I Come In Peace
Posted on December 9, 2007 - Filed Under Simple Life |
When I first arrived in San Juan del Obispo, people were scared of me. They eyed me suspiciously in the street, refused to sit next to me on the bus and just stared when I said good morning.
I wasn´t a normal Spanish student, staying with a family here. I was something else. Someone who came to take one of their men. A gringa with light skin and blue-grey eyes who would surely whisk one of their own off to a foreign country or leave him with his heart broken. After all, that´s what gringas do.
After about a year, some people loosened up. They started greeting me in the street. Some sat beside me on the bus.
Another year went by and I was obviously pregnant. People started to ask me about the baby. They began to call me Señora and Doña Genesis. I started to be recognized in San Juan more than Irving.
Today, I reached another milestone. I was formally invited by the elders of the town to participate in the vote for town mayor. Can you believe it? I´m officially part of San Juan! A true San Juanara. This is SUCH a big deal for me, because I seriously contemplated going home after people refused to sit next to me! 
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I had that same reaction from people in my husband’s hometown in Japan. They live in the province, very far away from Tokyo where there are rarely foreigners.
Hooray to you and welcome to the club. I’m always mistaken as Filipino. Some shallow people think that all Asian women do is come to their “western country” to steal their man. I have to keep on pointing to people I did not come from impoverish Asian country and had I wanted a residency, I don’t have to do it with the help of a man. People who know me accepts me though, so i try to just let things roll off my back!
Congratulations! I am so glad for you. I can only imagine what it feels like to be on the outside like that. I would have wanted to go home, too! How did you and Irving meet anyway? If you ever did a post on that I missed it.
Hey, enjoy your vote! Glad you are being treated warmly, that does make the day seem brighter, doesn’t it.
Kimmie
How out of place you must have felt… After being in Bali just now, I can apreciate how you must have felt, even though the Balinese are very friendly…