The Alien

There are about 14 million people in Zimbabwe of which less than 10,000 are white. I guess I've never really known what it was like to be the minority group but I'm proud to say that I have indeed been the only white person at the party. I now sympathize with the "token black guy."
We took a drive to a very rural village near the Zambia border and poked our heads into the communities primary school. I smiled, said hello and even tried the small bit of Shona language that know. Not a word. Not even smiles really. Just a room full of blank stares and timid looks. I asked my friend Shepherd why they were so shy. He said, "you're probably the first white person they've ever seen." "Are you shitting me? This is the 21st century" I said in amazement. "You're pretty far out in the bush right now" he replied. "This is rural Zimbabwe. Not many people pass through here."
I felt like I was on the Discovery Chanel or in a National Geographic magazine. As globalized as the world may be, there are still pockets of these sort of untouched communities that haven't ever seen someone of a different race. In that moment, the world seemed to still be a bit uncharted.