This morning I was trying to find the Spanish word for “Roast” but could not find it in any of my dictionaries. I wanted to cook a roast in my crock pot with a roasted chilli sauce and serve it on tostadas, normally they grill the meat for tostadas but I do not have a grill (and I’m not smart enough to make one) and I thought it would be good slow cooked as well. I head to the market anyway and this time I took my time and went through the whole nicety routine with the guys, they were all very nice. Then he asked what I needed, I tried to explain I wanted a small roast. He did not get what I wanted; he kept asking me what I wanted to do with it. He asked if I was grilling it, I said no and tried to explain I wanted to put it in a crock pot. Mexicans kitchens are not usually equipped with an oven; they grill all their meat and are certainly not familiar with a crock pot so he couldn’t understand why I would put it in a pot if I was making tostadas. I did however end up going home with a nice little roast and my tostadas were delicious. I already know that there is a lot of food that I am going to get used to having all the time here that I will miss having when I come home.
By the way, speaking of grilling, the other day I walked past a home that had a little taco stand set up in the street and they had built a little fire and then didn’t have a grill so they had put the top part of a fan on the fire (you know, the wire part that keeps kids from sticking their fingers in the blade) they were grilling their meat on that.....how clever is that not? These people are just never stuck.
Friday, January 18, 2008
The true Mexican taco
I am still debating whether I want to publish my amazing taco discovery on this blog, because I think that with the information that I now have I can come home and open up a taco stand and be a bizzillionaire by next winter and I’m not sure I want to give away that secret. I’ll think about it.
5 hours later........................ok, still thinking about it. I got interrupted, my new SkipBoo playing friends popped by to invite me over again for left over spaghetti and some card playing, had a blast but then got home and realized that I still didn’t hadn’t bought a blanket (was going to do that yesterday). So again I will be wearing my wool sweater as it gets down to 10C at night and then during the day it has only been between 15 and 18C, which sounds warm but there is always a breeze coming off the ocean and there is no heat to turn on (ever) Most restaurants and stores are all open and of the 6 windows in my house only 3 have glass in them, the others have shutters that close but are not sealed at all. (Very leaky) I have towels stuffed in the 2 inch cracks under both my doors at night. Not wining by any means just informing you of the current weather condition, just a little ironic that the winter that I come here it’s the coldest winter they have had in 10 years.
5 hours later........................ok, still thinking about it. I got interrupted, my new SkipBoo playing friends popped by to invite me over again for left over spaghetti and some card playing, had a blast but then got home and realized that I still didn’t hadn’t bought a blanket (was going to do that yesterday). So again I will be wearing my wool sweater as it gets down to 10C at night and then during the day it has only been between 15 and 18C, which sounds warm but there is always a breeze coming off the ocean and there is no heat to turn on (ever) Most restaurants and stores are all open and of the 6 windows in my house only 3 have glass in them, the others have shutters that close but are not sealed at all. (Very leaky) I have towels stuffed in the 2 inch cracks under both my doors at night. Not wining by any means just informing you of the current weather condition, just a little ironic that the winter that I come here it’s the coldest winter they have had in 10 years.
