Fishbowl Preview

So, in case it wasn’t clear before, all those stories and warnings we were given about living in a fishbowl are absolutely true. Fortunately I haven’t done anything too ridiculous to illuminate this fact, but I’m sure it’s just a matter of time. However, in the past days at school I’ve realized how careful I will have to be. 

Now, I’m not sure if it’s a good or bad thing, but in Colombia the words you say often come back at you in a matter of minutes. Here is, for a small example, what happened this week regarding my lunch eating habits-

Here in Colombia, it’s customary to eat a ginormous lunch of soup filled with bone hocks, a meat, beans, rice, some fried starch that is usually patecones (twice-fried banana fritters), juice, and some iceburg lettuce topped with a pallid tomato slice and drizzled with vinegar-and-garlic-infused-mayo that passes for salad.

This I have a few issues with, for not a few reasons. Therefore, it hasn’t been a problem for me in this last week to skip lunch, and instead simply subsidize my fried empanadas or arepa breakfast with fruit and cereal during the day. In fact, this has been sort of glorious.

However, I made the mistake of telling the truth when someone asked me what I’d had for lunch when they realized I hadn’t had time to return home between morning and afternoon work for the daily lunch-feast. (My answer: An avocado, a pear, some cereal.) I also made the mistake of letting myself be seen by a few other teachers when I ate said lunch. 

And so, in the afternoon teacher meeting, someone overheard me responding to teacher #1 with my lunch menu of the day. Which upon hearing, she became highly concerned and promised to show me the cheapest place around where I could get a “heavy” lunch. And then she shared that she was going to do this with my counterpart. Who, which I’d already forgotten about telling her, shared loudly across the room that I didn’t like big lunches, I liked to snack all day. And then the teachers who had apparently seen me eating lunch chimed in and quoted exactly what I’d had for lunch. And then, while I sat cringing in my seat, I was looked upon with a significant amount of concern and disdain by the entire teaching contingent...and this is all in what was supposed to be an official meeting, headed by the coordinator and the principal themselves!

Either way, I’ve never had my day to day habits so publicly examined by people I hardly know, and especially not to my face! I hate to think of what they’re saying behind my back…although something reassuring about the culture is that eventually, most everything comes to light. I think.