Held in Place with Duct Tape

Yesterday morning I was jogging along the path coming down from the castle, thinking about what I wanted to eat for breakfast, when I was flagged down by two women walking in the opposite direction. Hot, sweaty, and slightly out of breath, I stopped.

The older, mid-60-ish woman says to me, "Blahblahblahblahblah," and waves wildly at my stomach. I looked at her, smiled, and said, "English?" She looks at her younger, 50-ish, companion (who I think was her daughter), who says, "Children." Again, the older woman makes grand gestures at my stomach and then moves her arms to eumlate childbirth.

At this point, I'm really puzzled. I point to myself, shake my head, and reply, "Children. No." The older woman starts jumping around and again motions as if a child is going to suddenly descend from my uterus. I look at the younger woman, I look at the older woman (who is still hopping around pushing babies out of me), I look at the younger woman who is starting to laugh, and then I figure it out. The older woman wants to know if running has damaged my ability to have children.

To confirm this, I run in place, rub my stomach and say, "OK. S'ka problem." (Which means no problem in Albanian.) Again, the older woman jumps around and points at my stomach with a grimace on her face. I smiled and said, "Jo. S'ka problem. Children okay." (Jo means no.). She looked at me dubiously, obviously still believing that by running I was doing my future children a grave disservice by intentionally bouncing around my reproductive organs in such an unseemly manner. But she thanked me and then we all shook hands and I continued on my way.