2 Mad Madams

As the title says, there have been two mad madams around here. Unfortunately, one of them is me. I use the term "madam" because that is how many of the women here are referred to as, especially by the maids and everyone in the service sector.

Madam #1 - Last week, I'm making my every other day trip to our neighborhood market (to buy milk of course, see previous post). I'm putting my items up on the belt at the check out stand, when I see this madam holding a couple of items in her hands following her maid who is pushing a shopping cart. She yells at her maid to stop and then proceeds to chew her out for not staying put where the madam had left her. One grown women was literally yelling at another. I couldn't believe it. This would be OK if it was a five year old or something, but not an adult. Everyone in the store was watching. So, I say to the checker, who was a cute little Filipina gal, "Wow!" She looks at me, and without hesitation, says "Maybe she's Arabic." I said to her "What?" I mean she really didn't just say that, did she? The checker says again "Maybe she's Arabic." (Implication being that if she is Arabic, then she can do whatever she wants to whomever she wants). I said "I don't care who she is. That doesn't give her the right to talk to her or anyone else that way." Even if the maid did deserve it, the madam could've handled it more gracefully than that. Meanwhile, the maid had a big smile on her face the whole time, probably not understanding a word that was being shouted at her.

Madam #2 - Today, the kids, their friend Hugo and I walked to our neighborhood park. There is a playground and a tennis court at this park. The kids play at the playground and run through the bushes claiming their forts. After a while, they decide to move the party over to the tennis court to practice their Heelys. When we enter the court, there are tennis balls scattered around the court, an empty ball cage and a racket. Naturally, the kids start tossing the balls around and begin hitting them with the racket. No harm is being done, so I figure I can let the kids play. Well, about 5 minutes later, a man (probably from Eastern Europe) pulls up in his car, gets out and walks into the court. He tells me that my children have scattered his tennis balls and need to pick them all up. I said to him "My kids did not scatter the balls." He says "Oh, did the town ghost do it?? They had to have done it. No one else was here. I was only gone 5 minutes." He was wrong. Not only did my kids NOT do it, but we had been there about 20 minutes and this was the first I'd seen him. When we arrived at the park, there were other 3 other kids (accompanied by their maids of course) in the court that probably did it. He went on to say "You need to teach your children to respect and not touch other peoples' property." OK, I probably shouldn't have let them play with the racket, but at a park where kids play, this guy shouldn't leave things lying around that he doesn't want kids touching. I said "You need to take your stuff with you or lock the gate to the court if you are going to leave it sitting around and don't want kids playing with it - this is a playground after all." After this he says "You've obviously never been involved with team sports." I was SOOOO mad. I told the kids to pick up the balls, but only because they had been playing with them, not because they scattered them. Nick was mad that I made them pick the balls up. I got home and just lost it.

Six months of having to deal with people like this really wears on you. Some people here are so arrogant and have such an sense of entitlement. I long for the days back in Texas, where almost everyone was so friendly and nice. After the tennis incident, I look back and think that I shouldn't have said anything. I should have just said "My children did not do what you are accusing them of" and walked away. My biggest fear is that I will turn into one of them. If that happens, someone please come over here and shoot me.