El Salvador Part 3

In both Tanzania and Ecuador, the people would often fawn over a white visitor from the U.S. They wanted my friendship, they wanted me as a guest, they wanted me as a connection to the richest country in the world. A lot of it was their kindness and hospitality, but it often felt like it was a sense of inadequacy that made them glorify me and my country.

Not so in El Salvador. The country is so tough, so (recently) war-torn, so crime-ridden, that the people don't have time to fawn. They don't have the same insecurities, because they've seen to much, and they've survived too much. It's sort of like, "Oh, you're from America? O.K. What else have you got?"