I was talking to a co-worker the other day, Her name is Farida. Farida is an absolute spark plug of a woman. She's bright and cheery and works like she takes caffeine intravenously, but she doesn't and you know sometimes that really get on my nerves there she is bouncin' and smilin' and .. and.. ok ...sorry about that, too much coffee.
Farida is also an immigrant from Indonesia. I've had some interesting working relationships with immigrants over the years. I worked with a Russian in the early 90's just after the collapse of the Soviet union. I think what helps me build a good friendship with people from other parts of the world is my interest in where they come from. What the government is like? What are the different religions? How does your culture treat homosexuals? And in the case of a friend from India. What is up with this cast thing and is untouchable good or bad?
I think my interest allowed me to build a more honest and frank dialogue with some of these friends. I remember talking with my Russian friend one day and asking him "how it felt to have your country on the trash heap of history?" Now granted, on this occasion he walked away grumbling something under his breath but it wasn't long before he was back all smiles teaching me what Russian people call a gay guy.
In Farida's case I didn't know much about Indonesia other then it's a country made up of over 17,000 islands. Actually I think that may be one of the reasons that Farida and I got along so well was that she was so use to dealing with ferries! (Da!.. dump!.. bump!)
So I was talking the Farida the other day and I asked her for a piece of gum? She handed me her pack and I took one. She then asked my if I wanted a Lifesaver kind of thing. I said " I can't do something like that. My mouth wouldn't know whether to chew or suck and for a gay man any confusion at that point can be dangerous."
