Buddhist Taxi Driver
Three
months thereafter, I heard a knock on my door
back in southeast Asia and opened it to find Kristin holding a pillow. She said
she had come to town, is in a cheap hotel but can't sleep as it's too loud and
spiritually oppressive. She didn't look well, so I used a travel coupon I had to
book her a couple of nights at a nice hotel nearby. She then received her salary
from her online teaching and rented a studio for a month. She was
still living paycheck to paycheck.
She said she had met a local man whom she is considering marrying. Who is he? She said he is a taxi driver about her age who speaks minimal English. Is he Christian? No, he is Buddhist, but she is teaching him the Bible. How did she meet him? He had catcalled her from his taxi when she was walking to a local store. She also said that he drinks a lot with his friends; she had met his parents, who are poor and raise chickens in their yard; she had slept over at their place, as he lives with them; he had tried to have sex with her but she had prevented him and could prevent him because he is smaller and weaker than her. But they had had sexual contact.
It felt surreal to hear all this from her as I still loved her, but I asked her why she couldn't pick just a regular normal guy. She's a beautiful woman who can have any man she wants. Why did she always have to pick these weirdoes? First an Indian wolf in sheep's clothing, and now a Buddhist taxi driver who isn't a Christian, who can't even speak English, and who had catcalled her on the street?
She said he reads the Bible with her and had just messaged her to say that he wants her to return to the coastal city to read the Bible to him. I replied that she needs to marry a Christian man who will be her spiritual head, not a Buddhist who asks her to read the Bible to him, and also added that even in the local patriarchal society, when a poor local man marries an American woman, he and his entire family will expect her to support all of them. The money she is earning by teaching Chinese children online is a fortune for a dirt poor local family.