2007-01-27 - 7:25 p.m.
So--GET. THIS. There's a student I worked with closely in Dashoguz who is studying in America for a year at a high school about 3 hours from here. I've been writing to him ever since he arrived in America in August and since he lives in one of my friend's hometowns, I've promised him that I would come and visit him. Which would be great, right? I get to see one of my favorite kids from Turkmenistan in America and he gets to see someone he knew in Turkmenistan. Everyone wins! YAY!
Being that I move to Seattle in a week and I have no car, it's been a bit of a brain teaser figuring out how I was going to get to see him. Enter Josh, recent ex-boyfriend with a good heart. Josh offers to drive up from Columbus to Cleveland to pick me up, drive all the way in the opposite direction to Urbana so we can meet the student, drive me all the way back up to Cleveland, and drive all the way back down to Columbus--an offer I cannot refuse. So I call the student, find out he's free tomorrow, and we make plans for Josh and I to go to Urbana to go visit him. Which is great, right? I get to see a student of mine again, my student gets to see me, and Josh gets to meet a student I talked so much about. Everyone wins! YAY!
So I call his home again tonight so I can learn his address and end up speaking with host mom, Debbie, since he's not home. I tell her that I need their address so I know where to come pick him up. After I say that, there's this uncomfortable silence, she clears her throat and asks very, very tersely, "Why? Were you thinking of taking him somewhere?" I tell her (as I told my student) that I was thinking of taking him out to lunch somewhere.
Then Debbie the Deal-Breaker whips this out, in a rather cold, even more terse tone than before: "Well, I'm sorry but I don't know you at all. And I would prefer that if you see him, you just spend the afternoon at our house."
Now, that was a little treat, now, wasn't it? The student has talked about me a lot with his host family and told them how I worked with him for two years as a Peace Corps Volunteer. What else do you need as a seal of approval, Assface? Was I supposed to educate more than one city of foreign children before I passed your Clean Morals Quiz? Are you afraid I'm going to take my student, who I think of as a little brother and friend, out into a field and beat him to death? I mean, what the fuck kind of woman questions the moral clarity of someone who did the Peace Corps for two years? No offense, Deborah--but I thought your fake son would want to eat something besides your split-rail fence grilled cheese sandwiches for once in his entire year.
I know I'm being a bit tetchy about this but I can't wait to meet this bitch tomorrow. And God help me hold my tongue in place.
