Awkward is the Universal Language
Jan 04, 2006
I love getting updates from my friend who is in Namibia for the Peace Corps. This latest excerpt proves something I have long suspected: awkwardness knows no geographical bounds.
"And. This is worse. One of our Namibian trainers asked me for my phone number, which I didn't think was strange since we've all been together for so long, very innocent. Then he started sending me text messages. The first one said, "please don't feel offended. I really like the way u are and would like to know you better. Sleep well, hope you will make it with your test next week. U may respond." In Namibia the thing to do is send "missed calls" or call someone, let it ring once so that the person knows you called and then hang up. He's missed called me several times and sent me several other messages.
I responded and told him I wasn't interested but things haven't really gotten much better. The really strange thing is that I didn't really talk to him much before. He told me he wanted things to go back to the way they were before but that doesn't make sense since I never talked to him before. Just really weird. Luckily I swear in on Friday and then move to Mariental in the South. He will be going to Cape Town for school."
What an interesting piece of the nature vs. nurture puzzle. Namibia is rather cut off from Western culture, and yet it has a thriving awkward stalker infrastructure complete with regional terminology and practices "e.g., missed calling". That officially bumps them up to Code Orange on the Hierarchy of Stalkerization (see picture) and provides firm new evidence that awkardness is programmed into the human genome. (Click to see larger image.)
Remember this diagram, you will be seeing it in a textbook someday.
i dunno, i really feel like she owes that namibian guy one bone
Posted by: Adam | Jan 04, 2006 at 08:00 PM
i really like the way u are?
a) SPELL IT OUT
b) WHAT THE HELL? I like the way you are? what a tool
c)u may respond? oh like she has permission? thanks mr awkward namibian, for the permission
d) lord that's so awkward megan i hope all of namibia isn't so awkwardz
Posted by: kelly | Jan 04, 2006 at 08:08 PM
If a diagram is in a pyramid form it must be right.
Posted by: Matt | Jan 04, 2006 at 09:43 PM
what a weird way. In Indonesia there's SMS and misscalling also, but usually people doesn't misscall other people unless they're friends or lovers (and no, guys don't misscall other guys)
misscalling could be helpful (when you have no more minutes in your cellphone).
but it had to do with the whole pre-paid infrastructure that the phone company have. it never happened in the US because everything is bundled, under contract, and calling is cheaper than SMS-ing
Posted by: Tek | Oct 14, 2006 at 08:30 PM