The Accidental Tourist

“Oh my, which church is this?” an old lady was asking me at the opening of the community show for MOP.

Meet Car, Butter and Darow. The boys approached me to take a picture for their CD cover. Car and Butter are rappers while Darow is a singer. I met them purely by chance. I was hanging around their neighbourhood trying to figure out why the grass on the loaner D200 did not look green enough. The boys thought I was a cop. Ya, a Chinese Female Cop in a black neighbourhood. Anyway, when I returned to the same neighbourhood in the afternoon, they approached me and I guessed under the pretext of asking me to take their picture.

Me being naive = toot wanted to do a story about the 3 rappers. The first thought that came to me was “Wow these boys have ambition!” That was until I found out that every African American boy in the neighbourhood wanted to be a rapper. But hear me out before you give me the “Why did you want to do a story on 3 rappers?” expression? I got it over wanton mee on Monday. Sigh. No offence taken. It’s just the same old rejection i got in the workshop too.

Butter, 20 year old, the vocal one in the group is a high school drop out. He moved with his mother from California to Jefferson City. Why is he in Moberly you ask? He didn’t give me a straight answer but the workshop mates told me that most kids are sent out to the small towns to keep them out of trouble. True enough, later, Butter admits he did time the month before because he jumped a 30 year old guy who tried to beat up his cousin over a girl. Ironically, this happened in Moberly. He refers to Car’s family as his family but I found out they are not related by blood. He calls them his “heart family.” Car’s Mum, Ms Terry is a childhood friend of Butter’s Mum and she was taking care of him.

The strange thing was, the house seems to be the energy centre of the neighbourhood. Most of the kids in the neighbourhood would hang around the porch. That’s how I met Necy too. Ms Terry, a cook at the rehab centre was hardly around as she was hard at work. The token adult figure seem to be Uncle Al or otherwise known as Big Al or “Loverman” but let’s not go there. It was fun just hanging out with the kids. Stories about how a bunch of kids tried to “jump” Butter last nite was the topic of the day. Although the gang were predominantly African- American, there were some white kids. Mad Matt, who is white on the outside but black on the inside. “He just has a a white birthmark that covers his whole body.” Louis, this skinny, pimply,white boy who was hilarious, with a huge sliver bling bling chain around his neck. Obviously trying to fit in and the boys, i think, did accept him ‘coz he tries so hard. Brianna, Car’s sister and the Applebottom girls (another story) whispering secrets about which boy they had a crush on or who is this weird chinese photographer. Anton, a cousin or friend who was sitting a few feet away from me and with his hands down his pants. I was getting freaked out about why is he jerking off in public. The boys walking around with their baseball bat trying to look intimitating. Any money that they could scrap together or get from Grandma goes into gas for the van so that they could drive around the neighbourhood. Boys, that van was a MESS!! Please clean it up.

Some of the white kids avoid them. It was pretty obvious. As Butter was hassling a white girl that was walking by, I asked him “Why do you do that?”

“Because of the way they look at us.”

It was candid, unrehearsed and straight from the heart. The answer he gave made me decide that their story ( a bunch of seemingly good for nothing kids hanging out on the porch) was worth pursuing. Butter’s story was just one in the group. He has been thrown out of school ‘coz he started fights on most of his first days. He claims that the kids pick on him. The reaction from the community at the opening speaks for itself too. Maybe this was a boy who was trying to do good but the society doesn’t give him a chance. I might be wrong but I thought with the camera could tell the truth about it. He calls his adopted family his “heart family”, closer than his real family. Even though, I’ve met him for a short period of time but on 2 counts, he was helping to clean the house or helping Grandma move (and i did not tell him that I was coming down so it couldn’t be pre-arranged. This is purely for skeptics like me). There are pictures of Butter that I can’t publish ‘coz I could get him in trouble. A bad boy story with fights, drugs and rap(?) is probably sexier but maybe sometimes, just sometimes a story about a person behind that image they conjure for themselves could tell the truth too? I can only wonder and i kick myself for not selling that story better!

Hot on a trail of the possibility of an Amish Story, I was sent out during MOP to find out if I could shoot the Amish Auctions. This was before any of us knew that Amish do not allow their pictures to be taken.

There’s quite a big Amish community in Moberly and most of them work as farmers. After driving on route 40, turning into NN junction and miles laters to Y Junction, I found them. How did I know? Horse buggies, women dressed like they stepped out from the “Little Women” novel and children playing rounders in the fields with hats and their pants held up by suspenders.

