the quest for snow white

After centuries of working the fields or sea, the country has developed an affinity for light skin. Many view it as a sign of affluence since darker skin would indicate someone who works out in the sun a lot, such as a farmer or street vendor (whereas many in countries like the US view tans as a sign of affluence indicating that the individual could afford to go on a beach vacation). Some of it is practical though because the sun here is more intense given the proximity to the equator, and in certain months, that intensity feels as if one's skin is literally burning.

However, since my arrival, the weather has been high 70s to 90s, yet it is common to see people, mostly women, cover up completely during their commutes to and fro. I get hot just looking at them. There's a whole industry on whitening products (body wash, lotion, makeup, etc.) with marketing campaigns that promote the supposed effectiveness of such products. Because I haven't received my shipment of clothing and household products, I had to break down and purchase local sunscreen. The lowest I could find was spf 45. For a premium, one could even purchase whitening sunscreen.

Sunshine makes me happy. When I look for apartments, one of the things I look for is the abundance of natural light. That request was an odd one for my real estate agent since the request she gets is usually the opposite. It took me awhile to understand that when street vendors are moving me around, it is because they are trying to be considerate rather than downgrading the foreigner to a table without a view. My aunts took me to a street vendor to grab lunch. While it was crowded at the time, it wasn't too crowded that we didn't have seating options. However, they knew my preference for the sun and view to people watch so we sat towards the outer side. As the place cleared out, the owner wanted us to move to a different table. I didn't quite understand all the hubbub at the time. One of my aunts declared 'it's ok, she is not afraid of the sun and loves to tan'. We got a good chuckle later when the street vendor went to other street vendors to show them the 'freak of nature' who liked the sun.

Recently, I had a lunch appointment with a CFO of a booming internet company. It was a lovely restaurant with a glass enclosure and water features. He arrived first and was seated at a corner table. As we were greeting each other, the wait staff was busy moving place settings and drinks to another table. It turns out that as soon as a woman arrived, they assumed that I wouldn't want to be near the glass, and therefore, the sun. Needless to say, we stayed at the original table.

As for the effectiveness of the products...I generally use spf 4 to aggressively tan or spf 15 to moderate. Even factoring in the intensity of the sun, after one day with spf 45, I burned. 'Nuff said!