Each night when I write about my day, there are things I leave out. Blogging takes a surprisingly long time, at least with the amount I want to record each day and the number of photos I upload. So when time permits, I write down little things I remember and I'll post them once in a while. Here's a few:
African housecats: There are domestic cats in Ghana, but they are really small. The first couple of times I saw cats, I assumed they were kittens. But I saw at least a dozen cats, all of which were about 70% as large as an american housecat. I later discovered cats in Egypt and Tanzania are also small.
From Cape Coast, Ghana: I don't know if this story is true, but it's what I was told. When I was at the smallest of the Cape Coast forts (really more of a lookout), there was this hole, like the entrance to a tunnel. Supposedly during colonial times it was a tunnel leading to Cape Coast Castle, about 1/2 mile away, before it filled up with dirt and garbage over the years. That much I believe. I'm not sure I believe the story about why it was built. Supposedly the white soldiers stationed at the Castle wanted to get with the local Ghanaian women, but the local men didn't like it, and would make things difficult for the soldiers if they just walked through town to meet their gals. So the the soldiers dug the tunnel from the Castle to the fort so they could sneak past the local men and get with the women. I'm more inclined to think the tunnel served to, you know... help the lookout protect the Castle.
From Cairo: Here's a bad snippet. Sad bad, not "do you want to ride a camel?" bad. While waiting for my driver outside of the Pyramids (in front of the KFC lol) a little boy with bare feet and a dirty face came up to me saying "Madame... madame..." and extending what looked like a sheet of stamps or maybe postcards. Having learned not to respond to the local hawkers, I ignored him, but the kid couldn't have been more than four, and I felt awful. I am certain the boy was taught by a parent to do this; not quite begging but close enough. And he was taught not to give up either. When I wandered away he followed me, continuing his pleas. After a moment, a nearby egyptian man gently pulled the boy away from me and spoke a little sternly to him, and the boy moved on (it wasn't his dad, just a stranger). A few minutes later I saw the boy doing the same thing to another woman who was with her family. I suspect the boy was also coached to approach women, because they'd be more likely to respond to a child than would men.
From Africa: I met a number of men in Africa who expressed a desire to go America, but had trouble getting visas. Then they'd mumble something like "too bad I don't have an American wife to help me" and they'd look at me with lame puppy dog eyes. I can't imagine why they're not married already.
From Sri Lanka: Two stories about my driver Sarath. Well, he's really my guide and organizer. He hired Sudat to do the actual driving while his eye recovers from surgery.
(1) He is Buddist, his wife Geetha is Catholic. (Sri Lanka is about 85% Buddist and most of the rest are Hindi, Muslim or Catholic.) When he first met his wife in the 1970s, her father said he'd kill her if she married a Buddist. I asked Sarath if the father meant it to express unhappiness only or if he was the sort who might really do it. I don't know enough about Sri Lanka to know if the killing of wayward daughters happens here, but it does happen elsewhere. Well Sarath wasn't taking any chances. So he and his wife married in 1977, with two of his friends as witnesses. But the four of them kept it a secret from everybody and did not start a life together until after Geetha's father passed away in 1992. In the meantime they saw each other about once a month. Now that is Love.
(2) Sarath owns a dog that doesn't bark at white people but barks at dark people. Like that racist dog on Curb Your Enthusiasm.
And speaking of dogs, they are everywhere in Sri Lanka. A lot of people own them as pets, but most of them can be found either hanging out in the middle the road, waiting to be run over, or hanging out in ancient ruins, slowly starving to death. I have no idea what's up with all of these dogs, but they are the most lackadasical dogs I've ever seen. We even passed some sleeping right in the middle of the road. Well, Sarath and Sudat said they were sleeping; I said they were dead.
African housecats: There are domestic cats in Ghana, but they are really small. The first couple of times I saw cats, I assumed they were kittens. But I saw at least a dozen cats, all of which were about 70% as large as an american housecat. I later discovered cats in Egypt and Tanzania are also small.
From Cape Coast, Ghana: I don't know if this story is true, but it's what I was told. When I was at the smallest of the Cape Coast forts (really more of a lookout), there was this hole, like the entrance to a tunnel. Supposedly during colonial times it was a tunnel leading to Cape Coast Castle, about 1/2 mile away, before it filled up with dirt and garbage over the years. That much I believe. I'm not sure I believe the story about why it was built. Supposedly the white soldiers stationed at the Castle wanted to get with the local Ghanaian women, but the local men didn't like it, and would make things difficult for the soldiers if they just walked through town to meet their gals. So the the soldiers dug the tunnel from the Castle to the fort so they could sneak past the local men and get with the women. I'm more inclined to think the tunnel served to, you know... help the lookout protect the Castle.
From Cairo: Here's a bad snippet. Sad bad, not "do you want to ride a camel?" bad. While waiting for my driver outside of the Pyramids (in front of the KFC lol) a little boy with bare feet and a dirty face came up to me saying "Madame... madame..." and extending what looked like a sheet of stamps or maybe postcards. Having learned not to respond to the local hawkers, I ignored him, but the kid couldn't have been more than four, and I felt awful. I am certain the boy was taught by a parent to do this; not quite begging but close enough. And he was taught not to give up either. When I wandered away he followed me, continuing his pleas. After a moment, a nearby egyptian man gently pulled the boy away from me and spoke a little sternly to him, and the boy moved on (it wasn't his dad, just a stranger). A few minutes later I saw the boy doing the same thing to another woman who was with her family. I suspect the boy was also coached to approach women, because they'd be more likely to respond to a child than would men.
From Africa: I met a number of men in Africa who expressed a desire to go America, but had trouble getting visas. Then they'd mumble something like "too bad I don't have an American wife to help me" and they'd look at me with lame puppy dog eyes. I can't imagine why they're not married already.
From Sri Lanka: Two stories about my driver Sarath. Well, he's really my guide and organizer. He hired Sudat to do the actual driving while his eye recovers from surgery.
(1) He is Buddist, his wife Geetha is Catholic. (Sri Lanka is about 85% Buddist and most of the rest are Hindi, Muslim or Catholic.) When he first met his wife in the 1970s, her father said he'd kill her if she married a Buddist. I asked Sarath if the father meant it to express unhappiness only or if he was the sort who might really do it. I don't know enough about Sri Lanka to know if the killing of wayward daughters happens here, but it does happen elsewhere. Well Sarath wasn't taking any chances. So he and his wife married in 1977, with two of his friends as witnesses. But the four of them kept it a secret from everybody and did not start a life together until after Geetha's father passed away in 1992. In the meantime they saw each other about once a month. Now that is Love.
(2) Sarath owns a dog that doesn't bark at white people but barks at dark people. Like that racist dog on Curb Your Enthusiasm.
And speaking of dogs, they are everywhere in Sri Lanka. A lot of people own them as pets, but most of them can be found either hanging out in the middle the road, waiting to be run over, or hanging out in ancient ruins, slowly starving to death. I have no idea what's up with all of these dogs, but they are the most lackadasical dogs I've ever seen. We even passed some sleeping right in the middle of the road. Well, Sarath and Sudat said they were sleeping; I said they were dead.
Gab, don't you remember the raccoons and squirrels who were soooo tired they fell asleep in the middle of the road? Dogs get tired too.
ReplyDeleteIt seems like a lot of foreign countries could use their own Bob Barker-like figure to encourage citizens to spay and neuter their pets.
ReplyDelete