Mechanism of stereotyping is meant to make life of people easier – we make quick decision of what is good/bad, safe/dangerous etc. But it actually is very limiting at times and needs to be challenged. Open mind can really enrich the experience.
Here is the story.
We wanted to explore Bahrain – who knows maybe that is once in a lifetime opportunity. So, on the weekend we asked hotel reception to get us a taxi to go to the desert (Tree of life and rocks). The driver that arrived was an old man in a traditional clothing and not very fluent English. And here our stereotyping kicked in: we were worried as we are clearly two European looking women and initially, we thought that that might not go well. We got the phone number of our local colleague ready just in case and still decided to go on this adventure.
The driver turned out to be the nicest person ever: he loved his country and was trying to explain everything that we were passing by, parts of history, buildings. As we reached the destination, he joined us and apparently, he has never been in that part of the desert, so he was curious to explore it too. I think he got a bit of a shock when I climbed the rocks, he probably has never seen women doing this and tried to help me to get down, it took some effort to let me do it by myself as those rocks were really good to climb. On the way back he gave us bottled water, nuts and crackers which was very sweet. Of course we gave him good tips at the end.
As a result, we were very happy that we decided to embrace the experience and did not let stereotype stop that. It was one of the best trips.
Great reminder of keeping the mind open and letting new things in.
How prone are you to stereotyping?
Comments