I got a care package! Someone actually loves me! Yay for my Dad!
Anyway, it seems like every so often, I find a way to completely freak out my co-workers. First of all, everything I do is fascinating to them. If I wear something different, or wear my hair different, or paint my toenails, no matter what I do, it becomes a huge deal. Sometimes it's intentional, like:
1.) The time I told everyone that I didnt want to have children.
I knew people might find it strange. But... not like this. You know that face that McCauly Caulkin made in Home Alone when he used the aftershave and it burned his face?
This one:
Imagine 5 people giving you that face, all at once.I then tried explaining to them that lots of women choose not to have children, because they dont want to. Or they (like me) still have things to do with their lives, and dont want kids weighing them down. No one understood me. People in this part of Mozambique are used to girls being pregnant at the age of 15, with like 5 kids (or more) by the time they're my age. I'm already an anomaly. The nurse from my organization completely ignored what I said, and told everyone "No, she means that once she gets done here, and she creates the right conditions, then she'll have children."
although that might be true, maybe one day in the future (but more than likely not), I clarified "No. I dont want to have babies. Ever."
Then I had to answer questions like "but God says we're supposed to multiply. What are you going to tell God?" and "but what are you going to do when you get old, who's going to take care of you?" and "You dont want to get married?"
Of course I want to get married. ''All men want to have babies...so if you get married, you have to have children"
I laughed. I know that isnt true. Anyway, then it turned into a conversation about me only having "5 more good years" to get pregnant, cultural differences, women being alone, homosexuality, and contraceptives....
Needless to say, it got weird. This conversation was about a month ago. And they talked about it constantly, pretty much introducing me to everyone like "this is Kyla, she's from America. She will be working with us for 2 years. Shes 25 and has no children and no husband, she just wants to go to school and be alone for the rest of her life"....until...
2.) The time I didnt put sugar in my tea...
For some reason that is completely beyond me, Mozambicans drink boiling hot tea, in the middle of the day. The sun can be at its highest point in the sky, the temperature can be at 97 degrees, and I could have just gotten back from walking miles around this town in the hot blazing sun, dying for a cold glass of water, and they will bring out hot water and tea bags. And everyone will drink it.
Ok, fine. If you're thirsty, you're thirsty, so whatever.
One day, I was making my tea, and I put the tea bag in, and the water. The nurse handed me a bowl of sugar, which I refused. Someone else handed me milk. I refused. Anyone who knows me knows that I like my tea...just tea. No milk, no sugar. Just tea. the nurse kept trying to give me the sugar, until finally I said "I dont want sugar in my tea", and I took a sip without it.
You know that face you make when you're completely disgusted? Something like...this:
yeah....imagine 4 Mozambicans giving you that face all at once. Then I had to answer questions like "Do you do that at home?" "Why dont you like sugar?" "Are you afraid of getting diabetes?"
No, I'm not afraid of getting diabetes. but of course, everyone settled on that as the answer to why I didnt put sugar in my tea. Then it turned into a conversation about how white people don't like sugar...
Dont ask me how. There were no white people around. And I know plenty of white people who like sugar. But they stopped listening to the things I said. That is until...
3.) The time I told them I didnt drink tea in the morning...
I've gotten pretty used to drinking tea in the mornings. My host mom always served it to me, and I just bought some delicious spiced green tea. I like tea. I usually let it cool a bit, and drink it with some bread for breakfast. But one day, it was obnoxiously hot, and I was rushing in the morning, so I grabbed some bread and some water and headed out of the door. When I got to work, I was still eating some bread, and the nurse asked me "you didnt eat at home?" I told her no, I was rushing, and I just brought my breakfast with me. "So you didnt have any tea?" I told her no, I have water, i'm fine.
Oh my goodness....it was as if NOT drinking tea in the morning would cause my stomach to explode and planes to fall out of the sky and baby Jesus to cry, and the world to come to a fiery end...
EVERYBODY in the office FREAKED OUT. It was kind of scary...."Oh no! You didnt have tea this morning? Wont that mess up your stomach???" "You have to drink tea, you have to warm up your system!!" "Go make her some tea!" "in this weather, you have to have tea!"
I didnt want tea. And I really didnt understand their logic. But that didnt stop them. Before long, I had a cup of tea sitting in front of me, and 4 concerned Mozambicans staring at me, like if I didnt drink that tea, I would drop dead right then and there. So I drank it. And didnt put any sugar in it. And they asked again if I was afraid of getting diabetes. I said no. Then later that day I was asked why I wasnt married and didnt have any children...
then someone offered to set me up with some guy they knew...
this is the life that I live.
this is the life that I love.
