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How to be an economical visitor
Author, Stella Riunga Rop.
What you need to know:
- Today, I would like to educate you on how to be a considerate visitor during tough economic times. If you follow my tips, you are guaranteed to always find a warm welcome awaiting you wherever you go.
Brethren, I do not know about you but where we are, times are tough. Anyway, no matter how difficult the times, Africans will still be Africans and we will keep on visiting each other even if we have nothing to share but stories!
Today, I would like to educate you on how to be a considerate visitor during tough economic times. If you follow my tips, you are guaranteed to always find a warm welcome awaiting you wherever you go.
Tip number one: Please do not stay for more than a week! In most average homes, someone—usually the youngest child or sometimes the nanny— will have to be displaced for you to be comfortable. You can be sure that they are the last people who will be excited by any extension of your stay, so if your visit necessitates that you stay longer than a week, have another host lined up so that you do not strain the family you are visiting.
To further reduce strain, how about travelling with your own toiletries? Of course, you don’t want to insult your host by implying that they cannot afford common soap, but please do have your own lotions and potions, as well as towels, ready. This is someone’s home, not a hotel where there is a roomful of industrial-capacity washing machines waiting to wash and steam the dirt out of your towels. Carry your own bathroom slippers as well, especially those of you with those cumbersome giant feet.
Let us move on to culinary matters. Unless you have a condition such as diabetes or high blood pressure, or life-threatening allergies, please be gracious enough to eat what your hosts provide you with. If no meat is cooked during your stay there, embrace your inner vegetarian with gusto. If they are frying insects, crunch them with delight. If they serve you posho when everyone in your home knows you would rather die than allow cornmeal to enter your mouth, kindly resurrect just this once and eat it. I promise you, you will not die (again).
It’s not dificult to be a thoughtful and delightful visitor. Enjoy your travels!
