From Wikipedia….
Dinah: In the Hebrew
Bible, Dinah (Hebrew: דִּינָה, Modern Dina
Tiberian Dînā ; "Judged;
vindicated") was the daughter of Jacob, one of the patriarchs of
the Israelites,
and Leah, his first
wife. The episode of her abduction and violation by a Canaanite prince,
and the subsequent vengeance of her brothers Simeon and Levi, commonly referred
to as "The Rape of Dinah", is told in Genesis
34.
The entire wikipedia
article on Dinah is interesting and calls to mind issues with historical
reinterpretation, even if that initial reinterpration was done in the early BC,
that doesn’t make it less…interpreted: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinah
Today, after finding that I could not get my money from
Western Union again and that I am running out, Dinah came back and made me
lunch without saying anything to me. She
made the same as she normally makes, vegetables (carrots, squash, onions,
something green, bell peppers) in a light tomato based sauce (from whole fresh
tomatoes) and she put in the sautéed cooking bananas which I love so much. In addition, she also put in a bunch of those
hot peppers since she found out that I like them. This is such an amazing meal:
With the peppers it was really spicy, not too spicy, just
right. Just enough after half a bowl to
make your upper lip sweat and your skin feel cooler in the wind and your nose
begin to run. Plus, the flavor of these
peppers! Magnificent! Even if most Rwandan food is a total carb
bomb. It's mostly vegetables.
She says that all
Rwandans love the peppers but they liked to sauté the peppers with onion and
garlic in oil and then put the oil into a bottle and put it on everything that
is cooked after its done as a hot sauce.
Also, I asked Dinah recently if she would be willing to do
my laundry as she does some of the other guests. Yes of course she says. I told her I would be concerned that the load
was too big. She said, “For you, it
can’t be too big.” I said, as I touched
her hand (and if you know me well then you know I do not seek touch with other
human beings unless I am drunk or they are all Conor), “But, I don’t want to
take advantage!” She told me then
something amazing, “You cannot take advantage.
First, your clothes are not that dirty.
I have been doing for 8 years.
Also, you are a friend of Hollie’s.
I will take care of you.”
I know Hollie lightly (haha!). Hollie Go Lightly, nudge nudge, get it? Anyway, I know her. Dinah and Agnes have both told me that Hollie
is their BEST friend. I want to know
more about this relationship that gets me, because I know Hollie, this kind of
treatment.
After lunch, I picked up my room so that Dinah could mop in
there. I was sitting on the couch
waiting for her to finish. She came and sat
near me and began to talk. She said that
she just found out that her younger sister was up for a good job someplace in
order to make some money while she studies very hard. She is at university with Glenn’s help, Dinah
says. There was only one opportunity and
it was actually offered to Dinah but she gave it to her sister. As she said it, “Studying is a very good
thing to do. My sister will be happy.” I asked her if she would study. She said no, there is maybe no more
opportunity. Dinah is 29 years old.
She says that she would like to meet a nice boy and marry
him and have two children, one boy and one girl. But, she says, the hard part is that she can’t
find a nice boy and that she is a good Christian. I asked her if she goes to church. She does.
I asked can she find a nice boy at church. She says that just going to church and
appearing to be good does not make a nice boy.
She says, in her own words, that most people are hypocrites. I agreed with her. I will ask her some other time what a “nice
boy” is but I think that I know. And I will
ask her later what constitutes a non-nice boy, but I also think that I know.
After this, I asked her if she planned to sell electricity
because it was something she mentioned the other day. She said she thought this was a good
job. But, she said no, she thought that
she would like to own a salon. And then
she got excited and asked if she could show me something. I was to follow her to her room which I consider
kind of a big deal. It's unspoken, but
the sense is that we do not go down to their building and that it is their
private space. You call from above the
stairs and then they come if they are there or they yell back or they might not
be there.
She invites me in and tells me to sit on her bed (the only
sitting surface available). She takes
out the cleanest and newest gym like bag I have seen in Rwanda (nothing here
looks really clean and new but this looks pristine as if it too were kept in
plastic). Inside this bag there are a
series of plastic bags which she pulls out.
Inside each plastic bags are other carefully tied bags. Inside the first big plastic bag is a WHOLE
bunch of totally random beauty products.
The plastic bag says on the outside Dollar Tree which I know that they
do not have here. The labels on all of
the products confirm that this was the bag that they came in. She tells me that Glenn brought this bag to
her before. There are cheap but pretty
and dazzling nail polishes of different colors.
There are thousands of emery boards and other nail things. Some hair things.
