But today, as I was walking home from private tutoring, I heard a cheerful "Ello!" from somewhere behind me. I turned around.
It was the mother of one of my students, who lives down the street. I see her from time to time in the neighborhood, and have had a handful of conversations with her. She knows a few words in English, and her daughter is actually one of my star CE2s.
As she approached me, she said, I have something I've been meaning to give you. Do you live closeby so you can take it now?
I told her yes, I live tout près, and followed her worldlessly to her front door. I'm not sure what I was expecting, exactly. Some anglophone paraphernalia, perhaps, that she'd received and didn't have any use for, or a book, maybe, something she thought I could use with my lessons. Definitely not a three-foot-tall floor lamp made out of tree branches and calebasse. Which is, of course, what she brought out.
Oh, no, I can't accept this! I said.
Pourquoi pas? she demanded. I make these all day for my living, I have plenty, and I like to give them away to people I appreciate. If you don't accept it, I'll be very upset!
She started to raise her voice then, and I really was scared she'd actually get mad. I took the lamp.
C'est trop sympa, I said.
Ça te plaît? she kept saying to me, over and over.
Yes, it pleased me.
After assuring her I'd be very careful with the fragile calebasse, I walked away in semi-disbelief. After being here for four months, nothing truly surprises me anymore, but I still couldn't help but wonder if it was all a trick somehow. It was all a bit bizarre. No one's really that nice, are they? But in Martinique, I suppose perhaps the rules are different.
I'm still not completely used to living in a small town. I see my students all the time -- and they see me, too, even if I don't know it. At school, they're always telling me, "Je t'ai vue à [insert place name here]!"
There are, obviously, pros and cons to this situation. And now, I suppose I've discovered that one of the pros is that someone you barely know can give you a floor lamp as a gift, just because they felt like it.
It's actually a really, really nice lamp. It's varnished and everything, and the calebasse is pretty ornately carved. And the shapes make cool shadows on the wall. I'm pretty sure there's no way I'll be able to bring it back to the US, unfortunately, but for now, it's quite a sympa addition to my fairly drab apartment.
