The Aunties

Let me tell you a little bit about one of my favorite cultural phenomenas - The Auntie.  In this country, any married woman over a certain age is called Auntie.  These Aunties are not to be messed with.  They mean business.  As one auntie recently scolded, "I am like your mother. I am older than you.  You should listen to me.  You should do what I say." Aunties know your business, and they believe that is their given right.  Aunties often move in packs.  I have often found myself in the cross hairs of conflicting orders from dueling Aunties. Believe me when I say this is a scary situation.  I was helping LHug host a function once when three different Aunties crammed in the kitchen with me to tell me how to serve the food.  Of course they all had different opinions about how it should be done, and they just talked over each other until finally I just fled the kitchen in a panic.  Aunties are not afraid to give their opinions.  They give their opinions freely, unsolicited.  From my appearance to my diet to my love life, nothing is off limits.  As I have learned firsthand, Aunties seem to feel especially obligated to look out for young, unmarried, foreign girls who live alone.  I thought I knew a little something about formidable aunts (i.e. The Johnson Aunts) before moving here, but that was nothing compared to these women!  

This is an Auntie I work with on a weekly basis.  She likes to get all up in my business about how I'm going to do my program each week.  She always starts by asking me what I have planned for the day, and then after hearing my plan, which never meets with her expectations, she proceeds to tell me what I will do instead.  This happens every single week.  I'm not sure why I continue to make my own plans. 

This Auntie is my landlord.  LHug and I live rent the upstairs bedrooms from her family.  She knows all the details of our comings and goings and is always sure to tell us her opinion.  She especially likes to catch us off guard early in the morning by just bursting in our door.  She then proceeds to inspect every detail of our house, and she of course once again gives us her opinion on everything from our cooking to furniture arrangement.