That is what the guard explained to me, as I stood outside the office in the dusty air trying to figure out from where exactly all this strangeness came. As he said these words it started to make sense…one doesn’t feel hungry, one doesn’t speak much, one feels distant, expression has a hard time coming to fruition. I had to turn my face to secretly wipe the little tear that was sneaking out of my eye.
Soon, I was smiling. Laughing at the thought, that today just wasn’t mine. Another colleague came out from the office and asked me what was going on, how I was. I replied cheekily, “C’est pas mon jour!” as he walked over to his moto. He shook his head and nodded in understanding, but without saying anything.
I looked over at the guard and we began chatting about this phenomenon. Usually when someone tells you it is not your day you go home, come back tomorrow. You stop trying to accomplish things and you just relax. He also mentioned that you never tell people it is not your day, if they know you it will be apparent and if they do not know you they also do not need to know it isn’t your day.
My first question after this is “What do you say to people then?” And in my situation, it was more about how do I tell people why I was not eating around the bowl… He said to simply tell them I was not hungry, case closed.
This entire conversation made me feel silly inside, but surprisingly more like myself.
When I went inside and talked to two other friends, one of who is Senegalese, about discovering it was not my day, I was told that I should go home and relax. The same advice! I laughed to myself and said, “Ok, perhaps you should go home and relax.” After making an agreement that I would leave once I finished my translation the strangest thing happened….
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