The BirdSpeak Blogs--Bits and Pieces

                                                                Eyebrows, Nodding & The Buffalo

Had dinner with another young professional taking my classes. I have been in his company a couple times outside the studio, but tonight sitting across from him at the table was the first time I realized he had one continuous eyebrow clean across his face! I have never seen a person who let their eyebrows grow together. But come to think of it, they become him. He’d probably look weird if he did shave them apart!!

In the spirit of the usual Bird digression, the Indians do an interesting nod thing with their heads. Not up & down for ‘yes’ or side to side for ‘no.’ Couldn’t exactly tell you what to call it. Ok, imagine those dolls on the dashboards of cars with the heads bobbing rapidly. That’s what they do, like bobble heads! The first time I saw one of my students do that, I thought he might have had some sort of twitch because it was so, so…pronounced. Then I started to notice that EVERYONE does it to varying degrees. I’ve even started doing it, at least in my mind. One day I had my poor class in stitches riffin’ on that theme because like many of us, we are not aware of the little habits we have until someone points them out & even then we deny it! I even acted it out for them, showing many of them how they nod—slow, deliberate, rapid or barely there.
Okay, digression over onto another. Since I’ve been here, I’ve wondered if any of these cows, bulls, or buffalo ever get pissed & haul off on these folks. If you’re like me & didn’t grow up on a farm, you’re in awe at the size of these animals—the girth on these suckas are unbelievable. It’s one thing to see them from your car while driving by on the road but it’s another to walk past one ON the road you’re on! Anywho, my eyebrowed dinner mate told me he & a buddy got out of a car one day. They get across the street in time to see a buffalo roll up & KA-SLAM the car they just got out of. Just on GP, cause he felt like it. Can you imagine??!!! Of course the car was totaled!

& it ain’t like you can sue him for damages either, ooh, I forgot to ask if it was a red car LOL!

                                                                      Yet Another Near Miss

Just missed getting hit by a motorcycle & I was standing, ON THE SIDEWALK! I turned to walk & BEEP! he zoomed by me to park in front of a store. Not safe in the street, not safe on the sidewalk, Great Googa- Moooooo-ga!
Still fuming from the near miss, I head down the street to the market & see a woman laid out on one of the few sidewalks. Just like she was taking a nap, her fabric covered perfectly over her head, face serene. What was deep was that I didn’t know what to do. Didn’t know if she was alive or dead, it wasn’t like I could call 911. Do I yell for help, would people even understand me? Should I tap her? Should I ignore her like I’d seen people do walking past a man who truly looked like he was dead. Frantic, I felt helpless because I really didn’t know what to do for this person in front me, this person who may or may not need my help. In the time it took me to debate right action, she could’ve easily croaked. Then I debated more because I felt like I was failing in my responsibilities as a human being to my fellow.

Still standing in the sweltering heat weighing my options, I finally decide to bend over & see if she was still breathing. She was. PHEW! Ok, so I take the punk’s way out, concluding to go ahead with my errands & if she was still there when I got back that I would do something—what, I didn’t know but happy I had made a decision in the immediate present, I took a hike. She looked so peaceful, maybe she was exhausted to the point she had to take a nap then & there. I see how hard people work here—the last thing I wanted to do was disturb her. But what if she was in distress though looking calm?

Much to my relief, when I headed back that way, it was like the sleeping beauty was never there! Of course I really could’ve been a total punk & walked back another way but I had to see if she was still there. That situation disturbed me greatly because I really didn’t know what to do & I don’t like not knowing what to do. Dammit!

                                                                            Using Your Head

Later, I found myself absolutely mesmerized by 4 women transporting bricks on their heads. Very methodically, they walked from around the corner with their 9 strategically placed bricks moving gracefully as if floating across the ground to the building. Once there, they made their way up the 4 flights of stairs, easily viewable because the front of the place is missing.