Please note that I started writing this post on Valentine's Day...
Happy Valentine's Day to everyone. May you feel your heart bursting with love, either for that special someone, a dear friend, family members, acquaintances, or random strangers. Today's the day when it's okay to be emotive and expressive. It's also okay to receive your weight in chocolate and put those flower allergies to the test. For me, I'm grateful to not be Stateside so as to not have had a barrage of in-your-face Valentine's Day adverts and reminders commence the day after New Year's.
On this Valentine's Day, 2013, I actual forgot that it was Valentine's Day. Each day feels no different than the rest here, so I feel that I can be excused in that respect. However, it took two women at the Intercon to warmly remind me.
To give you some helpful background information, as of 26 December, I joined the health club at the Intercontinental Hotel in Muscat. The full name is The Palm Beach Club, and as a club it comes with exclusive elements, like water cooler water in the gym area, workers addressing me as either Ma'am or Miss (depending on the age and social distance of my interlocutor), and two full-time women assigned to the women's locker room and sauna/steam room/Jacuzzi/plunge pool area to help female patrons manage themselves in these two rooms. I confess -- I initially took a dislike to them because I have a hard time allowing people to "wait on me." No, sorry. I can put the towel in the huge red towel bin by myself. No, you don't need to come into the sauna just to refill the water pail; I can do it myself -- I'm sure you have other tasks with a higher priority." But over the past six weeks, I've warmed up to them and look forward to greeting them each time I go to the club.
B is from Malaysia, has worked in Oman for the past 19 years, and is Muslim. E is from India, has worked in Oman for nearly 11 years, and is Catholic. Both have sharp memories and can note when regulars come to exercise at which times. Until classes resumed from semester break, I usually went in the early evenings. On one Friday evening, I was exceptionally late (nearly getting there at 8pm). E commented, "You are late today, ma'am." I explained that I had just come from church, a fact that prompted E to smile broadly and ask which church I went to, excited to find another Christian. As the weeks passed, she was shocked to learn the frequency in which I go to church (between events and worship services, about twice a week). I asked her how often she is able to attend services, to which it became clear almost never because she doesn't drive (the company she works for provides a bus to and from work and her lodgings), lives far from her favored church complex, and works all the time. By works all the time, I mean she works pretty much every day, and a short shift for her is 12pm-12am. And no -- I did not mistype that time range. Other days, she works 6am-12am. Same for goes for B. If they each get one day off per month, they are lucky. I have yet to find out how much they earn in exchange per month. I assume it is a pittance, and I'm selfishly not yet ready for that dose of reality. Despite these working circumstances, they've always got smiles ready for me when I enter the club. I share with you today's exchange:
Context: It's about 12:30pm. I've just finished my routine for the day and am walking out of the shower area. B and E sit on the bench along the mirror in the women's locker room area, just outside glass door that separates the showers from the lockers.
E: Finished, ma'am?
Me: For today, yes. Now, I go to work. It's the weekend, but I'm scheduled for IELTS clerical marking.
E: Ah. You busy today.
I walk away to comb my hair and then pass them again to return my towel to the towel bin (inside the shower area). In front of E's folded leg rests a half-kilo bag of Indian snack crackers, closed. B is holding an open, much smaller bag with red-colored bits.
B emphatically holds up the clear plastic bag towards me and says, "Eat! Eat! From India!"
Me: Oh no, that's okay. I don't want to take your lunch.
B: No, take! Very good. It's ah...ah..ah..potato...sweet. Sweet potato. But not much sweet. Try!
Me: I reach into the bag and take a couple of the inch-long dried strips of sweet potato fries. Mmm...good. I give a thumps up sign.
E: Take more, take more!
Me: It's okay. A taste is enough.
B: No, take. With the bag in her hand, she mimics handling the steering wheel of a car. Give you power for driving! They know that it's a 30-minute drive from the hotel to the university.
E gets up suddenly and rips a sheet of paper towel from the towel dispenser. She returns to the bench and empties out nearly half of the bag on the paper towel. The rest of the bag, B takes and then gives to me. E looks down at the other snacks and asks if I want to take some of those, too. I decline, yet thank them for the sweet potato snacks they reserved for me.
B's face splits into a smile. Her round face looks like a cherub's, framed by her white head covering. Suddenly, she says to me, "Happy Valentine's Day!"
I give a full smile in return, extend my right hand to her right hand in the gesture of a handshake, and bend down to her, touching my right cheek to her right cheek. "Happy Valentine's Day, B!" I say as I straighten into a standing position. I move two steps to my left and do the same for E.
E: Happy Valentine's Day, ma'am.
They may not have given me paper hearts or a card, but they gave me what they had: dried sweet potato fries and their love. What great Valentine's Day gifts!
Happy Valentine's Day to everyone. May you feel your heart bursting with love, either for that special someone, a dear friend, family members, acquaintances, or random strangers. Today's the day when it's okay to be emotive and expressive. It's also okay to receive your weight in chocolate and put those flower allergies to the test. For me, I'm grateful to not be Stateside so as to not have had a barrage of in-your-face Valentine's Day adverts and reminders commence the day after New Year's.
