Happily odd

My friend gave me a great compliment the other day.

We were running some errands in my car, when I began having trouble seeing through the dust covering the windscreen as the afternoon sun dropped in the sky. (My car is constantly dusty, even after a wash it’s only a matter of hours before it again looks like a red matchbox car that’s been lost in the garden for months.)

So while I waited for her to collect a box of veges, I hopped out grabbing the green and pink feather duster which was fortuitously hidden between the seat and the door. I gave the windscreen a good rub and then moved to the rest of the car, rearranging the dust as best I could.

At that moment, my friend returned with her purchases and exclaimed, “You look like an eccentric”. I gripped my feather duster triumphantly while she shook her head at me. I was so pleased by her playful tease. I have lived far too long concerned by what others think.

Being a foreigner here has helped me to start to grow up. I am an outsider, an odd looking stranger who talks funny (and therefore must be stupid) and has bizarre habits (like chewing with my mouth closed). I am hugely different from those around me and so I am not so worried by what people think of me anymore.

However, the litmus test will be when I am able to wear green teddy bear pyjamas to the market like many young Khmer women … without fear of being caught by a foreign friend.