Summary

Shay contemplates a proverb spoken frequently in Madagascar – “To speak a strange tongue is a blessing or a curse” (107), and considers how the people indigenous to the island – “like the Inuit and countless other peoples of shamanistic and animistic faith – are well accustomed to receive greetings, counsel, even scoldings from other worlds, often through a human medium” (107). She considers how she has been present at ceremonies or other situations in which this has happened, and how no matter how carefully she had prepared herself to look like a local, she always felt like an outsider.

On one such occasion, she is touring the island with her friend Felice, herself born and raised in Madagascar but like Shay, educated in the United States and working internationally. While driving around the island, they tease each other about their connection to their respective backgrounds, with Felice joking...