qatarperegrine | Chipko and swardspeak

One fun thing about life in Qatar is that I get to learn things not just about Qatari culture and language, but about the cultures and languages of the many different nationalities represented here.

Today, for example, a student saw a picture of me hugging a redwood and told me I looked like a chipko woman. In the 1970s, chipko women resisted logging in northern India by hugging trees. Did this influence Earth First!, or is this parallel evolution?

Then last week, a Filipina friend asked another Filipina to pass her a book, in what I assumed was Tagalog. The second woman was taken aback, and turning to me said, "She just asked me in Gay!"

"In... Gay?" I said.

"You know. Gay people's language."

I was confused. "Gay people in your country have their own language?"

"Well, yeah," she said. "Don't they in yours?"

Apparently it's called swardspeak. (Additional explanation here.)

When it was time for me to go, my friends said goodbye to me "in Gay." I wasn't sure how to respond, so I said "Ciao."