My New Clothes
I finally have my new clothes! On Thursday I picked up my new outfits from the tailor’s shop. (The tailor’s name is Raj and his shop is called “Supersonic Sewing”!) My teammate had taken me to shop for fabric, and helped me pick out pieces that were already embroidered with bright flowers in the local style. Everything was so beautiful that it was hard to choose! Then she took me to Raj’s place and he measured me. I’m guessing he probably hasn’t made women’s pants that long before! But the clothes fit perfectly; he’s really an expert. I feel much better now that I can go out dressed in the local style—baggy pants, long tunic-top, and matching headscarf—rather than my American-style jeans and shirt.
The tailor, sitting cross-legged behind me, works at a sewing machine on a low bench in front of him.
New clothes are only the most visible way in which I am putting on a new identity here in my adopted home. We don’t often think about all those details that make up “who we are,” the person we know ourselves to be and assume others know as well. When I meet someone for the first time, he asks me, “Where are you from?” and I answer, “California,” but that doesn’t begin to describe my globe-trotting background. “What do you do here?” is the second question, to which I answer, “I am learning your language… my husband is an agro-forestry consultant…” and that says almost nothing at all about my past experience, all my training, or what really brings me to this place. Underneath my new clothes, I still have a strong sense of who I am and Whose I am, but as yet my neighbors don’t know me at all. Still, I hope this new plum-colored outfit with the bright embroidery communicates a little more about who I am: I am a person who is not afraid to let go of my American-ness; I am a person who values this culture and wants to fit in; I am a person who loves beauty and finds it right here around me.
Posted in Uncategorized and tagged new clothes by Lisa