Nice shade of purple

Here is Bennett outside the Wildlife Service office looking like a South Sudanese glamorous version of a fictional police detective. He's sporting some new purple sunglasses and a military jacket donated by a former team member who'd served in the British army.

One of the good things about being in a more communal society is the need to be less self-conscious, and how comforting this is. This may sound strange being in an absolute minority here. I am not saying there is no judgement in South Sudan. There is a different type of judgement; people can be proud and moralistic.

People are less superficial about norms and actions, and what's gossip-worthy. Stereotypes can be less ingrained. Not one person would look at Bennett and call him a 'puff' for wearing purple sunglasses, jokingly or non-jokingly. If I trip or bash into something (regular occurrences), no group of teenage girls or lads snigger, whisper or elbow each other. Instead a chorus of 'sorry' rings out in my direction. If I had a pink floral t-shirt with death metal script no net curtains would twitch. People who have lost an eye to polio or have a bad burn scar on their face do not receive double takes that must be cumulatively very hurtful over a lifetime. When I see South Sudanese trip, slip or wear something that at home would raise eyebrows, passersby do not titter. They just press on.

Places like South Sudan may have weaker education systems but what society instils in them can make them less reactive and judgemental in some respects.

In Cambodia I secretly championed the guys who would lunge across the entire gym, bellowing, gasping and yodelling, to no discernible health benefit. Conventionally acceptable decorum doesn't apply in South East Asian gyms. Which benefits other gym goers who don't have to navigate a gauntlet of muscle muppets who pass judgment on skinny biceps or flabby stomachs.

I remember a few years ago griping in a post about a woman in the gym in Cambodia who was occupying a treadmill and walking at a glacial pace of 2 kilometres per hour. Whilst I no doubt thought I was being hilarious, I didn't know whether she was injured, disabled or couldn't really be arsed that day. I hope I would be less immediately critical now.

Anyway Bennett, you look cool. And you serve to remind me that it doesn't matter one iota what colour glasses someone is wearing. But I do wish you wouldn't smoke whilst siphoning diesel because it always feels extremely close to a terrible fire. I imagine life to be hard in the UK with a disfigured face.