She shows me these things and asks me to pick a color of
nail polish. I pick a glittery red. She says that she will paint my toenails
(which is good because they look sad and neglected right now with peeling and
chipped silver/lavender (maybe that’s called puce?) color on them). She agrees that red is the best of all
possible colors with glitter or without.
She tells me that these are the things for the salon. She tells me that she wants to have money to
have a family but also that she hopes that later on her sister and her brother
who she has helped get into education and good jobs (given away everything of
hers, she says) that she will help her later when she needs it. I ask her if she takes care of her siblings. She says, oh yes, she loves them. She tells me that her mother is a couple of
years older than mine and in a village somewhere to the west. That her mother is ill with TB and coughs a
lot and that she sends her mother money.
Here, you can send money using cell phones which LITERALLY every single
person in the country has.
She next opens the other bag. Inside this are lot's and lot's of small
boxes of all kinds and a larger kit looking bag roll up thing. Inside of each of these is a cheap piece of jewelry,
of the type of quality that I buy currently just to wear something shiny but
that doesn’t last very long when the coatings come off. Especially because I routinely fiddle with
any jewelry I am wearing when I am bored or nervous which is often.
She takes and very carefully shows me from each zipper
pocket and baggy and box each precious item of this jewelry. I ask her if she wears them to church. She says, “NO! These are to sell at the salon
later! This thing would go for THIRTY
THOUSAND FRANCS HERE!” I ask her which
is her favorite one anyway. She picks
the one I would have picked. A gold
plated long necklace with white plastic “gems” or balls hanging around it. It's very shiny and glittery. My husband would like it too.
She asks me about each item, do you know if this is
gold? Is this “silv” (silver)? Is this a gem? What kind of thing is this? I tell her, this is gold only on the top,
underneath it is something harder. She asks
about my wedding ring. I assure her it
is not gold or silver but something cheaper and harder that still looks nice
and can take a real beating. I tell her
that this is nice cut crystals made to look like sapphires and diamonds. I tell her that this is definitely real
silver but this is just made to look like silver. She asks me how much things would be in the
USA. It is hard for me to answer. I explain the cultural origins of the silver Celtic
cross she has and that it is part of the culture of my people, the Irish. She says that now this cross is her
favorite. She shows me one of the charms
with that looks like a women symbol for a bathroom with a crystal made to look
like someone’s birth stone that were so popular as charms and pendants about 15
years ago. I explain about birth stones
and say that these are for when you have babies. You get the stone for the month that your
baby was born and you pick the boy or girl one and then you put on a bracelet
or a necklace.
Among her glittering, most secret, most private, and most
valuable treasure trove, Dinah shows me a fraternity pin and asks me what it
is. I try to explain it to her and try
to explain how it is worn (it has a chain between a bigger pin and a smaller). The bigger pin has the Greek letters phi eta
kappa and a skull with gems for eyes on it, I remembered it and looked it up
later. It is actually from a fraternity
of the University of Maine and, as I understand it, Glenn is from Boston and
went to Harvard. Strange this gold flotsam
of the west ending up in the humble room of this sweetest of Rwandan women
(umugore means woman).
What do you do when a friend shows you their most precious dreams and all of these things are dollar store items from the USA? I do not judge her, but I do judge the West all the more harshly.
What do you do when a friend shows you their most precious dreams and all of these things are dollar store items from the USA? I do not judge her, but I do judge the West all the more harshly.
Side note: I am having
some ethical discomfort with sharing this information on this blog. I want to share this and would share it each
individually with all of you. However,
this is posted on line, my personal thoughts and Dinah’s words and deeds. I feel as though I am exploiting her whether
or not I want to. Any thoughts or advice
on this?
To sum up my feelings: look forward to making dinner for Dinah this
week.
Also, when I come back next year, I want to bring an entire
spa kit (massage oil and special towels and lot’s and lot's of beautiful high
fashion nail polish colors and lotions, etc.).
Dinah has a side business doing this small spa services for neighbors
and friends and friends of friends and their cousin’s mom’s brother’s sister’s
friend. She has offered to me the whole
kit-and-kaboodle, including massage, for 6$.
I will be taking her up on this offer when I have money. Also, I think I will try to find her size and
get her some sneakers. I think she was
admiring mine.
Also, I think I will give her a pony, my first born child,
and my heart.
P.S. Complete non
sequitur, Heike and Martin are always eating.
They eat all day long. They eat
normal meals but they eat all before that and all after that. Avocado, nuts, yogurt, Martin may drink a
Primus or Mutzig (his favorite), they both drink chocolate milk every day, then
a really big meal which is generally a rice and vegetable dish or beans or
pasta, and then after bread, cheese, jam, Nutella, more nuts and avocado, and
it just goes on.
