Name: Sheila & Monica
Age: 29 and 33
Occupation: Jewelry sellers at Palolem Beach
Relation: Sisters
A hangover morning.. Im half dead suntanning at the beach. Its 11 oclock and Palolem Beach is starting to recover from yesterdays party. "Mam, henna, nice jewelery? Very good price for you my friend! Where are you from? You are so pale mam" .. I close my eyes under my big shades and pretend Im asleep. One after one passes and blurps out the same phrases every minute. All needed is HALF an hour to sleep of yesterdays fun.
After a good hours powernap Im finally starting to get to myself. With a icecold dietcoke Im chilling at my sunbed as two girls passes by. "Good morning mam, tired from yesterdays party? You want to look at some jewelery to feel better?" At once I understand that theese are my type of girls.. so I smile and shake my head politely. Still not interested but they are worth my attention.
"Where are you from miss, you are so pale. I love your skin" My name is Monica, this is my sister Sheila, whats your name mam?" I look around, its still a tired morning. Not much happening, got time to kill. "Im Mia, from Norway.. nice to meet you Monica and Sheila"
The talk goes on and Im forced to look at their bag full of jewelry. As the hour passes rapidly Im starting to understand that theese two ladies are very sweet, not just desperate sellers strawling down the beach of Palolem. With "Very good price for you my friend" pounding through my head I kindly ask them to come back the next day. Yesterdays vodka & wine killed my shoppingmood.
The next morning Sheila limps over to my sun-bed. She looks tired, so I ask her to sit down as I order a bottle of icecold water for her. She shows me a big bondage around her leg. Its aching and gives her a horrible pain up her leg. She was in a car accident five weeks ago and got her leg smashed. Today is her 2nd day back at work. Its obvious that she should be in bed recovering. I ask her why she is back at work already. I already know the answer, but the curiosity to understand more of her life drives me to the leading question. " Im a mum for two boys. They are nine and elleven. Its been hard being home for a month, no money mam, no money when Im home. You see, my husband left me four years back. I alone have to support my family now" I take a deep breath.. How can I ask more without being rude?! " If you dont mind me asking, did your husband pas away?" She leans back in the sunbed and her postiure cleary weakens. I think this lady is carrying much more pain than what I can ever understand. "You see my friend, he dies four years ago. And from then my family turned my back to me. I have my sons and my sisters now. Its not good for a woman to be without a man. After that day I havent spoken to my parents". I push my shades extra hard to the nose. I can feel the tears are forcing through but Im trying to be cool. As the first tear drops on my chin Guro comes over. I turn quickly to her and ask her to talk to Sheila while I run in the water. As Guro dont know anything of our conversation she sits down confused as I walk down to the water. I splash water in my face while I focus to stop the tears. Its just to unfair.
How can a woman loose her husband and her family at the same day? How can she walk up and down the beach with a badly bruised leg when she should be in bed recovering? How does she find the strenght to send her children to school when bringing them to the beach is a much better option? The tears turn into crocodiletears and I embarrased to be crying like a baby in the water. I gather myself and walk up to our spot again. Sheila looks at me with a big smile "Are you okey my friend? Do you want to look at some jewelery now maybe?"
