and weigh the same, ten kilos!
The story I wanted to tell you is about the surma, beef-fat based
eyeliner, you can see around her eyes. All women and all babies wear
surma, usually also on their eyebrows. I've been told everything for
reasons to wear it from the sheer beauty of it, to the health and
brightness of your eyes. With an extra vertical line drawn between
the eyes it also is supposed to help ward off the evil eye.
As I sat with our language nurturur "Moon" the other day, she asked
the predictable question of why I didn't put surma on Peter. I told
her, "It's not as pretty to me as it is to you, and he doesn't like
it."
"But his eyes and eyebrows will never turn black from that color <blue
and blonde!> if you don't put surma on him."
"Actually," I said, "the color of his eyes will be like mine since he
came from me, just like my other boys' eyes."
"No, that's not how it is," she confidently replied. "Yours are that
pale color because YOUR mother never put surma on you."
And "Moon" is a 10th grader from a fairly open-minded family, meaning
they let their girls go to school, talk with people not related to
them, and be in contact with the outside world. Lots of hurdles to
jump, eh?
