My Life Part 2 - Tunisia
I was 7, and the only non-Korean phrase I knew was “How do you do.” And I landed up in Africa, where I thought I had to hunt deer for dinner. But, luckily not. As soon as I arrived, I could see that the country didn’t look so African. I mean, there was the Sahara Desert, but no jungles. The cool thing was, at the time, I had no clue that the world was so much different.
So to my amazement, I found that there were people who believed in other religions than I, and that people didn’t eat rice every day. The biggest shock was the fact that there were women wearing white robes which covered most of their faces. I remember watching mom wear a similar outfit for a play she performed on Christmas Eve at church. But, they weren’t my mom.
The life in Tunisia was… umm… not the best. I don’t remember any place but being in school. School was my only place to walk around without having other kids jump onto us making faces. Even in my own backyard, I’d see other children walk by throwing rocks at us. I don’t know why… Oh, I do know why. Because I was Asian. And they’d use their fingers to lengthen the size of their eyes horizontally. And they’d say the only English word they knew: “China China” Well, Mr. Smelly, I’m Korean dammit! I ignored them, but really deep inside, it was the first time that I faced the reality of discrimination of races. But hey… it was OK after a while. I mean, no one, no one on earth is equal. Nothing is fair. I learned this age 7. Great lesson. And I stll know this continues…