The Honesty of Africa

People here are very blunt. If you are sensitive, you need to get over that quickly. I prepped myself before coming that people may say things that may hurt my feelings, but I just had to take it. They are not being mean just making an observation. Here are a couple examples:

The Sunday after coming back from Nairobi in July, I said hi to Geoffrey at church. He is a Kenyan teaching at a school in Tonj. He said "Welcome back. You must have eaten lots of good food in Nairobi" and then makes a hand gesture like I have gained weight. I told him, "actually, I didn't gain any weight while I was there." (thank you very much!) I kept asking if he was serious, thinking he was kidding, but no... he was serious!

Then last Sunday, a boy named Mario come over to me at church. He is around 17 and is a smooth talker. He has started giving us Dinka lessons. The previous day he taught our first class. So he says "my sister, yesterday you were wearing a very nice necklace and you were very beautiful." I asked him, "so today I am not beautiful?" He said "no you are not. Why aren't you wearing your necklace?" Hahaha. That made me laugh. Sorry for leaving my necklace in my room and showing up ugly to church.

People say things like that all the time. They aren't trying to be mean. A year ago if someone said that to me I would have cried. Now I just laugh.