A punctuation mark... but not really

This post may be a little weird but I just had to write it because I thought it was funny, but probably not very culturally sensitive.

So, last weekend, I had two volunteers come and stay with me. One of them being a girl and the other a guy (Mike). Anyway, we walked to Hector’s village and when we walked back, I ran into my Aunt who asked me to come and have coffee with her. The girl had to go to the bathroom so my Aunt told her which way to go. The girl came out and said that she had ten minutes to get home. I asked her why. She said she was having her period. Well, as you can imagine, when someone asks you to have coffee and then you just use their bathroom and you have to leave, its a little rude. So, I told my Aunt that we had to go home. She asked why. I said that the girl needed to get home because she was having girl issues. (That is in fact exactly what I said “girl issues”).

I told my Aunt that Mike and I could stay and the girl could go back because I didn’t want to be rude. Then my Aunt flat out said “I don’t want you guys to stay, I already know you guys, I want to talk with the girl.” Then I said that we could come back which my Aunt responded, its going to be too dark.

Ok, so we got home and the girl took care of whatever.

A couple days ago my Aunt came over to my house and my Grandma asked about Mike, the girl, and I coming by her house. My Aunt said that we had to leave early. Grandma asked why. My Aunt said that the girl was sick. Then Grandma got very concerned and asked “sick? She didn’t look sick.” Then my Aunt said “she was sick” trying to hint at it. Grandma still didn’t get it. I got frustrated because its a bit awkward still for Armenians to talk about that stuff and they refer to the monthly menstrual cycle as “being sick.” Well I took the liberty to chime in because it was getting frustrating for this back and forth-ness.

I told Grandma that the girl had “girl issues.” Grandma still didn’t get it. So I said it again slowly trying to imply something. Grandma still didn’t get it. So then I said, “it’s when red water comes from a woman once a month.” Grandma started laughing and her face got really red. I had embarrassed her but then she asked how I knew about it. I figured that was a good time to end that conversation. We spoke no more of that and the conversation came to an abrupt end.

I think that was the highlight of my week. Nothing else really happened. The bathroom project is coming along very nicely (better than I expected) and the flashmob planning is going well. The weather has started to get warmer. I don’t get it, but being in a house with two foot concrete walls really doesn’t do much to keep you warm, in fact, its kind of like living in a refrigerator. Beautiful day today though.

Matt. Are you still alive? Thank you Brandon for reading months of blogs to catch up. I hope you’re not lying to me because there will be a quiz when I get back to the States...
Until next time...