Biggest Loser

So it's funny story time.

I was in Indonesia, just walking down the street of a podunk town on one of the smaller Indonesian islands, when a female vendor just started smacking my butt. She started jabbering off in Bahasa Indonesian. Well, I'd been in the country less than a week, so I totally knew nothing about the language or what she might be saying.

Besides that, she was way in my personal space!

So I called our translator over. "E --- ! What is she saying? Translate please!"

Pat. Pat. Pat. Yep. Still smacking my behind.

E --- asked the woman to repeat what she'd said. E --- stood there listening a moment, then turned to me.

"She says you are very fat and need to go on a diet. Was that okay for her to say?"

Truly, a facepalm moment.

My roommate, T ---  has had similar moments. It's just a cultural thing - people comment on the fact that we gain weight. Even if we've lost weight, or toned up, they comment that we've gotten fatter.

Learning to laugh is a hard thing. But we're making the most of it. This is a rough place for body image - even if I was anorexic, I could never be as skinny as all the little Thai girls. But that's no excuse to give up.

So we're going to have a "biggest loser" time for those of us who live here...we're not ridiculous, but just gonna have some fun. Now, when someone pats our behinds or comments that we're getting so fat, we can say, NOPE, I just lost xx% of my body weight!