I met and interesting woman on the flight from Birmingham to Amsterdam. I sat on a window seat while she sat in the middle, accompanied by her husband who sat on the aisle seat. The flight from Birmingham to Amsterdam was only 45 minutes. So I tried to occupy my time reading the on flight magazine and checking out the duty free goods they had. Not long after, the stewardess asked us what we would like to have. She and I both asked for tea. The tea was OK I thought. What would you expect from tea in a flight anyway? After drinking a few sips, the lady beside me asked, 'How was your tea?' I replied, 'It's alright.' I asked her back, 'How's yours?'. 'Not good...', she said. I smiled at her and sipped the tea again. Well, it indeed was not so tasty. She was looking for a stewardess and perhaps wanted to ask for a new cup of tea when the husband actually stopped him and said, 'It's not that bad, darling...'. After a while, the stewardess collected the cups and noticed the tea was not touched. The husband laughed and said, 'I am afraid the tea was rejected by these two ladies'. 'Oh, that's a first. We never had tea rejected before.' The stewardess jokingly said. The lady and I looked at each other and laughed. We had a few conversations after that. I learned that she was from Ghana and the husband was an Englishman. Below was some collected conversations which I found very amusing.
'So, where is good for sightseeing in Ghana?', I asked. She looked at me, 'Nowhere. haha...basically there is nothing good for sightseeing in Ghana.' I laughed and said, 'You are not very good at promoting your country are you...then what is Ghana famous cuisine?' She laughed and looked at me, 'You would not like it...it's not palatable for other people apart from our country people...' She continued, 'I for instance, do not cook Ghana food. I cook Asian food at home. We lived in Indonesia for 3 years and we loved the food there. So, we eat nasi goreng, kari, kuih...and many others which my maid used to teach me.' I was very impressed with the fluent Malay she spoke. I then told her that I was from Malaysia. She said, 'Oh, so kamu bisa cakap bahasa melayu?' I said, 'Yes I can.' She said, 'so doktor, do you have rumah sakit korban laki-laki di Malayia?' I looked at her puzzled. Trying to figure out what she was trying to say. Rumah sakit is hospital, korban laki-laki is ...? She then smiled at me, 'Rumah sakit=hospital, korban=victim, laki-laki=man...got it?'. I threw into a laughing fit after realizing what she meant, 'Ohh...we don't call O&G by that name. We call it Hospital sakit puan or Obstetrik dan Ginekologi....hahahaha...'. We then chatted until we landed in Amsterdam. I enjoyed the talk very much, though a little frustrated that I didn't get that piece of jewelery which I had been eying on in the flight magazine. Nah...I can live without it.
