Reflections

Current mood: Reflective Category: Reflective Travel and Places
I do not write enough of my reflections. I wish I did more.
As I walked this morning I came to a strip mall and decided to walk through it. I wanted to see if the Curves was open but I was sure it wasn't, this being a Sunday. I walked past a Mexican man and he smiled at me so I said hello. He said hello back and I continued past. Then I heard him say, "I like your shirt." and I smiled and turned back and thanked him and that was the end of it. Once home I reflected on this exchange, primarily because of the odd custom on Pollap which goes something like - if a person of higher status tells you they like something of yours, you are obligated to give that something to the person. I also remember odd little customs in Korea that seemed so similar to those of Pollap, Chuuk and Micronesia as a whole. So reflecting on this led me to wonder about Mexican customs and also led me to wonder if I should have taken off my shirt and given it to the man :) Just kidding. I sometimes wonder if I am so comfortable in Arizona because I overhear foreign language more than I overhear English. Coming home from foreign countries is always difficult in many ways; but the language thing is, I think, the hardest for me. After being away and either A. not knowing the language or B. having to concentrate real hard to follow it, I become a master of tuning out conversations. Foreign speak becomes a constant and sometimes pleasant background noise. Then, I come home. And it always starts in the airports and just continues on from there. Suddenly there is not one moment of silence, no constant background noise that can be tuned out, it's all chatter chatter chatter all around me and I understand it all and catch bits and pieces and feel confused and disoriented and then angry or sad or disbelieving or happy; depending on what I am listening to being said. Depending, yes, on what I am eaves dropping on. Anyway, it has come as rather a shock to me to realize I have been here almost 2 months and not even really noticed that, now it seems, a lot of the population around here speaks Spanish in their everyday encounters. I want to learn Spanish and of course, I want to get to know the people who live here as foreigners. I am intrigued, always.
So my thoughts went like this, yes, but since Pollap had popped into my head it seemed right that I should continue to reflect on Pollap. The above mentioned custom was not something overt to me. In fact, I am not sure it was even practiced on other islands as I never heard any of the other PC volunteers talk about it. If it even happened regularly on Pollap I don't know as it seemed I only heard about it when some young punk was abusing it and going around taking things from young punks less in status than he. I do, however, have a memory that I now wonder about... There was a man who I spent a lot of time with both on Pollap and Weno; he was a member of my host family, which was not cool, but I loved him regardless. One day he had on a necklace I had never noticed before and I said "That is beautiful" and he raised his eyebrows (meaning yes) to which I chuckled. Then I said, "I like it very much." And in a blink of an eye he was taking it off and saying, "Do you want it? You can have it." And I did protest but I ended up with it and I put it on and he looked at it and said, "yes, it is very beautiful." This could be the stuff movies in America are made of, no? But on reflection I find myself wondering if in that moment his societal norms kicked in. I wonder if in that moment all he could see was my light skin and blue eyes; my Americanness; my Peace Corps - ness. I wonder if in that moment all he thought about was how revered the PC people are and how he would be doing right by his island to give me that which I said I liked. It's a very funny thing to me because me and this guy talked a lot about how things are different in the US versus how things are on Pollap and I always felt like he "got it" and I do think for some things he did. But how many little things went completely unnoticed to me I wonder. To him as well. How deep are societal norms? Many of the things I liked about him were things completely driven by his way of being which came about because of where he was brought up. I wonder had he come to the US would he have lost many of those things I liked, would a person become re-socialized? I guess probably. Isn't that what typically happens to people who move here? They assimilate? Isn't that also what happens to me when I move overseas? I assimilate to varying degrees? Huh. I need to think some more :)
Currently listening : Strange Angels By Kristin Hersh Release date: 03 February, 1998