically cautious, but open to people given the right circumstances.

Tanzanians have been pretty friendly so far – they have pointed me in the right direction, taken me to the bank, phone store etc that I was looking for, don’t usually take advantage of the fact that I’m clearly directionally challenged when deciding what cab fare to charge me. Co-workers in the City Council regularly make each other coffee, peel vegetables and fruits for everyone to share, let me use the special toilet (western style), and chat cheerily throughout the day, bringing together co-workers of all ages, levels, and both genders.

Last week, we also got the chance to meet the head of the Tanzanian Joint Finance Commission, through contacts of a woman my mom met at the State College Indian grocery store. He was very friendly, and even welcomed us to visit in Zanzibar. This was something I’m pretty sure is rare in most countries, indicating a sense of openness and friendliness.

Ex-pats, a common sight on the Peninsula and many bars, have also been pretty friendly and easy to meet as well, perhaps because we usually go out in big groups. They are here for a plethora of reasons – working for non-profits, for-profits; teaching, micro-finance, etc. Many of the people we meet are public-health or policy related as well.