Uganda is a country where you can be killed for being homosexual.

The law doesn’t protect you.

I’ve just arrived and there is an American religious group staying in the same guest house as us.

The setup is similar to a motel in that the rooms are side by side and open to the outside, but instead of bordering a parking lot, they border a huge grassy yard with fabulous trees and birds and a big dog named Simba. The staff is attentive and kind. Lovely.

All seems well.

This other group has loud phone talkers. Ok, that can happen when you’re traveling.

Turns out they are loud always talkers, right outside my room early in the morning when I’m trying to sleep.

They like to sing loud religious songs in the middle of the grassy lawn into the dark of night without a care or an ask whether any of the rest of us want to hear them.

One decides to sit himself down in a chair that belongs to our room, right outside our door.

“You know thats our chair, right?”

“Yeah, I know.”

Doesn’t budge.

I feel unsafe around them.

They are so lacking in consciousness. In awareness. In basic human decency.

Is this the America we are now creating, where people are so entitled that they don’t notice the people living around them?

I am acutely aware since the election.

I hope not.

They left early the next morning.

The eight others we are traveling with arrived.

They are a mixed bag: Australian, British, American, much more conscious crowd.

Back to breathing deeply.

Who have you noticed today?

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Manners are a sensitive awareness of the feelings of others. If you have that awareness, you have good manners, no matter what fork you use.  - Emily Post