No Shirt, No Shoes , No Problem - November 28, 2009

I bet everyone of you is wondering what it is like for me to live without a shirt. No, I have not word a shirt outside my hut since I arrived here. Sometimes I will wear one at night because I am cold or there are mosquitoes (Luckily they are only biting the ankles!).

During the day and any daily activities, I am bare chested. I swim, prepare food, sit with the family, teach middle schoolers, make lesson plans, talk with my principal, play manacala with my dad, go to the store, wash my clothes, eat, garden and play with my kitten. You name it, and I do it.

No one wears a shirt here. Actually I saw someone wearing one and surprised myself by thinking it was strange to see someone in a shirt. They don’t need shirts here. It is hot, there is no type of media to tell them they need to look a certain way, so everyone has awesome self confidence. No one has mirrors or really seems to care about appearance wearing a shirt would just be another thing for them to wash, it really makes sense and is totally natural.

All in all it is not bad and I am getting more used to it every day. At the end of 2 years I’m not going to want to put a shirt on! Maybe I could start a new trend in the us. Ok, maybe it wont go that far. I’ll keep my island ways to my island.