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I love to talk about and make fun or make light of topics that many may believe are taboo. As the title says, there are things that happen to me specifically because I am the only black person in a group of 37 missionaries traveling around the world. This is the first post and I will continue share as more interesting situations arise….
– It’s hard to take pictures because the contrast of all the white people make you look super dark… actually you look like a shadow. As my mother says “Smile baby so we can see you!”
– The flight attendant thinks you are by yourself because you are surrounded by a group of white people. Therefore, she politely offers to reseat you away from young, somewhat loud, white people that surround you on the plane. I smile and politely decline since I actually happen to be a part of this crazy group.
– No one randomly plays your favorite song. I know there are white people who like Christian Rap… evidently not the people on my team.
– Your squad mate makes a Facebook account for a teacher they are working with in ministry and when the friend suggestions come up you are in the list, but the teacher says “Who is this? She is your friend? Why is she black?!? There are black people in America? ” The worst part is that I can’t be mad at her because she’s probably never met a black missionary. She didn’t even get to meet me since I was different part of Cambodia!
– A tip that I received for Thailand: you can walk into a hotel with the white people in your group and use the pool even though you are not staying there because no one will question you. Luckily, I, like a lot of black people, don’t really swim so I won’t have to test this out.
– I have become deathly afraid of bugs living in my hair 1 … because I already had someone pick ant out of my hair… 2 …because I have been warned that at some point during these 11 months one of the white people on my team WILL get lice. I’ve also been told that black people don’t get lice, but I would hate to find out the hard way that this information may only be a myth… 3 … because I have dread locs and I obviously can’t comb any bugs out of them if I did happen to find some creepy crawlies living up there.
So at the end of my stay in Cambodia I had a Cambodian Tuk Tuk driver who is also a barber, evidently, cut off all my hair.
I have enjoyed and found each and every one of these scenarios funny and I hope you have too. Needless to say, there is adventure in everyday living… What random adventure awaits you tomorrow?
