Watch wut U say, MoFOH!
So….I get this call from this kid who is interested in our training. I put an ad in the classified section of the Himalayan Times, a daily English newspaper distributed in Nepal. In the ad I wrote that we are training in Spa Therapies such as ayurveda, reflexology, manicure, and more! I only had 30 words or under to do this…so in order to attract women I put manicure, reflexology, since most beauty salon schools offer this training.
We got a response from this foreigner [read European or American], who said he wanted to refer some Nepali friends of his and to send him any relevant information. Also, he is a writer and wanted to write about our therapies and any related products for some unnamed magazine.
Rob replied and told him to send his Nepali friends to our meeting (that was last Saturday) and gave him DWO’s number, his hotel’s number and my mobile number.
The foreign guy wrote back to Rob and told him it was too short of a notice for his friends and that he would forward the e-mail.
Well, this Nepali kid, I’ll call “G” calls me Sunday night on my mobile and his English isn’t that good, so he loses a little confidence when I tell him in Nepali that I have to speak in English. He said he was interested in the spa training and wanted to know what ‘spa training’ was. So I told him, that it’s a spa therapy training, such as ayurveda, Swedish, reflexology, sports massage….which I didn’t mean to say the word ‘massage.’ So I clarify with him and ask him if he knows what massage is.
Well, he chuckles, and says “no I don’t know anything about that.” And I figured that he was embarrassed by massage, and decided to proceed with the conversation. I told him that it’s not what he thinks it is, and repeated it’s a professional training.
And he asks to meet with me tomorrow. After some hesitation (because I didn’t know Rob’s schedule) I agreed, and asked him how we heard about us. He told us through his foreign friend (the one who I mentioned earlier) and that he said he talked to us.
So, after a few more words, I tell him that we’ll see him tomorrow. Thirty minutes later, I get a missed call. So I call the number back and it’s the “G” kid. So I asked for his e-mail address, and I tell him to look at our web-site for more information. He asks me to send him a text message with the web-site address.
So, I send him the web-site address via my cell phone, and mention a few of the therapies we are training, such as ayurveda, reflexology, Reiki, sirodhara and that we are working with Dalit communities.
He then hits me back, very excitedly and tells me he feels better, “u r great feel now im. Good I hope to u……feelining I miss you so much.” Were his exact words.
So I get a little confused and ignore it. Rob calls me and tells me to cancel the meeting tomorrow that we’ll meet with all potential student candidates this coming Saturday. I didn’t tell him about the strange text message.
I text G. once more, and I tell him that the meeting is cancelled, to come this Saturday, and I give him the details. I tell him it will be better for us.
He writes me back, and says “hello sis*. I would like meet 2morrow ok I want just see u n I miss you so much ok.”
Now I’m miffed and confused. His broken nonsensical English has me confused but then I read it again and think naaw, he’s got the raawwng paarteee. I brushed it off the first time, thinking if I ignored it, he wouldn’t do it again. But after that second message, I was going to set the record straight.
So I think for a second, of how to express myself to a Nepali. So I write back, “You misunderstand. This is not dating. This is a serious and professional training. Meeting is cancelled. Come Saturday if you are serious to know about Himalayan Healers. It is unprofessional to say that you miss me. Do not say these things.”
Well, his tone completely changes, to formal and he replies: “I say just visit 2. bur ur busy 2, is okay I will coming nx day plz im sorry mam..Don’t make angry with me. Forgive me didi* now good 9t”
Well, what do you think? All of a sudden he’s calling me Ma’am? Humph. You think he got the wrong idea from our first conversation, when he chuckled about massage? I’m not sure if he thought it was a date or something.
But I e-mailed his foreign friend and told him, very nicely, to convey that this is a professional training, run by professionals in the field. And while I was grateful for his referral to have any future friends of his visit our web-site first, and write to us for further information.
I know that in the future we might get some people like this who might snicker at us, because it’s massage, but I will not tolerate that, nor will I be spoken to like that. Whether it was meant to be innocent, cutesy, that shit does not fly with me.
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****Note: The reference to sis, as in sister is a casual, informal way to talk to someone. Didi means older sister (anyone older than you, even by looks) baihni is younger sister. If there is an older woman than you, and she drops something, you call to her, “Didi (elder sister) you dropped something!”
Tags: Kathmandu Work, massage
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