October 11, 2015
There is one man on the island, Akino, who had taken a
liking to me. He’s older, in his mid to late 30s, and is referred to as “crazy”
because he smokes marijuana and prefers to spend time alone rather than with
others. At first he would come up to me when I was standing on the beach or
teaching in the classroom and ask how I was or if I was enjoying myself here on
Ettal. One day he even waited outside of my classroom to give me a coconut to
drink. Then he told my family that if I should ever need anything he was more
than willing to help. Now, he’s building a local house, five feet from my own
house, to impress me. People in the village, including my students, tease me
about Akino almost every day. But, they also tell me that if I were not here
Akino would still be living with his parents.
One Sunday my family and I were in charge of making the
flower vases and maramars for church. The maramars came out beautifully (my
sister Nippy is very talented and taught me how to make them), but the flower
vases kept falling over in the middle of mass. I’d stand one up, and it would
fall down two minutes later. I’d stand it up again, then the other one would
fall. Other’s tried helping me make them steady, but they didn’t have any luck
either. My older sister and I eventually let them fall and reverted to giggling
throughout the rest of the church service instead.
No comments:
Post a Comment