Getting lost: some notes: part 2

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Leaving a forest

Getting lost: some notes: part 2

6. When I ask for directions people are invariably very pleased to give them. Giving directions is a way of giving advice and this,of course, is an extremely popular human activity. I think it gives them tremendous pleasure to see how lost I am and thus confirm how they aren't lost at all and what fine people they are. They love how attentively I listen, how important their every word is. They love to detail exactly which junction one should turn left at (the one after the garage...) by which point I glaze over and start to become lost in the instructions themselves,  quickly confusing one corner, garage, set of traffic lights, corner shop, sharp bend, estate agent, big tree etc with another. Sometimes the direction giver is so overwhelmed by the desire to help that they offer a second option, or you could take the second left......and, needless to say, this is utterly disastrous.

 They also love to use you being lost as a vehicle for other conversation and find out where you are from. This seems very popular in Brazil and can be charming. 

7. There is that weird thing where certain cultures consider it shameful not to be able to help, and thus in response to where is the bus station will reply, straight on turn left, or a vague, but enthusiastically stated over there, all the while beaming at you, despite not having the least idea where your intended destination lies. And thus you find yourself wondering into some huge slum. I've heard this is common in the Far East but in Peru this happened to me, in Santa Cruz, twice. 

8. You can't miss it. A fatal expression

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