Were they Mossad ?

2001 

A week or so had passed , when rioters burned and looted Chinese shops in the Argentinian capital and the aftermath of that event, was the first time I found myself right smack in Buenos Aires , travelling in on a sponsored air ticket . Knew there was trouble, but was totally ignorant about attacks on the Jewish quarter in the 90s . Only found out about there even being a Jewish quarter in BA, like yearssss later. 

Probably no one targetted me since I didn't look that Chinese to the locals (cos at one of the transit points, an officer mistook me for a Peruvian ) thus I was able to walk everywhere on foot without any threat to my personal safety.
But I did turn heads because not many orientals took this path after such an incident, with nary an ounce of fear in sight . Ho yeah, I was fearless. I still am. I think. 

Anyway, before I arrived at the hostel, I made a request for a bed in the female only dorm. Accepted. *Phews *
Heck, what they didn't tell us is that we had to pass the male dorm downstairs to get to the 4 bed loft upstairs. One very randy Aussie to contend with each time I passed the area.

The great mop of orange , ( with hair like the girl from the cartoon Brave ) eyeballed me from her side of the bed. She broke into a half smile , I smiled back. 

She : "Where from ? " 

Me  : " Malaysia . You ? "

She : " Israel "

Me  : " Oh, ok cool "

Bla bla bla and she soon went about her business with headphones and nail file in hand. Cute girl, I like her.

Later in the day, the older male reception decided to engage me, with 2 other American Jews who were not keen on talking to nobody , keenly listening to our conversation , while pretending not to, from a distance. Fail. 

Where they Mossad ? Agents ? Never crossed my mind then, cos it didn't even matter if they were.( Bear in mind, that I only entertained thoughts about Mossad agents only THIS YEAR after MH370, thanks to fb postings, not that I'm proud about it. Sometimes ignorance can be bliss )

He : " So, you are Malaysian ? "

Me : " Yup "

He : " And you are what....a Moslem ? "

Me : " Errr... No "

He : " But you are from Malaysia , you are not Moslem ?"

Me : " We have many cultures and religions in Malaysia, Christians, Buddhist but no I am not a Moslem " 

He seemed relieved almost. Didn't ask further cos he could sense my annoyance at having just been interrogated over the issue of the religion I was assumed to belong to . I didn't even want to ask him what he was. Geez, gimme a break, I'm on holiday here yo.

Anyway he went over to talk to those 2. Like they needed an explanation from him or something about my being there. To this day, I still don't know what transpired between them. I mean I was annoyed but at the time, it felt so stupid, I simply could not care less. Screw you.

This reception fella, he was actually an ok guy. Maybe he was playing peacemaker for me.  I really have no idea.

Then my cute orange mop head dorm mate, stumbled in one morning ( out the whole night) , ignoring everyone in her path. Weird, as she was usually chirpy and friendly . 

He shook his head.

Him : " They're all doing drugs , they spend the whole night partying and end up like this "

Me   : " Why are they doing this then "

Him : " Because they are forced to travel non stop , so they won't have to go back and fight  in a war. They are teenagers after all, they want to enjoy life, but it pains them what's happening back home . They can't go back because they don't want to fight. They want to go back because they're terribly homesick yet they're forced to travel all the time.  No one can help them.  One minute they're happy, next minute they're like her . It's a sad situation they've found themselves born into "

I let it sink in before I have to admit this revelation disturbs me to the core right to this day. I have no words that could help better their predicament so it's best to shut up,  listen and let you know their side of the story

-To be continued -