Adik takes me to yet another traditional market in search of pants but we come up empty handed. At one point when Adik asks a shopkeeper if he has any pants without elastic waist bands, he becomes animated, verging on angry. As he shouts and gesticulates wildly Adik starts laughing and tells me as we walk away he said if he had pants without elastic the religious police would come and arrest him.
I don't know if it's the overwhelming fatigue or the city itself (another traveler I met later confessed to falling into a deep depression in Malang) but as we wander the streets my mind begins to shift to shadows and I can't shake the thought that I will never understand a culture that hides women under veils and is enamored with caging birds. Why am I here?
Adik leads me through a maze of lanes and alleys to a neighbourhood of potters and we watch one making turtle ashtrays and candle holders in a lean to shed. Here, in this musky workshop with sunlight dappling the clay dust floating in the air and the smoke of the moldering kiln stinging my eyes I remember the words, "There is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in." I buy a turtle and still my mind, brace myself for the days yet to come.
4 comments:
hmmm.. maybe the gals there are really... umm.. unhummahumma? as for caging birds, don't we do that here too? I mean, they? anyway, I knew I should have convinced you to go to South America.... :)
Gooy
( as some called me in Colombia)
@>>----
Gooy! (That makes me giggle) Do we cage birds? I don't know that I've ever seen one caged aside for possibly in a zoo and even there they're in the atrium.
As for the hummahumma factor, I reserve judgement but I ask of you, how adolescent does a man have to be to require women hide themselves so he doesn't get excited? To be so afraid of losing control speaks quite unfavourably about one's character as far as I'm concerned. Hmph.
Anyway, I do miss you Ghee (that has a nice East Indian ring to it ;p). Are you in South America now? I'm sure I'll meet up with you there eventually!
well ghee whiz.. why else would any man with a pulse want to hide a beautiful woman? So I figure if they're hiding them, they mustn't be terribly beautiful.. but then that's just me. or maybe they are drop dead gorgeous and it isn't about lacking self-control but about insecurity? Let me know what you figure out. Listen, there are many, many people here with caged budgies, parakeets, canaries, etc... oh and.. tweety birds? I dunno, I don't even like to keep cats and dogs in the city myself but many people do. Sadly, I'm still stuck in winterpeg.. but my house goes up for sale in February (just finished the renos) and I probly am out of here with pension by the end of March or April. At that point, I will decide whether to head for Colombia right away or accept my buddies' invitation to work for him on the pipeline in the Yukon for a while first... but the plan is still to end up in Colombia.... or maybe Ecuador? It sure would be a nice surprise to run into you down there. =)
Well, I'm still planning to do a bike trip from the Peg to the tip of South America. If I pull it off, I will make a point of stopping by your neighbourhood with a bottle of wine to try and convince you to join me on the whatever remains of my journey. You can pretend to need more time to consider it, if you decide you want to share a second bottle, but in the end you can decline by blaming your trick knee. I'll understand and try not to overstay my welcome ;)
The Yukon adventure is so utterly and completely you, you must do it!
As for winterpeg, do me a favour? On a very clear night, after two glasses of wine-just enough to make heaven seem closer and the stars not so distant, put on your parka and boots, find a soft patch of snow and make a snow angel for me. I never thought I'd miss the cold but there's something just not right about an eternal summer.
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