Updates!

Time for some updates from the short stories. I’ll hope you find them as enjoyable as I do.

First, the notorious sunglasses dog: I hope you remember the thrilling tale of the street dog that snatched my sunglasses out of my hands, chewed on them for a few hours, then finally left them in front of my house. Well, a week after the grand heist, it came back and followed me as I was walking one morning. I tried to deter it by picking up large stones to seem intimidating, but it didn’t work. I also was with other people who promised to protect me, so I felt ok. We walked through a neighborhood and those neighborhood dogs there attacked my stalker dog, ripping his ear badly, yet the dog still followed us. I felt really bad for it- it got pretty beaten up just because it wanted to hang out with us.

A street dog with puppies.

Second, I wanted to update you all on the over-zealously ironing seamstress, who wouldn’t give me my clothes because I didn’t have an iron (I think). When I came back to get my lungi (the long dress women wear when they shower), I realized she’s actually quite young, and I feel bad for complaining about a delay in picking up my clothes from such a young woman. Also, she’s really nice. And her daughter is incredibly cute. Here’s a picture I took of her (with her permission, of course).

Sewing my lungi

Third is the original story and the update all in one!

There are these massive craters in the streets on the walk to the Fulbright office (just as there are on any road here that is fortunate enough to be paved). These are super, mega potholes that put American potholes to complete shame. The treacherous pits seem to have been there forever, and are filled with sludge and garbage and all sorts of fun things. Being me, one day I tripped on one of the holes and just barely avoided falling in by doing some sort of insane body contortions mid-air (seriously, everyone was impressed). While I did succeed in missing the hole, I managed to face-plant in a big pile of sludge right in front it, in front the entire Fulbright security team. And that was on my way into the office, so I was lucky enough to wear mud-soaked clothes to all of my meetings that day.

Anyway, by the time I left the office in the afternoon, all of those craters had been fixed. I actually caused a tiny positive change in the world! I did it! I accomplished my life goal! Without me falling in, those pits would’ve stayed there for the rest of eternity. I can only imagine the phone calls that were made that day, about an American falling and therefore pavers needed to be dispatched immediately so clumsy foreigners wouldn’t hurt themselves anymore. After that incident, all of the street vendors would crack up whenever they saw me, but I am quite proud of my accomplishment.

For our final update of the day, back to my lungi (the full-length dress women where when bathing). I had assumed that when one is bathing, they go under the lungi to clean themselves (just as your hand goes under your shirt when you scratch your back). It turns out, my assumption was very wrong. When a woman wears a lungi, she is expected to wash the outside of cloth and never reach under. The cloth gets all soapy, and eventually a bit of your body gets a little soapy indirectly. Oops. I’m going to be extra embarrassed if all of you knew that and I’m just the weird one that’s used to directly soaping my body. I must’ve missed that lesson growing up- it still seems unnatural to me.

I’ll leave you with a scene that made me happy: a person on a motorcycle with balloons!