awkward

written Oct. 9, 2010
So I think I have some unconcious interest in putting myself in awkward situations. Just about every week 1 or 2 Catholic Priests come to visit my house to chat with my homologue (he's one of the few Christians in my village). Yesterday it was just the young, newly ordained priest who came by (funny enough, this priest is the only Malian that I have even remotely been attracted to... isn't that irony?). Everytime he comes by he asks me about my computer and whether or not it needs to be charged because when I first got to village I went to the Catholic Missionary to ask if I could use their electricity (solar panel powered) to charge my computer, and that was when I originally met him. Anyway from talking about my computer we got to talking about all of the music I have on it, and from there we started talking about the music he likes. He told me that he really liked 50 Cent! I literally laughed out loud. Can you imagine a Catholic Priest in a conservative country like Mali liking 50 Cent?? A man who has a Parental Advisory sticker on every single one of his albums? This was hilarious to me, so I asked him if he even understood what 50 was rapping about, and of course he said no. So this is where this unconcious interest comes in because I decided to take it upon myself to describe why he, a Catholic Priest, shouldn't be interested in rap like 50's (or Akon for that matter because he is also a big fan of his too). I told him that 50 uses really dirty words, disgusting words, and he didn't get what I meant and kept asking me "like what?" Well I wasn't about to curse in front of a Priest so I just told him I didn't know the words in French. I then tried to explain that most of 50's songs were about drugs and sex. That was pretty difficult. I told him that a lot of songs have to do with the rapport between a man and a woman in the bedroom (Why do I always seem to breech the topic of sex with Malians and then not know how to be specific about it?). Anyway what I did say actually worked because he said "Ohhhh! His songs are of a pornographic nature?" and to that I was like "Yes!!" and then changed the topic immediately. I think I should just embrace my interest in awkwardness.