Here
are some common uses for safety pins in India (at least where I live!):
- Pinning fresh flowers in your hair. You stick the needle part through the
stem of the flower and then stuff hair through the closed safety pin to
incorporate it into your braid. Or
you cheat like me and just stick a barrette through the safety pin.
- Keeping your sari (6 meters of fabric that is draped on
with only a tiny top and a long slip underneath) together. And they only use safety pins, nothing
else!
- Patching up holes that rats bit in your shirts or torn seams. The solution? Simple!
Make the holes disappear by safety pinning them on the outside of
course—why miss a chance to make a fashion statement?
- Fixing missing or broken buttons. Yes, it is possible to have half a
button on your dress shirt. My
theory is that this happens here because people beat their clothes on a
rock to wash them (maybe beating them helps clean the clothes better due
to a combination of momentum and friction?), so buttons break off in
chunks. You just safety pin 2 spots
on your dress shirt and you’re ready to go out!
- Fixing broken zippers.
Zippers are dirt cheap here, like 20 cents for one. However, the old adage that you get what
you pay for rings true. Most of the
zippers on our girls’ dresses and the boys’ jeans and shorts break in a
matter of months. To fix a zipper
quickly and economically, simply put a safety pin near the top of the
dress and you’ve got a new style going!
- Tightening loose elastics on skirts. If your elastic is too loose, just hold
the skirt together so it fits just right & then safety pin it. It’s dirt cheap, foolproof and only
takes a fraction of a second.
- Cleaning your ear.
If you’re adventurous, open the safety pin, otherwise take a closed
safety pin & use it like a Q-tip!
- Fixing your flip-flops. Another way to keep your flip-flops
together is to stick your safety pin through the thong (the one that keeps
popping out) underneath the shoe so that it won’t pop out anymore. A personal tried and true method.
My
theory is that people use safety pins so often to fix clothing because it saves
them time and more importantly, money. Why
spend the extra 40 cents (like a third of a day’s salary for those with the
least income) to fix your clothes when you have a safety pin? After all, a pack of safety pins (around 15)
is only like 10 cents. Using safety pins
as a quick fix for clothes is super economical, but like one of my friends
commented, it makes one look sloppy.
At the
end of the day, those living below the poverty line are concerned about
survival. Pure and simple. One does not have the money to consider how
to look tidy and smart. All your money
is spent on basic necessities like food and rent. Whatever you save, you use to purchase a set
of new clothes for your children for Christmas or their birthdays. For the underprivileged, gifts are almost
always clothes. Very few can afford
luxuries like giving a stuffed animal or a game or new sports equipment. Books?
Unheard of. I have not seen a
single family with books for pleasure reading.
All the books I’ve seen here are merely textbooks. (ok, I know I started this with safety pins
& have once again landed squarely on the subject of poverty :P You know where my heart is!)
Today a
child came with biscuits and candies to my door to distribute. It is his birthday. The tradition here is that you go around
treating everyone you know to candies and sometimes biscuits or cookies. As he handed the goodies to me, all I could
think of was 1) he was contacting the biscuits directly, and who knows whether
he has washed his hands with soap first?; 2) I don’t like that kind of biscuit
and I will save it for my beloved puppies at the school. Now as I reflect, I realize I’m quite
bourgeois compared to those around me. I
know what kind of biscuits I like (the butter cookies that cost 10 cents a
pack) and I wrinkle my nose at the cheap biscuits (the ones that cost 4 cents) that
I think are tasteless and stale. I also
wrinkle my nose at the birthday cakes sold in the bakeries in the town: they’re
dry, crumbly, and the frostings are artificial and grainy with sugar. After delectable mango mousse cakes in
Vancouver, my favourite tiramisu cake, and Catherine’s scrumptious black forest
cake, how can I possibly wolf down a piece of Jangareddigudem cake? But the kids here are appreciative of almost
everything they receive, from tasteless biscuits to stale chips. Perhaps it’s partly due to the lack of
knowledge of what’s better. I suppose
this is an example of how the cliché “ignorance is bliss” as a core of truth.
Regardless,
no matter how I try to live like those I serve, it is virtually
impossible. I can’t eat the same diets
of which 90% is rice. I get
constipated. I get lethargic. I get grumpy.
And I can eat a bite of Jangareddigudem cakes in celebration of a
child’s birthday, but I can’t possibly enjoy it. And if I get suddenly sick or in an accident,
I know I have a vast support network in Canada and elsewhere in the world to
call upon. Those here either have to
borrow money or die slowly in their homes.
I am fortunate. I am
blessed. And now, I’m called to be a
blessing.
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