Watch the Walk

It's that time of the year. No, not the season of snow and Christmas carols, although the weather is cooling down considerably. No, it's the month of fasting, that one time of the year that I don't get marriage proposals... well, except for that one.. but really, that's pretty great. Instead, I get another annoying question:  ARE YOU FASTING? This question comes any time I'm out of the house. I go to the neighbor's shop to buy garlic and another neighbor asks "So, are you fasting?" I go to exercise with friends and random people on the street ask as I go "did you fast today?" Or there's my other favorite-- "Are you fasting? You're not able to, are you?" Gosh is it easy to get defensive on that one. But how do you compare fasting for multiple days but still consuming water vs. breaking the fast every night but dehydrating your body every day? Are we racking up points for how "righteous" our fasting is? Father, prote...

For most of the Msm world, the month of fasting began on Saturday the 27th. For us, however, it was a bit more complicated. See, the month of fasting starts with the sighting of the moon and ends with the sighting of the next new moon. That gets complicated when the moon is only briefly visible, when it's not visible with the naked eye, or when... wait for it... it's cloudy out. So on Friday night a lot of people were sitting outside, staring at the dark sky, wondering and waiting to see if someone in the country would catch a glimpse of the moon. If the moon was sighted then the next day everyone would begin their daytime fast. "If the big religious leader doesn't declare that the fast has started, I'm going to party on the beach with my husband!" Thus declared my next-door neighbor. As various neighbors wandered past, asking the question "was the moon seen? Any news?" she remained set in the opinion that, despite popular opinion, the moon wouldn...

I recently had the opportunity to go to a local night of theater. Now I could comment on how the actual start time was entirely unknown (and we discovered that they were getting going when we heard the music blaring across town from the stadium). Or I could comment on how I felt like I was on the old end of the age spectrum there, the event having drawn the teen crowd out. But what really caught my attention was the content of the skits presented. The skits were full of exaggeration and catch phrases (which I now hear all over town), but the content was rather serious. The first skit was presented as showing the importance of education and the power of a good mother. So we have a kid who wants to study and a father who doesn't see it as important. The mother circumvents the father's declarations that the kid doesn't need to study by secretly sending the kid to school. Then the father runs into a situation where he needs to be able to read. He comes back and declares that ed...

As an English teacher, I get to go to a lot of certificate ceremonies. I also go to other events, ones for weddings, haircuttings, circumcisions, prayers, coming-of-age, and etc. For every event, there are those who attend who are invited, and those who attend who weren't invited. But the way they attend is different. Those who have been invited dress up. The ladies do their hair and makeup, and wear nice clothes, down to mile-high heels. The men will wear a suit, a prayer cap, and oftentimes a prayer robe too. Those who have been invited walk directly into the event. If the event is held outside, it's normally marked off by cloth walls and banners, making the area quite festive. The invited guests see the walls and banners and walk right in, finding a seat where they expect fits their place in society and visiting with other friends who are there. Those who haven't been invited don't bother to dress up at all, they just stand around outside. Now when I said that there ...

"My friends, the community, they just don't know," he said. "They love to talk about my wedding and how great it was, then they ask 'so, is your wife sick(pregnant) yet?' They just don't know." I've been friends with this particular couple since shortly after arriving on Clove Island.When I arrived, they had gotten married just 3 months previous in a small ceremony and were waiting a few years before doing their big wedding and community celebration. They've now done the big wedding and community celebration, but have yet to give birth. While some places that might be normal, here it's highly unusual to wait for children and a source of great distress. Many men will marry a second woman just to have a child. Unlike some cultures, where your name changes at marriage, here the name change occurs with your first child. My name might be Abby, but as soon as I gave birth I would be called "mother of (first child's name)." It'...

For the last few months I've been teaching a class in a town about half an hour away. Of course, by the time I wait for taxis and deal with all the stops along the way, I have to leave at least an hour for travel time, but that's not really the point of the story... This class has been a long-term frustration. First, I didn't plan on teaching the whole class. I planned on teaching the first session, then a session later on. But somehow my amenable self got roped into teaching the class once a week, which meant every other lesson. So it was more of a commitment than I planned. Then the students were consistently showing up late. At class time I would have maybe one student, but by 15 minutes into the class time everyone would be there. After three weeks of this behavior (and reminding the students every time to arrive on time), I finally asked the students straight up why they were never on time. And it turns out that the administrator scheduled the class to start at the s...

Meet Jack, he's not scared of anything A couple of months ago I started hearing a phrase everywhere-- on the streets, in class, in taxis, and yelled by my neighbors. And it always seemed to garner a reaction, maybe a little embarrassment on the part of the person questioned, while others would invariably laugh. A "gotcha" moment. "Whatcha scared of?" - they ask. It's interesting how language evolves and catch phrases develop. Word has it that the phrase  originally came from a radio host. It was adopted in relation to a new telecommunications company in town: what are you afraid of, to buy a SIM card with the new company? But language changes, and the catch phrase came to apply to a number of things. Like crossing the street. You can hardly pause a moment to check traffic before an interested islander will yell "whatcha scared of?" at you. What are you afraid of? Certainly not being hit by a car.... There are a lot of situations where it can be us...