Skin Cancer

I spent a little bit of time outside yesterday and, despite the sunscreen, got some sun. Last night I was visiting one of my local friends and she pointed out that my cheeks and my neck were a little red. I hadn't looked in the mirror all day so I didn't know if she was just over reacting b/c she's African and just hasn't seen a whole lot of sunburns or what but I didn't really care.

As I was leaving she said something to the effect of 'don't worry about the sun on your skin. You will have no problems. You can't get skin cancer here.' I actually laughed at her because I really thought she was joking but she was totally serious....something about the sun not being as strong here as it is in the States (even though we're closer to the equator here and it is SO much stronger) and then there was something about the hole in the ozone and how it's over America so we get UV rays there but they don't have a hole here so there are NO UV rays.

I didn't really know what to say but I seriously couldn't help but laugh. I tried to explain to her that it didn't matter where you were, the sun can always give you skin cancer and you have to take care of your skin but she knew what she was talking about and wasn't going to stop until she had convinced me not to worry and so I just gave up, listened to her for another 5 minutes, promised that I would wear a large straw hat or carry an umbrella with me next time, and then we left.

Today I was out with some totally unrelated friends and I asked them about skin cancer and they said the exact same thing. I'm not real sure where everyone was taught about all this but they were obviously taught wrong.

Realistically, I'm not worried that I'm going to get skin cancer after 4 hours in the sun...I am worried that my friends are going to get skin cancer after a lifetime of believing that they just 'don't get that here'.