“Bum-be-dum-bum-buuummm!”

I’ve been teaching English classes at the town primary school. It’s pretty entertaining, and good for me to have a bit of an external schedule to stick to. It started pretty informally, that is, I only talked to the director of the school. He seems to be very enthusiastic about it though. Now we are getting paperwork squared away with the regional office. I sincerely hope it doesn’t cause any problems!
So last Wednesday (I teach on Wednesdays and Thursdays) after class I had a couple of errands to run down town. I came upon a group of my students, girls, all clustered together. They came running up to me, and I noticed a couple of boys on bikes moving away from the girls but watching us. The girls came up to me and said, "what is this?? : You ha a bee asz!!" I had no idea, and asked them to say it again, and if it was in English. "Yes, yes! You ha a bee asss!" A sudden thought came to me… but I didn’t want it to be… what is it again? "You ha a bee ass!!!" Yeah, if it’s in English it must be… You have a big… I asked them who it was who told them this, and they pointed to the same boys on the bikes. Hmmm. I’m thinking, you never know what kids will come up with! And I’m still wondering, who taught them that??? It most certainly was not me! And clearly it’s being applied to me…
I mean, it’s kind of true. Elyse can testify to the fact that I do not fit into her swimming shorts… it’s the way it goes, and frankly I don’t really mind. Except, I didn’t realize people, that is men here were, well, commenting on it. Although, in retrospect I really should have realized that it couldn’t be only happening in the cities. There was this one guy in Marrakech (and it is Kesh, after all) who made a comment about both me and my friend Alicia, in English, in earshot, loud enough for us to hear while walking behind us: "Nice! Very, very nice!"
Which is all pretty funny, really. Once one decides that it just is and won’t change and is therefore best thought of as little as possible, and in as bouncy and irreverent a manner as can be found. Bum-be-dum-bum-buuuummmm!!! J