Cultural choc

Nothing shocks me anymore....

I cracked when my mother complained about our Myanmar helper was found sitting on the kitchen bench next to the stove to eat her lunch. Let me explain, the helper is very discrete and loves to be alone where possible so she would eat her lunch normally in the back yard . Her lunch consists of a variety of chopped green leaves soaked in lime juice, chicken mixed in a paste of ginger and chilli, and some dried fish from her myanmar market that looks like had taken on a long journey and it is true, her mother had the marinated fish sent her through a cousin. Usually,  after three mouthfuls of food, she would chew on a piece of fresh chilli. And then she cries, tears streaming down her cheeks. The first time i saw her "crying" i panicked....ok,ok, i was shocked, alright, shouldn't have been so pretentious in saying that nothing shocks me......then she said she really can't help eating fresh chilli...

Anyways, that day she felt sociable because my mother was here and she enjoyed my mother's company. They always managed to tell each other stories through a version of English that they developed for the sole purpose of communicating with each other. (my helper could not speak English when she first arrived in Singapore, I took her on and I learned Myanmar from her that was how to got through the first six months then she picked up English slowly). My helper sat on the kitchen bench and chewed on her chilli, laughing at my mother's story. ( it was probably about me since I wasn't there). My mother suddenly got so offended that Sansan sat on the kitchen bench next to the stove.

"Sansan, cannot sit God there!" Or something to that effect as I was told later by Sansan.

Those of you have read Kitchen God's Wife would know that there is a kitchen god. Those of you who are Chinese know there is a kitchen god. Those of you who have neither read the book nor connaisance of chinese culture now learns about the existence of kitchen god in chinese society.

Like Peter Pan and Tinkerbell, chinese kitchen god is a fairy who can fly everywhere, into the drawer and on to the stove, and just as Tinkerbell could get stuck in a drawer, our kitchen god could have had beeen sat on by our humble helper- or at least that was how my mother perceived the gravity of the situation.

"And so what will happen that the kitchen god got sat on?"

"Ah, you disrespectful daughter, of course he will get so angry and will stop blessing your family" my mother assumed that kitchen god will hold grudges, again, like Tinkerbell with Wendy.

I made a mistake after that. I tried to explain to my mother how this "family" is effectively French and whatever should happen in this house most probably belong to the jurisdiction of ome French god whose name I am yet to find out, and that the physical house belongs to our landlord who is an Indian of Sikh faith so if there is ever a god in charge of, say, the kitchen, the Indian side would definitely have a say. As for Sansan who is Myanmar, she believed that she is well protected by Budha, who again, is closer to the Indian side. So, our chinese kitchen god may not have much power to condamn Sansan or anyone.

"Oh, then you are all French or Indian so that leaves only me to suffer ....since you dont care about your mother, let your helper sit sit wherever she likes then...."

I didnt give it.

" you will see what could happen to your children, they are half chinese......"

Alright, alright, you won, sansan, stopping squashing the kitchen god with your backside and eat your lunch else where...anywhere other than places where the kitchen god (and his wife) are likely to be roaming about...