silently the sounds shift
Do you ever find yourself in mid statement of an in depth conversation, and suddenly find your jumbled words dangling amongst you and your peers like an object suspended in motion? Well, I have and still do find that that is something I have come to perfect. The other night myself, two fellow interns, and a fulbrite scholar decided to go out for dinner (I tried deep fried bread or roti that is amazing and must be a heartattack waiting to happen). The ever famous question of "what will guys do once you graduate?" was popped by Steve, the fulbrite scholar and elder of the group. Tim immediately answered that he was going into the peace corps,
Caely quickly followed lead.
I sat there.
I don't know if I want to join the peace corps! I don't even know when to time my showers so that I don't get caught in the dark with shampoo in my hair when the power cuts! But, I guess that has always been the way I have done things making the decisions as I go for I can't tell if one day I'll be more into playing the piano or the guitar. That's just how I am, and I like me that way. I act spontaneously and sometimes... (ok often) irrationally, but that's how I like to live. And I often find that that is the best way I learn as well.
So while the air thickened and I began to babble on (in an incoherant fashion) about the impossibility of ever really being able to know and understand another culture as your own and the therefore compromising position of development practitioners in and of itself, I stopped talking
relaxed
and said
"I have no idea where I was going with this."
Well isn't that how it's always been. C'est la vie.
We all had a good laugh, finished up our fruit cups topped with vanilla ice cream, and departed to the relief of the wait staff that was waiting to clean up after us.
"Khuda haphej."
"Khuda haphej!" He smiled politely and held the door for me. We stepped out into the warm night air and parted down the spacious Banani district roads towards Steve's appt. to watch some Arrested Development.
Caely quickly followed lead.
I sat there.
I don't know if I want to join the peace corps! I don't even know when to time my showers so that I don't get caught in the dark with shampoo in my hair when the power cuts! But, I guess that has always been the way I have done things making the decisions as I go for I can't tell if one day I'll be more into playing the piano or the guitar. That's just how I am, and I like me that way. I act spontaneously and sometimes... (ok often) irrationally, but that's how I like to live. And I often find that that is the best way I learn as well.
So while the air thickened and I began to babble on (in an incoherant fashion) about the impossibility of ever really being able to know and understand another culture as your own and the therefore compromising position of development practitioners in and of itself, I stopped talking
relaxed
and said
"I have no idea where I was going with this."
Well isn't that how it's always been. C'est la vie.
We all had a good laugh, finished up our fruit cups topped with vanilla ice cream, and departed to the relief of the wait staff that was waiting to clean up after us.
"Khuda haphej."
"Khuda haphej!" He smiled politely and held the door for me. We stepped out into the warm night air and parted down the spacious Banani district roads towards Steve's appt. to watch some Arrested Development.
posted by rach at 11:44 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home