Probably one of the greatest turning points from my time in Nicaragua was when I woke up one morning and considered my opinions and ideas from the previous few months. I´d found I had made judgements about the culture and the country that were not necessarily correct.

For example I detailed an account of Machismo a few weeks ago, and I believe I was too critical of this as being a cultural aspect. Yes the outcomes are bad. But on reflection, we struggle with the same situation the world over, and we are constantly battling to get the message out there that this behaviour is never appropriate.

This and many of my views (and yours as well?) were made from the perspective of how I (we) feel the world should look through my (our) own lenses, instead of taking into account the view from different perspectives. How do the divorcees that go to court over the family dog make their respective nations look?

It´s the same as ISIS being stated as Islamic in the press and the people believing that all Muslims are members of ISIS, crazy!

From now on I want to change my approach, not judging people and situations themselves, but instead if there must be judgement, to judge myself and how I can best interact with those same people and situations. Maybe it´s not just me, maybe we all need to take this reflection every now and then.