Monday, September 12, 2011

You Are What You Wear

Family and friends, as you may know, I am not the most fashionably conscientious person. However, here in Benin, clothes matter BIG TIME. And people have this uncanny ability to take in EVERYTHING you’re wearing from earrings to shoes within the first 30 seconds of seeing you. Throughout training, the TEFL volunteers have been reminded of the importance of dress, especially as a teacher. Teachers are automatically well-respected members of the community, thus they are expected to dress accordingly. That being said, I wear long skirts and modest shirts (I like to refer to myself as modest mar-eee-ah). I’ve now realized that one of my biggest faux pas in Niger was wearing plastic, but OH SO comfortable Havana flip flops everyday. Alas, now I must wear nicer strappy sandal contraptions that entrap my mosquito-bitten feet. Today, I was wearing just such a cute pair. Unfortunately, while walking home I tripped (unsurprising) and broke my sandal! Irreparable! The AGONY!

Haha, not TOTAL agony, but this presented a problem for the rest of my walk home. I tried to keep the sandal on my foot, while my friend encouraged me to walk like a proud seductive flamingo. On the journey home, walking as a proud seductive flamingo, as soon as people saw me, they started chuckling to themselves. People across the street, yards away would yell, “Yovo, your shoe is broken!” Yes, thank you. It was actually quite a hilarious situation and I couldn’t stop laughing. People offered to give me rides on their motos, to give me their own shoes, and to take me to the shoe cobbler. I felt more like a clown than a proud seductive flamingo, but all the same, it was quite an experience. The best part was when this small boy who always asks me for a gift, ran up to me demanding a cadeau. I promptly took off my broken shoe and gave it to him! Alas, even he refused this hurt gift.

Lesson learned: Everything you wear matters. It makes a lot of sense. In the US people put a lot of pride, energy, and money into the appearance of their houses or cars, but when money is tighter, it makes sense to put that energy and pride into dress. Maybe I’ve just been living in some strange Mariah warped time continuum, but I feel like in the US, people have more freedom to dress to express their unique personality. Yes, for work, a gala event, or perhaps some posh club in LA I couldn’t get away with rubber flip flops. But any birthday party or random bar outing, hello Havanas! Dressing to express personality definitely exists here as well, but as a foreigner in a new land, it also seems that my personal way of dressing lazily does not fly for most social situations here. I need to dress my part and dress in a way that shows respect to my community and the individuals I encounter along the way. Inshallah, my sandals won’t break and I’ll look fly for the next TWO years of service. Inshallah.