Wide Hips

19 April 2010

Evidently, I wrote this in April, but it never got posted on my blog.  Enjoy!

Last week, my students were creating and presenting vocabulary posters for words they thought were “wonderful” in Pilgrim’s Progress (we're reading the simplified edition as a class). One of the words was “superstition,” and the definition they found in our basic student dictionaries (for better or worse!) was the following:

superstition - the belief in magic or witchcraft; the fear of what is unknown or mysterious

After the student with this word presented their poster to the class, one girl piped up. “Miss Lucas, I see billboards all over Dar that show that if you go to this certain witch doctor, you can get bigger muscles if you’re a boy, or wider hips if you’re a girl!”

Here's one of the signs you might see around Dar.  Compelling advertisement, huh?  I'll spare you the version with the scary witch-doctor face painted on it...

Here are a few translations: 

Tiba asili means "natural treatment"  

uzazi - parenting

biashara - business

mapenzi - will

kuongez hips - add (bigger) hips

nguvu za kiume - male strength - literally, bigger muscles

I hadn't seen the signs, and though I didn't doubt their existence, I chose to move the conversation on to the next vocabulary poster presentation. But one student’s mind was still on superstition.  With a lull in the action, he soon raised his hand and, in a very serious tone and with a worried look, he asked, “Miss Lucas, I’ve noticed a lot of women around HOPAC who have wide hips.”

It took me a minute to realize what he was asking about. Then, I had to keep myself from laughing as I acknowledged that he was completely serious. I thought fast, sent up a quick prayer, then opened my mouth to answer.  I explained that actually, God made women to have wider hips. That this was part of His design for how we should be created. And that especially, after a lady has had a baby, her hips might even be wider. Maybe some women wanted WIDER hips for some reason… but wide hips were normal and were simply something that girls were supposed to get as they got older.

“So,” I concluded, “you can rest assured that wide hips do NOT mean a woman is going to a witch doctor. And as far as I know, none of the teachers and staff around HOPAC – including those with wide hips – go to a witch doctor for any reason!"

The student let out a sigh of relief. He had obviously been worried (and so should have the rest of the staff, I suppose, as our Christian witnesses and testimonies hung in the balance of this simple misunderstanding!!!)

“I’m so glad to hear that,” he said. “I was wondering, if all these people are supposed to be Christians, and they all have wide hips…”