On this Valentine's Day, 2013, I actual forgot that it was Valentine's Day. Each day feels no different than the rest here, so I feel that I can be excused in that respect. However, it took two women at the Intercon to warmly remind me.
To give you some helpful background information, as of 26 December, I joined the health club at the Intercontinental Hotel in Muscat. The full name is The Palm Beach Club, and as a club it comes with exclusive elements, like water cooler water in the gym area, workers addressing me as either Ma'am or Miss (depending on the age and social distance of my interlocutor), and two full-time women assigned to the women's locker room and sauna/steam room/Jacuzzi/plunge pool area to help female patrons manage themselves in these two rooms. I confess -- I initially took a dislike to them because I have a hard time allowing people to "wait on me." No, sorry. I can put the towel in the huge red towel bin by myself. No, you don't need to come into the sauna just to refill the water pail; I can do it myself -- I'm sure you have other tasks with a higher priority." But over the past six weeks, I've warmed up to them and look forward to greeting them each time I go to the club.
B is from Malaysia, has worked in Oman for the past 19 years, and is Muslim. E is from India, has worked in Oman for nearly 11 years, and is Catholic. Both have sharp memories and can note when regulars come to exercise at which times. Until classes resumed from semester break, I usually went in the early evenings. On one Friday evening, I was exceptionally late (nearly getting there at 8pm). E commented, "You are late today, ma'am." I explained that I had just come from church, a fact that prompted E to smile broadly and ask which church I went to, excited to find another Christian. As the weeks passed, she was shocked to learn the frequency in which I go to church (between events and worship services, about twice a week). I asked her how often she is able to attend services, to which it became clear almost never because she doesn't drive (the company she works for provides a bus to and from work and her lodgings), lives far from her favored church complex, and works all the time. By works all the time, I mean she works pretty much every day, and a short shift for her is 12pm-12am. And no -- I did not mistype that time range. Other days, she works 6am-12am. Same for goes for B. If they each get one day off per month, they are lucky. I have yet to find out how much they earn in exchange per month. I assume it is a pittance, and I'm selfishly not yet ready for that dose of reality. Despite these working circumstances, they've always got smiles ready for me when I enter the club. I share with you today's exchange:
Context: It's about 12:30pm. I've just finished my routine for the day and am walking out of the shower area. B and E sit on the bench along the mirror in the women's locker room area, just outside glass door that separates the showers from the lockers.
E: Finished, ma'am?
Me: For today, yes. Now, I go to work. It's the weekend, but I'm scheduled for IELTS clerical marking.
E: Ah. You busy today.
I walk away to comb my hair and then pass them again to return my towel to the towel bin (inside the shower area). In front of E's folded leg rests a half-kilo bag of Indian snack crackers, closed. B is holding an open, much smaller bag with red-colored bits.
B emphatically holds up the clear plastic bag towards me and says, "Eat! Eat! From India!"
Me: Oh no, that's okay. I don't want to take your lunch.
B: No, take! Very good. It's ah...ah..ah..potato...sweet. Sweet potato. But not much sweet. Try!
Me: I reach into the bag and take a couple of the inch-long dried strips of sweet potato fries. Mmm...good. I give a thumps up sign.
E: Take more, take more!
Me: It's okay. A taste is enough.
B: No, take. With the bag in her hand, she mimics handling the steering wheel of a car. Give you power for driving! They know that it's a 30-minute drive from the hotel to the university.
E gets up suddenly and rips a sheet of paper towel from the towel dispenser. She returns to the bench and empties out nearly half of the bag on the paper towel. The rest of the bag, B takes and then gives to me. E looks down at the other snacks and asks if I want to take some of those, too. I decline, yet thank them for the sweet potato snacks they reserved for me.
B's face splits into a smile. Her round face looks like a cherub's, framed by her white head covering. Suddenly, she says to me, "Happy Valentine's Day!"
I give a full smile in return, extend my right hand to her right hand in the gesture of a handshake, and bend down to her, touching my right cheek to her right cheek. "Happy Valentine's Day, B!" I say as I straighten into a standing position. I move two steps to my left and do the same for E.
E: Happy Valentine's Day, ma'am.
They may not have given me paper hearts or a card, but they gave me what they had: dried sweet potato fries and their love. What great Valentine's Day gifts!
4 comments:
Monique, that was absolutely beautiful. Thank you for sharing, and I wish I was there to exercise with you and meet E and B! They sound lovely! You are lucky!Carol WD
Thanks for the comment, Carol. Indeed, they are lovely and I am lucky. It is my hope that in the remaining time that I have left here in Oman that I am able to really appreciate these moments -- moments that don't happen in quite the same way when in our own cultures. I bet you've got loads of Micronesia encounters similar to this one.
Just reading that made me feel better - can't say why.
Thank you catherine
Thanks, Catherine. Glad you were able to view the page.
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