which is fine, because this is my form of namjai. [literally, "water heart," namjai is when you are generous not because you feel obligated to, but because you want to be generous and giving out of the goodness of your heart and you never expect your generosity to be answered in kind.] people here are so generous with their time, their things, their money that i never know how i'm ever going to reciprocate their generosity.
but tonight, i made my host family laugh (and laugh hard) for a good ten minutes and that makes me happy.
here's how it went down:
i was playing an intense game of indoor balloon volleyball with the host family kids. i dove down for a low one and felt like i sat on something but didn't really think about it. there was a scuffle and host cousin #1 Bill was down and then immediately afterwards he was pouty. we sat around him trying to console him.. well, they did. i was sitting there trying to figure out why he was having a tantrum. and i was sitting with my knees bent and feet apart when my host brother Nine points at my crotch and very delicately says, "Christine? what?" i look down and i see what he's seeing:
my underwear.
apparently my shorts had ripped during the game. the rip started down at the crotch and all the way up the back nearly to the waistband. i quickly lock my knees together and turn an "oopsies" face to the rest of the family and they crack up laughing for about ten minutes.
i laughed with them for about seven and then i was like, okay, seriously now. can someone please hand me something to cover up with so i can get up?
host cousin #2 Book was making hand gestures indicating pubic hair and penises. and the gist i got from that was, "good thing you were wearing underwear." [i wonder if he realizes that i don't have a penis? or worse yet, that i DO have one? except it's detachable and i keep it in my purse. these kids! always digging through my shit!]
my host grandmother was the only with any sensitivity at all in all this. she went to fetch me a patung (thai sarong). which caused another round of hilarity when i put it on and then gestured riding a bike (you never ride a bike here in a skirt, let alone in a sarong). i got my pawaw (school principal/host father) to take a picture of me on my bike in the patung.
(with my host cousin, Book)my paw-aw's camera lens cover is on the fritz and he didn't realize that it wasn't completely open throughout taking pictures at his son's birthday party. he told me to consider the pictures artistic. my shorts pre-rip:
. . . another fun night spent getting laughed at. i imagine there will be many of those to come.
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