I have traveled to that region multiple times, to the point that people who recognized me approach me in Engish. I would live there if I had the choice. It makes more sense than here. Internet access is intentionally limited but cable TV is widespread. That is a recipe for calm.

People avoid politics, still know how to deal with one another, to live communally. Outside of the city, people live as they have for maybe thousands of years and whatever stuff is going on in the news has no impact on them whatsoever. As Americans, there is something wrong with us.

I spent a whole day just washing dishes for my hosts. No one told me to do it faster or that I was stupid like back in the U.S. You see people smiling every day, whereas no one in America smiles anymore. All that money, the envy of the world, and we used it just to build walls between each other. We had a president who ran on building a wall between people. We have no idea who one another are and therefore just assume the absolute worst. 

We drive ourselves insane with a bunch of stuff that is just designed to make life more complicated. They should be afraid but we are the ones with a culture of fear. Fear all the time of literally everything - of guns, of Covid, of politicians, of black people, of police, of obesity, of ourselves, of cancer, of drugs, of our own family. We don't know how to be human anymore.

A bit of an emotional rant there. My apologies. :P