I am immediately petrified when a total stranger walks up to
me to advise me not to buy something I am used to eating. It is not like I want
them to mind their businesses, but I just feel a little embarrassed. I feel
convicted of not knowing how to take care of my body.
It happened this evening in the mall that as I picked up a watermelon, a middle age man starts
speaking to me in Russian. I do not understand what he is saying but I hear
words like hernia, medica… and the man points towards his groin. He is
obviously advising me but I don't understand what he is saying. I ask him
in Russian, ‘eta ploha’ (is this bad)
and he spurts, ‘orchin ploha’ which
means very bad. He shakes hands with me, tells me his name and walks away.
For a minute or two, I
am just standing in the mall, petrified
.
.
Maybe I am an inquisitive person, but at this time, I think
it is more like worry. I feel my stomach churn as if the watermelon I ate in the
morning is affecting me. Thoughts are running in my head:
Is it that chemicals
which are not good for health are used to grow watermelon? I don’t think so
because watermelon grows on the same soil every other plant I eat here grows
on.
Is it that the seeds
in watermelon can be trapped in the appendix like guava seeds are said to be? Even if that is the case, I spit out the watermelon seeds.
I do not know who to ask my question so I have to rush home
to ask Google. As I write this story,
I am researching about watermelons and the only thing I can see is the old
fable that says 'if you swallowed watermelon seeds, a tree will grow from your
stomach!’
I am also wondering how bad the man may have felt after he
saw me check out my watermelon in spite of his advice. Did he feel the same way
I feel when I advise natives not to indulge in cigarettes and vodka? The other day, a Professor in the Economics
school had seen me drinking Coca cola in the bus one miserably hot afternoon.
He started advising me about not taking Coca Cola saying it is an American
indulgence that was bad for my health. He had recommended water and also beer! Did the man advising me in the store
also think of watermelon as a bad American indulgence imported into
Eastern Europe from the watermelon capital of the world in America?
Who knows? Perhaps those experiences could have been people showing geniune interests in my good health and nothing more? I don’t really know the answer but it is
just that as a foreigner in a country where vodka and cigarettes are abused, your mind immediately sees it as an 'anti-foreign' sentiment when you are advised by natives against taking a bottle of Coca Cola -and even watermelons. It is a convenient thing for your mind to do. It is an easy way to rest your worry and console yourself because you can laugh at them for trying to remove the speck from your eye while leaving the log in theirs.
However, you can decide to keep an open mind, to tell your story and ask for information every where you can. So, does anyone know why watermelons may be bad for me, please tell me...
However, you can decide to keep an open mind, to tell your story and ask for information every where you can. So, does anyone know why watermelons may be bad for me, please tell me...
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