Why the Chameleon?

Ok, so this is a toad, not a chameleon, but you get the idea... (Vietnam, 2010)

A chameleon is an animal that's an expert at blending into it's environment.

I was travelling in Turkey for a few days at the end of 2006 and a fellow traveller adorned me with the name "Chameleon" after a few days travelling together. 

I won't pretend to be the world's greatest chameleon, and it's pretty bloomin' hard to be a chameleon when you're a rubia gringa (blond foreigner) living in Lima. But, the ability to be a chameleon is something I value in travellers and people who work abroad. My guru of the idea would have to be Paolo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Not the easiest book in the world, but if you read it it will change your attitude towards poverty and community development forever. I strongly recommend it. The key point is that you don't travel to try to change the world, it's better to try not to impact on the culture's you encounter. And the best leaders for change need to come from within the community, not from some external expert. That's not to say there's not a place for best practise community development. (OK, this is where I don't want to go, I don't want to start preaching, because you never know where this sh*t will end up...)