meanie

living fifty meters down the road from a mormon church is turning me into a very uncharitable person. when we first moved in to casa rosita, i used to allow them to stop me, say 'hi', and chat about their gospel, but years and years of that has worn my tolerance down to a nub, and i avoid them now like the plague. i do feel bad doing it, mostly because it's different missionaries every time, and i do like to let a person say his piece at least once. the problem is that it's always the same piece - they must have a script or something because whenever one of them stops me i know the exact words he's going to use before they're out of his mouth. and they're so persistent! - i've tried everything from staring fixedly at the ground as i go past to plugging myself into my ipod to changing the subject to duke basketball - but nothing ever stops them from giving the five-minute spiel.

to make matters worse, there's now a team of buddhist monks plying bukit timah road asking for donations, and i have been stopped by them thrice in as many days. i allowed myself to be accosted and detained yesterday and the day before, but today's experience was the limit - the guy just kept tailing me and hounding me even though i insisted quite firmly that i had given them quite enough of my time and money already. i was angry (and i got the impression that he was as well, somehow), and i even think i hated him a little because of how un-christian he made me feel. same deal with the mormons really - there's just no way to walk away from them quickly without being rude.

you see, getting rid of evangelists is not the same as getting rid of salesmen or those people who try to get you to do questionnaires. with the latter you can tell them: 'no thanks' firmly and walk away, but the opening salvo of the evangelists is always something like how are you (fine, how are you) do you live around here (yeah, down the road) have any of our brothers told you about the saving love of jesus christ - and then they're off to the races. their trick is that they start a conversation first, they make a connection, and to not respond to the first one or two questions is (to me) just plain rude. salesmen (in singapore, anyway - this is why they're more successful overseas) often don't have the skill to forge that link, and anyway, it's easy to stick in a 'i don't want to buy anything, thanks' before they even have the chance. i've tried the strategy of immediately inserting something like 'i know what you're going to say but i already am a catholic' after the 'how-are-you's, but like the telemarketers, they have a comeback for that too: which church do you go to? (st. ignatius) have you ever considered etc.

i mean, dammit. i can't wait till our house goes en bloc.