Chicken Feed and Other Life Lessons
Being a foreigner makes you humble. You point to a bag of grains at the market and ask the woman selling it "is this for popcorn?" and she politely responds ... "no that's for chickens, this is for popcorn."
"Chickens"
She was polite at least, and honestly, you don't think anything of what an ass you just made of yourself, it all happened in another language, which obviously means it didn't really happen at all...
Right?...
...
I went through a phase when I was in elementary school where I loved the Dixie Chicks. Which is pretty comical if you know my current tastes in music. My favorite song of theirs is Wide Open Spaces, downloaded on my phone to this day.
It's things like that, little hints and clues of what my life would become, that sometimes freak me out. Like maybe listening to the lyrics while dancing around in my best friend's bedroom in fourth grade taught me something. Maybe I was actually listening.
...
I made a list the other day of the hardest things I've ever had to do in life. Then I got pissed because I kept writing more and more, when I originally intended to write only three. So I made myself write the easiest things I've ever done, as part of the whole positive mindset, positive life bullshit I've read about on Pinterest a lot lately. Heres the list:
"Chickens"
She was polite at least, and honestly, you don't think anything of what an ass you just made of yourself, it all happened in another language, which obviously means it didn't really happen at all...
Right?...
...
I went through a phase when I was in elementary school where I loved the Dixie Chicks. Which is pretty comical if you know my current tastes in music. My favorite song of theirs is Wide Open Spaces, downloaded on my phone to this day.
It's things like that, little hints and clues of what my life would become, that sometimes freak me out. Like maybe listening to the lyrics while dancing around in my best friend's bedroom in fourth grade taught me something. Maybe I was actually listening.
...
I made a list the other day of the hardest things I've ever had to do in life. Then I got pissed because I kept writing more and more, when I originally intended to write only three. So I made myself write the easiest things I've ever done, as part of the whole positive mindset, positive life bullshit I've read about on Pinterest a lot lately. Heres the list:
- Hang out with my family
- Love my dogs
- Eat chocolate chip cookies
...
I go home to dishes that stack up in my teeny tiny bathroom sink. And by dishes I mean like two or three because that's all that really fits. Nothing demands doing your dishes quite like them stacking up on top of your toilet.
...
Thing is, all of this is just what it's like to be foreign. You get called at while you walk around your hometown, you don't know how to say corn starch or baking powder or baking soda and somehow you end up at home with moldy garlic, corn flour, and butter that costs more than the rest of your groceries combined. You feel disconnected, homesick, terrified, exhausted, and so many other things on an hourly basis. You're hungry and tired and you long for something easy and comfortable.
If nothing more I'm gaining an enormous appreciation for the sacrifices that immigrants and refugees make on a daily basis. With far less resources than I have at my fingertips and a need for health and safety to leave their homes, I can only begin to imagine how difficult that must be.
Being a foreigner is no walk in the park my friends. The kindness and care and support that I have received from Peruvians however, cushions all of the struggles.
Like, she didn't even laugh at me when I said is this for popcorn and pointed to chicken feed, if that's not kindness I don't know what is; she simply pointed me in the right direction and made sure I purchased what I intended to.
There are so many Peruvians who have put in their every effort to help me make Peru feel like home. My host mother slathered Vic's vapor rub on my ankles when I had bug bites for lord's sake. That's devotion at its finest.
...
Despite every challenge and worm found in my potatoes, Peru is actually starting to feel comfortable to me.
Worms. A fair source of protein for the really desperate. Tiny sink. Running water? I hope so. The popcorn/chicken feed story reminds me of my Dad shopping for groceries in South Carolina and having never heard of grits saying to the grocer, when he scooped up a handful out of a barrell and asked Daddy, "Need some grits?" and my poor Daddy saying, "No, thank you, we ain't got no chickens."
ReplyDeleteGrandma, this grits story is perfect. Comforted me knowing grain ignorance is in my blood. <3
DeleteYep. We are all ignorant in many areas. It is simply a matter of exposure, and nothing to be ashamed of....or: nothing of which to be ashamed. Have a sunshiney day....we are going to be enjoying the blocking out of the sun by the shadow of Le Moone.<3 2
DeleteYour popcorn story reminded me of when I was very young and we had chickens and the most exciting thing when I went with my dad to buy chicken feed was I could pick out the pretty material that the feed came in and my mom would make me a dress from the feed sack as they use to call it, back then nothing was wasted even for chicken feed.
ReplyDeleteTalking about stacking dishes in your little sink this is just a thought if you can buy a plastic dish pan or use something that you could put the dishes in with a little water and soap and let them soak that would help get them clean and of course use a little bleach in the water for everything that would help cut out bacteria, just a capful will go a long way, just a thought from Martha Mother as your mom has called me...........lol.
hugs, granny