Missionaries Don't Wear High Heels

I had a funny moment at work last week caused by my shoes. I was wearing a pair of white shoes that have a bit of a heel on them, maybe a couple of inches. I was walking past one of the translators and he stopped me to ask a question. "Are you going to fall?" he questioned me curiously. I just looked at him blankly, completely confused. He must have understood my look because he went on to explain that I was wearing heels and since westerners don't wear heels, only Tanzanians do, I must not know how to walk in heels. The logical conclusion was that I would probably fall since I couldn't walk in heels.

Of course this just made me even more confused, having no idea where his conclusions came from. I asked him why he thought Westerners didn't wear heels. He looked around at all the other Westerners in the room and said that he never saw them wearing heels, only sandals. Therefore it seemed obvious to him that Westerners in general don't wear high heels.

Suddenly it all made sense. His experience with Westerners has been mostly missionaries who often prefer to wear sandals due to the heat and dirt. It is a little more tricky to wear heels when walking on dirt roads and so we often gravitate towards sandals. However Tanzanian women love shoes with high heels and wear them quite often. I laughed and tried to explain to him that back home where I come from, lots of people wear high heels. He looked slightly skeptical and I'm not sure if he believed me.

As amusing at this incident was, it made me think about how easy it is to judge people based on only a little bit of information. From the example of a few missionaries this Tanzanian made some sweeping judgments about millions of people in the Western world. Yet I know I am guilty of doing this same thing. It's easy to see two or three people do something and then judge every Tanzanian to be the same way. Not all assumptions are bad or wrong, but too often they can hurt relationships or stop us from really getting to know people because we've already labeled them.

I was labeled as being unable to walk in high heels and although it was funny, it also wasn't exactly flattering to be considered incompetent in this area. I won't forget this example and I hope it will always remind me to be careful in my judgments and assumptions.