Tuesday, July 30, 2013<\/p>\n
When people laugh, all of my insecurities come out and all I want to do is rush back to my house and hide.\u00a0 Over the years I have learned that when people laugh, it\u2019s not at me, or at least they are not laughing at me to be mean.\u00a0 They are laughing, because they are surprised to see some of the many things I do.<\/p>\n
One day I was heading to town, wearing official \u201cCongolese clothing\u201d of a wrap skirt, a matching shirt and low heels, riding on the back of a motorcycle.\u00a0 During my 20-minute ride, I heard people laughing, and clapping and whispering among themselves and I thought, \u201cam I wearing this wrong?\u00a0 Am I showing my bottom?\u00a0 Do I have something on my face?\u201d\u00a0 And then I realized they are not laughing AT me.\u00a0 They are laughing because I am a foreign person, doing exactly what the culture would do.\u00a0 How do other people go to town?\u00a0 Ride a motorcycle.\u00a0 Do you take other clothes with you and change once you get to town?\u00a0 No, you ride in the clothes you are planning to wear for the day.\u00a0 To them, it\u2019s not a familiar sight, and to see me wearing a wrap skirt riding on a motorcycle just like they would do, releases a surprising fun-loving laugh.<\/p>\n
Same thing has happened here and in all of the previous places we have lived, when I have learned a few words in the local language.\u00a0 To break the ice when meeting a new person, I like to be able to greet them.\u00a0 But the minute I open my mouth and say something, they laugh.\u00a0 Usually it\u2019s not because I said the wrong word (although that happens more times than I wish to count), but because the person does not expect this foreigner to understand and speak THEIR language.\u00a0 It does break the ice, and it helps people know that we are here to try, and be a part of their culture.<\/p>\n
The other day I was inspired to write this blog post.\u00a0 I was in the middle of my \u201cnormal\u201d activity when it dawned on me, what would some of my friends in the states think if they truly saw some of the things that I do day in and day out.\u00a0 I called my motorcycle taxi driver, told him I needed to go to the market and then to a friend\u2019s house.\u00a0 We went first to the market, where I was looking for a mop for my house.\u00a0 I had finally learned the good price, and the store to buy it from.\u00a0 We headed out, me wearing my skirt, while riding a motorcycle.\u00a0 I purchased my mop, and carried it in one hand while carrying other things in my other hand.\u00a0 As we were heading to my friend\u2019s house, I started hearing those same laughs that ring in my ear, always reminding me that people are laughing at me.\u00a0 No, reminding me that they are laughing at the surprising sight OF me, carrying a mop, while riding a motorcycle, in a place that I obviously stand out in, because I am the whitest of white people.<\/p>\n
I have to remind myself not to get insecure because people are not laughing AT me, they are laughing at the unlikely sight of a white person embracing their culture in ways not many people do.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tuesday, July 30, 2013 When people laugh, all of my insecurities come out and all I want to do is rush back to my house and hide.\u00a0 Over the years I have learned that when people laugh, it\u2019s not at me, or at least they are not laughing at me to be mean.\u00a0 They are laughing, because they are surprised…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3,5,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-drc","category-gemena","category-missionary","category-wycliffe-associates"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.berry1.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.berry1.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.berry1.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.berry1.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.berry1.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=273"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.berry1.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":275,"href":"http:\/\/www.berry1.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273\/revisions\/275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.berry1.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.berry1.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.berry1.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}