Evil?

I know we have never put our full names on our blog. It is for safety reasons only. I would much prefer to use AB's name. It took me 9 months to decide on it, and rather like using it. Anyways, this post has to do with a mistake a local made with trying to send us a text message containing AB's name. Hopefully you know her name or this may not be very funny to you.

Because we are technically still university students, we try to do our best to give back to the university who has helped us get a student visa for the past 3 years. On Friday afternoons the English department hosts an English Corner. English Corners are an opportunity for English students to speak in a conversational type setting with native English speakers, like us.

Usually just one of us goes to the English Corners. The university is a 45 minute taxi ride from our home, so taking AB with us is a bit stressful. However the primary reason we do not take her is because her presence shuts down the English Corner. Instead of various small groups of 10 people sitting around practicing their English, you see 50 girls following AB around with their cameras and trying to pick her up. She is totally a distraction.

You want to know something funny? I do not know if this is just AB or if she learned this "hands off" thing from us, but when people try to give her food (which scares us) or tries to pick her up, she swats their hands away. You have to understand, AB is the first white baby most of the 10 million people in our city have ever seen in person. They ALL want to hold her, love on her, give her food, etc. It is sweet they are so kind, but it overwhelms me and it overwhelms her. From the beginning I obviously let friends touch her, but I drew the line at complete strangers. Now with AB's apparent aversion to people messing with her, she does the work for me. I try not to show that this pleases me, but I am almost always laughing inside.

Back to my English Corner story. Although the girls at the English Corner asked about her every week, after AB's first trip to the English Corner, we decided it was best to leave her at home. Last week a girl sent us a text message asking if AB was going to come. However, she did not quite get AB's name right. She asked, "Is Evil also coming with you to the English Corner today?" We thought it was funny, but her classmates mercilessly teased her for her mistake. I told her that Evil is close to AB's name, and it was an honest mistake. KB and I thought was really funny.