[Kevin]

For me I'd say it was a pretty gradual process... Probably one thing that really played into my picture of "the world" was when I went on a stint through Morrocco on a vacation a couple of years back. Anyone who's been to a 3rd world country like that really can't see the world with the rose colored glasses that most Americans look through.

Within seconds of being on the street people identified the group I was with as foriegners. I got offered old playboys (contraband there), hashish and various cheap trinkets by the 'panhandlers' that were there in the casbah (sp?) to make their living.

I saw a child probably around 7 or 8 years old go from my group (english speaking) to german and even to japanese. I was told that they could usually speak around 8 languages (with no formal training!)

Driving around Tangiers you saw people basically living out of glorified wooden boxes... A very eye opening experience basically..