No plum for you!

July 27, 2007 (Africa story)

One of my friends from Paris is down where I was last week for the summer to learn the local language there. It was sort of a fluke thing that we ended up getting to see each other, but made it fun at the same time. On two separate afternoons, when I had time, we went for walks during the time of the day when the local village women are all out and about walking as well. Not only would that be an appropriate time for us to be out walking as women, but it would give my friend a chance to practise language with some local ladies as well. One day, Sue-Wee joined us too.

We walked and walked, I took a lot of pictures. We stopped a few times for A to practise talking. Right before we returned to our house, these two ladies sitting on the corner wave us over. We wander over to say hello. Sue-Wee and I offer all we really know, "a salaam alaykum," the traditional Arabic greeting that'll get you around most Muslim parts, whether they speak Arabic or not.

A gabs it up really well with them, and I just take in what they look like, since I don't understand a single word. One woman is about 30 (or younger), with two children hanging off of her. (Sue-Wee is great with kids and is hamming it up with one of the younguns.) She is wearing thick socks, several layers of clothing, and a wool poncho. (And of course her head is covered). I'm all about modesty, but I thought...she has got to be roasting!

The other woman, we learn, is the 1st woman's grandmother. She's not wearing as thick of clothes, but what she lacks in thickness, she made up for in color! I look at her eyes and see that she is wearing blue eyeliner. Her cheekbones are exaggerated and dominate, in a most beautiful kind of way. You can tell that she had the clearest of skin her entire life. I whisper to A, "She's the prettiest old lady I've ever seen." A nods in agreement.

Suddenly, the old woman pulls her shirt by the collar out in front of her so that she can look down it. Sue-Wee and I try not to get too wide-eyed or laugh. With her left hand holding the shirt way out, and her face stuck down in it, she plunges her right hand down into her shirt, feeling all around until she finds what she's searching for. She pulls out a plum and hands it with pride to Sue-Wee. She digs down for another another, searching deeper and deeper into her shirt through the neck hole. Out comes another plum, which she hands to me.

She makes a motion for A to hold on one second, and searches a third time. She can't find it, and so begins using both hands to search for plums that are hidden down her shirt somewhere. Finally, she looks up at us, shrugs her shoulders, and makes the universal hand symbol, of "I'm all out." No plum for A.

I really, really, really wish I'd had a secret video camera. It was hysterical. I have never--in my life--been offered plums out of a woman's chest before.