Soy americana

I discovered what my problem is today... I'm an American.

To preface this, I had a particularly humbling day last week. It started in the morning when I asked a woman sitting on the stone steps of a church with her child if I could take her picture. I offered to pay her, but she refused. I felt silly, and thanked her, thinking "I wouldn't have wanted a stranger who thought I was "beautiful" to take my picture either... why did I just do that?" I guess I wasn't sure what to think of myself; the scene had just been too much too resist - like something out of National Geographic - and now I had behaved "badly."

Later that night, I was walking down the street, enjoying the music. It was coming from a stereo of a street vendor selling CDs, so I turned around and asked him who was singing. It was Nat King Cole (haha), and so I asked how much it was. Since it was less than a dollar, I said I would buy it. At which point, he takes it out of the CD player, puts it in a plastic sleeve and hands it to me. Again, I felt pretty dumb. By trying to take a part of the evening with me, I had ruined the scenery and the mood.

So today, I am walking down the street when a group of traditional musicians comes marching along. I happened to be in the touristy part of La Paz, and the band was like honey to bees. White people popped out of shops and from around corners, surrounding the group with their cameras and camcorders. Hmmm...

As I was walking away (after getting the two pictures here of the onlookers and the musicians... read into that as you will), I was reminded of something Dra. Santivañez said on Friday. We were talking about patient privacy, and we asked if some patients felt uncomfortable with five Americans in the room. Liz said that she had always been asked before observers were allowed to participate in/watch an examination or procedure. The doctor smiled and said "yeah, but if we asked them, they might say no."

So either I need to stop asking people in the street if I can take their picture... or feel more guilty about invading patient privacy (and stop going to rotations?). Why does being a hypocrite feel more comfortable?