Today a woman told me I had a beautiful nose, and then her pregnant friend tweaked it.
Let me explain. Today we visited the east coast of the island of Tarakan, a less-populated area with an extremely shallow “beach” area with a bunch of restaurants and some play areas for families. After our meal I went up to pay, and a group of ladies were laughing and joking together near the cashier. One came up and timidly began a conversation in English.
Your nose is very beautiful, she told me. Thank you, I replied. This was too specific to seem like a pickup line, and too bizarre to seem like… anything else. I have never thought about the aesthetics of my nose, it doesn’t seem like a particularly important feature for me, but the fact that it has to be singled out itself makes me feel a little self-conscious about it. But whatever, I’ll take it as a weird compliment. Thank you.
“My friend is pregnant,” she continues. OK, I’m still not seeing the connection. “She would like to touch your nose, so, you know, her baby…” This has become more confusing. And then I remember something a missionary coworker explained to me… pregnant women believe that if they touch a feature on someone that they like, that feature will be passed on to their baby. Good thing I will never believe in weird things like that, knock on wood. Again, I don’t see any harm in it, so I shrug and agree.
So then her (very) pregnant friend comes up, and I expected more of like a tap or a pat or something on the nose, but she very nearly tweaked it off of my face by pinching it and pulling. All the better for the future child, I suppose. What a thing to look forward to for this unfortunate child.
I paid my bill and told Emely about the exchange. She thought it was hilarious. Which I guess I do too, in retrospect, if it hadn’t been so odd at the time.