My sisters call
me a stranger stalker. If I remember
correctly it wasn’t a complement, but a warning for me to stay on task and stop
talking to innocent by-standers. Good
thing my sisters are home minding their own business, because here my task
requires some social stalking or rather people-pursuing. I am in a daily hunt to make friends, anyone
is welcome into my troupe, and the only criterion is that they too have to be
open to new behaviors.
Here in
Mozambique, and specifically at my site, the people are warm hearted and
welcoming. So far this has shown true across sexes, social status, educational
level, and ages (except from 12-24 month -olds, many start to cry when they see
me followed by an apology from the mother saying the baby is not used to my
color).
My walk to and from work is a delightful “people-pursing” excursion. When I arrived In August it appeared that everyone was rubber-necking to look at me. When our eyes meet my hand would immediately go up in a wave and they would depict a real smile and a nod with a polite greeting. This continued for the first two months. Then in October I would start to hear my name or “Bom-dia, tia” ( Good morning, aunt) along with some advice like : “You need an umbrella”, “ You need to eat more”, “ I will find you a husband.” In December I found myself stopping to chat often and being asked medical questions. My answers always start with: “Humm, did you go to the hospital? Walk with me and we will talk to the nurse”. Sometimes I answer in a rather nagging tone when I hear that they have had a condition for months and have not look into it.
So now I am
completing my sixth month residing in this small community; I have friendly neighbors, my name rings out, and people walk with me. Cars stop immediately when I hitch- hike, and
it seems like I’ve started a popular response to the heat – “…it’s going to
kill me”, followed by giggles.
This “people
pursing” skill has dovetailed into the culture here, and the feedback is always
pleasant. I’m not a new bird anymore so
now I need to meet expectations; going to funerals, teaching English,
visiting on the weekends, and answering questions like “Where did you
disappeared to?” (I realized last week after
going to the dentist, that I’m still a topic of conversation when someone I
didn’t talk to asked me if my tooth was pulled out).
Privacy and
time is the price that I have had to pay-back for wanted to assimilate as much
as possible into this intriguing adventure.
It has been worth every frown from my loving sisters, Rose and
Joann, who still worry about me (or perhaps the people I talk to).
My good friends, neighbors, and landlords. |
XO
http://bloggingabroad.org/
Very lovely writing. This is so you!
ReplyDeleteMashaAllah you have acclimated well and in your truly special loving way. Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteYou have found your peeps!
ReplyDelete