Smile and Nod

My general theory of how to deal with an unknown situation...for example being in a foriegn land where I don´t speak the language and don´t know the culture, is just to agree with everything. Doesn´t work so well when you´re presented with options, but hey, I didn´t say it was a perfect plan.

I suppose the ¨smile and nod¨principle as I like to call it is founded on two basic assumptions.

1) People are generally good
2) Humans can understand each other´s needs / desires

It seems like assumption 1 would really be the more controversial of the two. Especially in a city like Medellin. After all, six-months ago the only times I had ever heard of Medellin it was followed by ¨drug cartel¨.

But humans have a way of suprising you. The people here seem to be amazingly nice, and not what one would expect given the history of Medellin. Simply stopping random strangers on the street can lead to lenghty conversations about what you want to do, suggestions of how to get where you´re going, offers to show you around, etc.

But I suppose in order for this survival mechanism to work you really need to be able to differentiate the majority of the people who are ¨good¨from the minority that are ¨bad¨. I like to think I have a pretty good gut instinct. I´ve taken some chances in my life and none of them have really turned out to screw me too bad (I guess I should be knocking on wood or something huh?)