free thinkers

Greetings from "the land below the wind", where in this past week, the winds have reached 100 km/hr speeds every night and blown rooves(roofs?) off houses and uprooted trees and sent coconuts falling from trees with the force of grenades. A little funny thing: everybody here expects everybody else to be religious, and most people around where i live have converted to Christianity, so I'm constantlybeing asked if I'm Christian or what religion I am. My new answer: "I'm tolerant." But I've said things like "My grandfather was a minister"or"I celebrate Christmas" or "Culturally, yes." or "No." To one man I said "No," and he asked, well then what religion was I, and I told him not any religion, really, and he said, "Oh... That's okay, I have many Chinese friends who are free thinkers." ...Everytime I think of that, I laugh out loud. It's much fun to have kate here, we're able to be more bold and adventurous with the open-air restaurants and other such venues because somehow you just feel like less of a fool when everyone is staring at the two of you rather than just solitary you. and since one person is obviously more approachable than two, and i was just about at my wits end putting up with all the people concerned about me traveling alone, and thinking that it must mean i'm in desperate need of company of any kind. i feel like a real blob when i just ignore all the "hello girl, hello!" I always think to myself, why can't I just graciously smile and return the greeting? But giving them even that inch, and they'll take a mile more, seeing it as an invitation to shoot out their other english phrases- spanning from "where do you stay?" to versions of "hello, i want to sex you." when you ignore them you feel not only like a blob, but like a victim or an object of their verbal beebees, so with another person, it's easier to return the greeting as obnoxiously and as sincerely as they give it. kate's great at it; she just looks at them directly and says in her subtle southern accent, "HEY, HOW YA DOIN' TONIGHT?" and that really startles them, and while they're recovering we can just maintain our pace and resume our conversation with smirks of victory. today, we were strolling down the street, and we started approaching about five big army trucks and several scores of soldiers, and kate asks me if we're about to get kidnapped, and I told her pshaw, these were the good guys, the people fighting the abu sayaf kidnappers, and we just marched right through
it did feel a little wierd to be surrounded by all that camoflauge and those guns, and i wondered why i didn't just take us on a slight detour around their whole possey. but again, we emerged on the other side with little grins of awe and accomplishment at having remained unphased. so i've taken to staying at the nice 4 star luxury hotel, because i somehow managed to sweet talk my way into getting the government rate ofabout $22 a night. we spend a few hours each day in the pool, the sauna, and the gym which has a rock climbing wall treadmill. whew! it's fun, but not really that easy- you can set the speed, and if you fall, it's never more than a meter or so, but it's pretty embarassing to fall off of it in a crowded gym of buff malaysian men. kate keeps saying that this isn't what she imagined borneo to be like, and she's trying to get all the pampering in because we're heading off to the village tomorrow. but to be honest, i'm really glad that i live in the village and vacation in the city. I prefer the peace and simplicity and the routine of the village- harvesting heart of palm or young bamboo shoots while we're out plant collecting and eating them for dinner because the eggplant I bought at the market two days ago is already rotten from the heat ...and eating papayas and bananas right off the trees. Waking up to the sunrise at 6, and wrapping up the work day as the sun sets at 6:30, and the bucket baths and the beautiful 10 inch lizard that lives in my kitchen and screeches "TA-KO, TA-KO, TA-KO,TA-KO" all night long, ...and sitting on edge in my kitchen after dinnerof rice and vegetables and dried fish, anxiously glancing out the back door wondering if the ants are going to invade again. The ant invasions are fascinating, frightening, and slightly mysterious. Episodes smaller in scale, but nonetheless comparable to those described in "Out ofAfrica" and "The Poisonwood Bible." i'm tired and sore from that rock climbing vertical treadmill/torture device, and feel the urgent need to return to the luxury hotel for a hot bath. hoping and thinking you're all well and dandy xoxo, betony