Interesting Conversations

As I mentioned earlier, I now live in a apartment complex that is attached to a mall. Because I do almost all of my shopping and much of my eating there, I spend a lot of time passing through the mall. Although I see the same salespeople working in the same shops and stalls everyday, I really haven't had any meaningful interaction with any of them, except for Ricky.

Ricky works in a dress shop, and I have to admit that I do not believe that I have ever seen a potential customer in that shop the entire time that I have been here. Thus, extreme boredom might explain Ricky's enthusiasm for talking with me. When I walked past his shop for the first time on the first day I arrived at the mall he stood up, started waving like mad, and yell "Heeeyyyy Heeeyyyy Heeeyyyy". Naturally, like I usually do when strange men are madly waving at me and trying to attract attention, I avoided eye contact and went on my way. He greeted me with similar enthusiasm each time I passed by so I finally decided that I should stop by and say "hello". Ricky has kind of a mod-style haircut, so from a distance he looks quite young. In reality, my guess is that he is in his latethirties. He is an Iban (the largest indigenous group in East Malaysia) from Borneo who has lived in KL for almost 20 years now. He is an interesting dude to talk to.

It seems that I run into Ricky almost everywhere I go around town. Last week I was walking through PJ when a waiter started running down the street yelling "Mark, Mark". I couldn't figure out how in the world a local waiter in a cafe I had never visited could possibly know my name, but then I realized that Ricky was inside and had him call me over. For someone who I am guessing is only minimally educated, Ricky has a wide range and eclectic set of knowledge. I was completely surprised when he could name more members of the US Men's Volleyball team from the 1980s than I could.

I ran into him the other night at a cafe in the mall. He asked me exactly where I was from in the US and whether that was in the country or the city. He then asked me to tell him about the Amish. There are many tibits of knowledge about the US that I was prepared to share with people I met in Malaysia, but a detailed explanation of the Amish was not one of them. I am sure that it was interesting to hear a Texas guy explaining about the Pennsylvania Amish to a Muslim guy from Borneo. I guess that I should look up "Amish" in Wikipedia to see exactly how much misinformation I passed along.