hate it when a language doesn't have the correct word for what I'm trying to say. like I have the perfect word for this situation! but it's in german. augh

“hello miiiiiiiss! how are you? hello miiiister. where you go? where you from? hello hello.”

vorgeschmack auf schule? excuse me, miss? miss? hardly. sometimes i am even being called mister, but that is because the difference might not seem as clear. i have given up counting and i am trying really hard not to give up on either smiling or replying or politely ignoring (especially on being called mister).

 but it can be strenuous, expecially when being surrounded or followed by a group of school children. die kennen da nix und kichern und lachen schallend, wenn sich einer traut oder auch wenn sich keiner traut. und manchmal gleich im chor alle durcheinander, mitten auf der geschäftigen hauptstraße.

 there is no limit to age or status – be it the 75-year-old woman passing me buy or the two policemen on their scooter who e ven cross the street and drive on the right just to look me in the eyes and smile and say “hello miss!”

i am also losing count of the pictures people want to take with me, usually in places tourists are rarely travelling to. they are really shy but they are so eager that their desire for that photo gets the better of them. and when they have finally gotten that picture they giggle away and probably spread it on social media right away.

 only once was i asked to a selfie for myself and not for the other party.

 the biggest surprise though is that small children are scared of me. they look at me like i was from another dimension (which to them i just as likely am) and their face wither slowly starts to change to a slightly worried/scared one or they turn around straight away, refusing to get closer. only later did i find out that it is my blue eyes that are so unfamiliar to them. what irony that that might be the very reason why i am being photographed by school children, families, government officials, young couples, coffee shop waitresses, a singer at the beach in palopo etc.

and if the english lexicon is not that big, i just get to here “photo!?”, a shake with the mobile and a hopeful expression on a face.

[23 march – 8 april 2018, sulawesi]