Advertising...but not for THAT!

As our staff at the language center gears up for the next course, we are busy with advertising for the center! For Audrey and I, this means passing out flyers next to a video stand at the mall that has our commercial on it. All the teachers rotate from 2-11pm in 3 hour shifts every day. While most of the time this is no big deal, and often a good reason for grabbing dinner at the mall (which we rarely do) a couple of days ago, we had a most disturbing experience. Being out in public in my area of Central Asia is usually pretty stressful. Not only are we white Americans who stick out like a sore thumb...we are also women in our 20's who (though merely average in the US) are thought pretty attractive in our area of the world. Now mind you, we don't wear anything too form fitting, always have something down to mid-thigh if we wear pants and have sleeve past our elbows. But, sometimes I just wish I had a burka to hide behind...especially after this incident.

As we were standing passing out flyers, a man came up to me as if he had a question about the flyer. Now, he got really close...like within a foot of me! Mind you, this encroached on my personal space and is also very, VERY shameful in this culture. In my confusion, as I kept taking small steps backward, he started asking in some Arabic & Kurdish about money and pay. As I was trying to keep my cool and explain how much a course costed, I saw he was holding a hundred dollar bill. I am sure he could tell that I was uncomfortable and I kept saying I didn't understand him, even though I could understand a bit. He was kinda looking around then just kept on walking. About five minutes later he returned, and went up to Audrey and tried the same thing. He pulled out a whole wad of hundreds this time and I heard him talking again about "pay" and "how much" and "love"...at this point, I realized more of what was going on and I moved closer to her and said "na" (short for no) pretty firmly and waved him away with my hand.

He then looked at me and said "see, you understand right?" in Kurdish. I just said no again, turned my head and started ignoring him. Praise God, he then walked away and out of the mall. I explained to Audrey what he said, because she didn't catch it all while he was in her face. We were both utterly creeped out and just furious at the nerve this man had. I couldn't believe how violated I felt. Most men here are pretty decent, though we often catch more glances than we would prefer. However, this reminded me at how fallen humanity is and that my dignity is found not in what any man thinks of me, but in my God who created me, has restored my honor and worth in Christ, and is my Protector and Warrior King! I am so glad that. even as I teach English here in Central Asia, He is with me at all times!

Until next time,

Sarah