I found my contact David Ritts, the owner of Ritt’s Vegetable and Fruits, at the auction. The Ritts get their produce from the Amish and they were there to buy produce for the week. He introduced me to Will Turner, one of the Amish family, that they buy produce regularly from. Tall, fair and with a red flaming beard, Will told me straight out that I can stay and watch the auction , take pictures of the produce and the building but no pictures of the Amish. He did not explain to me why no pictures were allowed. All i was told that the Amish do not like to associate themselves with the modern world. The Amish are hardcore. Their clothes do not have buttons ‘coz they think it’s show off to have buttons. All their clothes are held together by pins. Mennonites, on the other hand, wore jumpers and drive cars.

To tell you the truth, I was pretty confused and slightly pissed ‘coz I can’t take pictures. I looked around the auction place. I saw an Amish getting a drink from the rubbermaid water tumbler. The Amish girl behind the counter was using a pen and a stapler. An Amish guy had transition sunglasses on those that change to a darker shade when you’re in the sun. I asked the Amish girls , Aida and Sarah, if you want to be cut off from the world and why are you using things from the modern world? If you’re really that traditional, why not use a feather and ink , instead of a pen? Why not drink from a well? Damn, I’m blunt. Then a mennonite man at the counter quoted this from the bible to me,

“Do not conform to the world but be transformed by the renewing of the brain”

So I sat there in the auction and I didn’t take pictures of the Amish. I was slightly appeased from the understanding that they choose this way of life ‘coz they are believe in it. But the fact that they took the bible word for word is something that I cannot understand.

Aida’s father spoke to me after the auction and he also quoted the bible and said that in the 10 commandments, one of the commandments said,

” You shall not make for yourself any carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth”

He thanked me for respecting their request for no pictures and he had to head on home ‘coz he and the boys need to work in the fields. Plus they are having a wedding this week. I gave it my last shot and whispered to him “so can i shot the wedding?” He smiled and said “No.” Of course not but i had to try.

A red neck farmer told me that if i really wanted picture, I have to ask them in private. If the community found out them were being photographed, they could get kicked out of church. Will Turner gave me a contact for his cousin who made Amish Furniture down the road. I drove down and knocked on the door but still I got a flat NO. The only consolation I got was Adam Turner gave me a contact for an ex-Amish, his uncle who now lives in the Moberly town and fixes horse shoes. Adam gave me his uncle’s numebr from the phone directory and wished me luck.

If you would have guessed by now, the ex-amish story didn’t turn out but HEY I WENT TO AN AMISH AUCTION!

Note: In Newsweek this week, there’s a report about an Amish Massacre in Pennsylvania.

“Someone” asked me to kiss the NY floor for him.

DUDE, how long ago was it since you were in NY? Wads of chewing gum, spit (yes, spit!), pee in the corner and murky paddles of water. I complain about the Chinese in China spitting. Well, guess what? The Americans are just as bad! Spitting through the gap of their teeth, side spit, how-far-can-you-spit kinda spit. It’s a silence spit. Not the KAAAHH-PUI Chinese kinda spit BUT IT’S JUST AS BAD.

Remember to comb your hair.

Always have a chocolate bar, sandwich or food in yr bag so that you don’t end up eating crap food like SBARRO’s Pizza. Yucks!

When Frank Sinatra sung those lyrics about New York , New York, I think he forgot to mention how overwhelming this city can be.

On my first day here, I was running around like a headless chicken. I didn’t know where i was going. Not because I was lost. (Ok, partly!) I was OVERWHELMED.  I wanted to do everything at the same time. Go uptown or downtown, east side or west side? Museum or talks or gallery? Shopping or laze at the park? Should I have Chinese, Korean or another hamburger for dinner? And I still haven’t seen the exhibition at ICP!

When I finally decided to extend my trip for another week, things started to slow down. Now I could do just 1 thing a day and get to really enjoy it. Of course, the city did get to me. Coney Island was a nice escape. I wish I could show you guys the pictures but the place was magical to me. Seagulls, people fishing at the jetty, sunset and nice long shadows. Bette Midler’s Under the Boardwalk come to mind. It feels like home to me in a strange way. Maybe because it reminds me of ECP. Yes, I’m getting a little homesick. I hear the cat misses me too.