Have you ever wondered how Superman felt when we emerged from the telephone booth a "transformed" man. His clever disguise of glasses and business casual no longer covers his red, white and blue uniform that signals he must save another helpless human. Will anyone recognize him? Will they notice that he went in different than he came out?
I think I can empathize.
Teaching English classes at a hotel, presented the opportunity for me to swim in the pool for a workout, since I am already there and it is a Westernized place.
When I teach I cover from head to toe, which requires a remarkable amount of clothing (which I usually steal from my roommate) such as a skirt, under-skirt, shirt, under-shirt, head scarf, loose scarf and of course the normal undergarments. It would be difficult and impractical to swim with these clothes. So after class I walk to the pool deck and go behind the bar to the changing rooms. When I emerge from the changing room, I feel a little self-conscious and naked, so I quickly jump into the jelly bean shaped pool. And at the end of my swim the process repeats itself in reverse.
I enter the changing room a Western slut and exit an acculturated-Djiboutian teacher. My insecurity remains, and unfortunately unlike Superman, everyone knows. (Seriously, do you think that a 5 foot 10 inch white girl can hide under a few layers? Sometimes I wish real life allowed for the "suspension of reality" allowed in television.) The German men drinking beer and all the men at the post-election celebration are a little curious. But I am comforted by the sweet middle-aged man behind the bar who knows, but he seems to accept my strange Western tendencies toward swimsuits, and appreciates that I am trying to infiltrate his culture with my broken Somali and multiple layers, so he has taken to calling me "ma fille". "
"See you Saturday, my girl."
