The Turd World

Diplomad writes:

Many years ago, as we prepared our return to a tough posting in the Far Abroad after leave in the States, our son asked, "Do we have to go back to the 'turd' world?" That phrase, "redolent" with the wisdom possessed only by children, has stayed with me over these passing years. My son was right about the 'turd' world. What tips you off that you have arrived in a poor country, a truly, genuinely dirt-poor corner of the Far Abroad, is the smell. As you leave the airport, you notice a special "exotic" odor of rotting vegetation, garbage, and feces combined with a slight whiff of smoke. Once you're there a bit, you no longer notice. When you leave and come back, it slams you all over again. The kid was right: we had been and still do live in the "Turd World."

Yes. I remember well the first time. As a kid I went on a visit with family to Mexico. The change from Texas to Mexico was (and still is) striking. It stinks!

Years later I was shocked to find, as a 20-something Corporal in the Marines on my first Med cruise so many years ago, that the very same rotten smell attached itself to Europe as well. The "first" world is the United States, the turd world is everything else.