This Little Light of Mine

So I was at sewing today, and I’m working on a pair of dark colored pants for Will. Well, my machine isn’t near the window and after 4pm it gets really quite difficult to see. These machines are pedal-powered, so needless to say, there is not a light I can switch on near the needle. My cell phone does have a flashlight feature, which I use from time to time, but unless I put it in my mouth, it’s hard for me to aim it at the needle at all times.

Finally today, I text-ed Will to tell him to bring me my headlamp. I knew, that I of course was going to get made fun of for wearing it, but at this point I stand out so much anyways and everything I do is so foreign to them, why not add one more thing?

So Will arrived on his bike to give me the headlamp, I went back over to my machine and stealthily put it on without anyone noticing. Then I turned on the light, and I saw one of the new girls, look up as if she saw something, and then finally traced the light back to me and saw the little contraption on my head then busted out laughing. She was laughing and pointing at me and pretty soon all the girls were laughing hysterically at the barang (foreigner). I too was laughing along with them (expecting all of this of course). And finally, when they were done telling everyone in the vicinity about that goof-ball looking light I have strapped onto my head, they came over to check it out.

Once they came over, they weren’t laughing as much anymore. Once they realized how awesome my LED headlamp was shining so brightly on the dark fabric and how well I could see everything, I almost think some of them might have been a little bit jealous.

They went on to ask me where I bought it. I told them I brought it from home. Then they asked what I used it for in America. {Enter long pause in my head, “I knew they were going to ask that. How on earth do I go about explaining that I use it for camping. How am I going to explain what in the heck camping is and why the devil would anyone want to go camping?} I tried to take the easy way out and say, “Khnyom aht jet piet dtau braap neak” (I don’t know the words to tell you what it is used for). But that wasn’t gonna cut it.

I knew prior to even asking Will to bring it over, this was going to come up. I was somehow going to have to explain what I use that head-lamp for in the states, as they know most people in the states have 24hour electricity. And the main purpose for it… is… well … camping. The whole concept of camping is almost embarrassing to explain to some of these people. Some of these people live in nothing but a bamboo-grass hut of a house, they don’t have a bed and sleep on the floor on a grass mat under a mosquito net, cook over an open fire, don’t have running water or electricity, and the idea of explaining that some Americans like to go camping for fun might just sound quite ridiculous to them. “Well we do it to get away from the city, to have a bit of the simple life, cook over a fire… you know…? (enter: crickets to chirp in the background and confused and puzzled looks on my fellow seamstresses’ faces)”……

Well I of course couldn’t say that to them. So instead, I said, sometimes if the power goes out we use it, or if we are at a place at night, and need light but also need to be able to use our hands for something it’s quite useful, and they seemed to be able to accept that answer.

That was the best I could do. Nonetheless, they seemed impressed with the light and actually told me I was “ch’laat” or clever/smart for using it. And if I do say so myself, at the end of it all, I think they might have been just a little bit jealous, and wish they had the same contraption to strap to their head to work on their detailed sewing projects when the room starts to get dim.