Ah, the male ego

Boys will be boys, no matter the age--or country. On Sunday I went on an outing to this natural source about 16 km away from my town. It ended up being me and 3 guys. Now, at first I was pleased--3 boys instead of 1 means I'm not accidentally on a date, right? (Note: When the one who invited me started asking if I could have a Malagasy boyfriend, I freaked and said I already had one in the States--but you know me and lying, so let's hope he doesn't ask any more questions because I won't be able to keep up the charade--and my Malagasy isn't quite good enough for me to say, "Oh, I'm sorry but I made up an imaginary boyfriend so that I could hang out with you and be your friend without worrying about you hitting on me.") So it was a good thing, right? But no? I forgot that if there are 3 men, there is 3 times the pressure to prove that they ARE men. One showed off. One couldn't let me bike faster than him. One told me the names of all the towns and trees, kept checking to make sure I was okay, and insisted on carrying my water for me.

Now, at first this ticked me off. I mean, seriously? Would I have to spend the afternoon moving aside to make way for the male ego? But then I couldn't decide which was the true source of my irritation: their egos or my own and the fact that I had to be at the end of the line of bikes. SO I decided to try looking at it a different way.

The fact of the matter is, there are many perks to being female when men are . . . well, men. They carry random things for you. They find that elusive karate instructor you've been searching for. They buy you beer. They bring you bicycle repairmen. They write you 3 front-and-back pges of Malagasy-French-English translations to help you learn the language faster. They let you swim in their bungalow's pool. They invite you over to cook shrimp from their fishing company. And they take you on cool bike rides, for goodness sake. So yeah, it sucks sometimes--but you might as well make the most of being female, right?

This helped, of course. It also helped when the road changed and we could all ride side-by-side. And sometimes, when you're soaring down a slight decline, they'll forget about gender and just whoop and holler the faster you go. (Ha--people are so funny)

And the thing is, I can't really comlain. Being American allows me to cross lines--to play both sexes. So yeah, I have to but up with a macho attitute from time to time--but in return I get to splash around in a natural source. Or, I COULD just sit in the shade with the women my age and their babies.

I'd rather go play with the boys.