Letter to the Hedlunds - 1/12/06

How's it going? Hope you're all doing well and having a great winter. It's hard to believe it's been 5 months in country, but so it is. Sometimes it feels like no time at all and others like 5 years. Right now my days are flowing steadily and my rhuminations are more frequently interrupted by work. This letter, I'm going to focus, or title as: Being Nasara (Whitey) in To

PERKS
- Wherever you go you get preferential seating, whether it be a bush taxi, the cinema or someone's house
- Everybody know's your name "Hey, Nasara!"
- Village Elders actually want to hear what you have to say
- Your word is God and so everyone believes you and trusts you
(being the youngest of 6, these last two kinda throw me!)
- When I want something from the capital or another town, somebody will get it for me, like toilet paper
- I get stuff, little gifts, or free stuff. I'm kinda like a running commercial. Wherever I shop or etc, people can say "the Nasara shops here" or etc. So I get free stuff at these places I frequent.
- You are your very own parade or politician. Going for a walk or excercise or whatever, I inevitably have to stop and shake hands, hold a baby or salue a lot of people and the children call at me like dogs throught the neighborhood. Very common that people just stop and stare.
- I generate posse's of children as I go through public places
- I scare, to the point of hysterics, children between the age of 1 and 3 (This is a particular joy of mine) just by showing up in their courtyards.
- Everybody knows where you live

CURSES of being Nasara
- Everybody knows where you live
- so all the children comet to stare at you while you read, eat, etc.
- all kids know to come to you for something, $, whatever you have or don't have
- Everybody expects you to pay for dinner and drinks
- Everyone expects you to give them something if you have more than one, like shoes, hats, pens, etc.
- You can't tell who's genuinely nice
- You'll never find out the real price for anything because you're expected to be overcharged anyway
- Everyone expects you to bring $ or some governmental aid to their cause so they don't think they can do it themselves w/out Whitey
- Everyone is surprised you haven't learned "their" local language by now
- Privacy is at a minimum


Uh, that's about it. So as you can see, there's more Perks than Curses and I have no real reason to complain about being the only whitey in town.

I'll let you go. Take care and have a great 2006
Always, Laura