Day 2
After acquiring two Afghani burkas from an acquaintance in a transaction that resembled some form of shady activity, my pride and I head back up to LA from my hometown of Santa Ana.Visions of myself walking around downtown in middle eastern garb materialized around noon-time the following day.Once Marilinda came over,the transformation ensued.We strolled down broadway like it was ours.Soon enough I noticed that the direction of our day was changing,instead of immersing ourselves into the school of the downtown fishies, we became the burka'd parade,and to add to it,we had our crew trailing behind us with camera's so of course we were going to cause quite a stir.I must admit that I was a bit annoyed at this,my intention is to immerse myself and learn, not be an attention grabbing joke.Whilst in worry at this realization,I felt a nudge at the side of my blue garb, It was a curious afghani man whom swore he'd had a flashback at the very sight of us."Where are you from?...why are you wearing this?" he asked "Im Mexican sir.Im wearing this to gain some perspective, its coming from a place of respect...I want to understand what the women of your country feel when wearing this." His eyes lit up and his lips gave us a grin of approval and just as quickly as that a furrow on his brow took over, leaving a concerned look on his face."The women in my country, they need help..They must wear this all the time, they have no choice, they need help."
Instantly, my fears of being misunderstood as a joke were forgotten after exchanging a few words with him. He bid us good luck on our adventure, Marilinda and I stared at each other in excitement.He understood our intentions,he understood our genuine approach, we were honored to have his blessings so we walked on, empowered,renewed...and still sweating.
One thing I was very surprised to learn about my donated burka was that the fabric wasn't a more breathable one like I had assumed before,no sir, this here burka was synthetic through and through,rayon I think.The only time that thing ever breathed anything was when my little nostrils sucked in air from underneath.That took me a good minute to fully get over once out in the beating sun.
The good people of downtown gawked as Marilinda and I strolled by,faceless, anonymous but not completely as incognito as we'd hoped to be.Women met us with faces of disgust and wonder while we walked on by.I kept thinking about women in the middle east,and how if they saw me in my western wear,they might make the same faces or even yell curses my way.The sweat unrelentingly trailed down my cheek as we shot the last of our pictures hand in hand right dead in the middle of the downtown LA traffic.