Many Opportunities
There is never a lack of things to do here; I seem to be busy everyday of the week. I have just recently been given another job. I have phone duty a few days a week now as well. The La Vina church has a vonage phone system at the main church in the Golden Zone and they open it up to the public to make free phone calls to the US and Canada, also free internet use. Of course someone has to monitor this and stand on the street in front of the church and hand out flyers that explain this service to the people walking by, which are mostly tourists. It’s an opportunity to get people into the church so they can walk around as they’re waiting for their turn to use the phones and see our bulletin board that shows all the outreaches that the church has throughout the city. We don’t push anything but we are there to answer questions if they have any. It is at this time that a lot of people sign up for the garbage dump tour. I’ve been doing this now for 2 weeks and one thing that I have learned is that some people are afraid of church; some people don’t even want to look at it as they walk by. Of course when we say that the phone service is free they don’t believe you, they think we are trying to lure them in and then sell them something. We are told not to push anything or tell them anything unless they ask, but yet they are so afraid that we will tie them up and make them listen to a preacher. Why are people afraid of church if they don’t believe there is a God? What are they afraid of; I think they are afraid that they are wrong. I think deep down inside they are thinking “what if it’s true, what if there really is a God”. Just because you don’t believe that God exists does not make that true. Anyway, phone duty has been fun, I have met all kinds of people from all over, and even people that know people in High Level...yeah....people know we exist up there, I was surprised too. A bonus for doing this job is that across the street from the church is one of those really posh coffee places that make a really good vanilla late, of course being that it is the golden zone it is pricy (30 pesos for a large) but I do treat myself as I only have instant coffee at home. I look forward to this coffee every time, it is so good.
Like I said I am getting to know a lot of people, on Thursday I was driving around with another women that teaches at the same school as I do, when she happened to mention how cute the little red car was that we just passed and I realized that I knew the couple in the little red car.....like a true Mexican I stuck my head out the window and hollered at them. (That’s what you do here)
I’m also excited that the Mexican lady that cleans the church has invited me to her house for supper, I just couldn’t get when out of her. She does not speak any English at all but I am sure she invited me for supper......I sure hope she did. I am hoping when I see her on Sunday there will be someone around that can translate enough just to confirm that I am indeed invited to her house before I just show up.
Like I said I am getting to know a lot of people, on Thursday I was driving around with another women that teaches at the same school as I do, when she happened to mention how cute the little red car was that we just passed and I realized that I knew the couple in the little red car.....like a true Mexican I stuck my head out the window and hollered at them. (That’s what you do here)
I’m also excited that the Mexican lady that cleans the church has invited me to her house for supper, I just couldn’t get when out of her. She does not speak any English at all but I am sure she invited me for supper......I sure hope she did. I am hoping when I see her on Sunday there will be someone around that can translate enough just to confirm that I am indeed invited to her house before I just show up.
The Weekend on the Island
Friday afternoon I set off to the beach in search of a table and some chairs, and I wanted to buy a blanket from one of the beach vendors, I’ve been wearing my wool sweater at night. I had just stepped on to the beach and my new friend from Toronto (he’s the guy that forgot to go home 14 years ago) came up and introduced me to his father, his parents spend the winters here. I was invited right away for a spaghetti dinner and an evening of playing SkipBoo, I love playing SkipBoo. Since all 3 of us would not fit (we don’t know this for sure I was unwilling to try) on his moto-scooter thing I was chauffeured on the back of Pepe’s quad (Pepe rents out quads on the beach to tourists) There is not much action for him on the beach these days as it is still very cold here, has not been this cold in 10 years. Mother was embarrassed when I showed up as she wasn’t dressed for company, like I was dressed to be company. She said she had gotten all dressed up yesterday and no one came over. (Hate when that happens) We had a great evening of awesome spaghetti and about 6 rounds of SkipBoo and I went home with a borrowed table and 2 chairs. If I could have won one more round I could have had their microwave...next time. I have defiantly made some new friends again, it turns out they live very close to me, actually everyone on the Island lives close to me.
Island people are very interesting to me; if my Spanish was better I would be Miss nosy body on this Island. I want to know everything, most of all I want to know what people do with all that coconut milk. Everybody is tearing apart coconuts in their front yards and pouring the milk into containers but I have not seen coconut milk for sale anywhere or fresh coconut, what are they doing with it, where is it going? Also, they are pushing wheelbarrows down the street all the time and I want to stop them and say “hey, what you got there or where are you going with that?” Of course I can’t do that, remember.....the whole nicety routine would have to be followed again. Most people here make their living in some part of the fishing industry, you can tell who the fisherman are they wear tall rubber boots, have their pants tied up with fishing line and most homes have an overgrown dead boat with about 8 cats sleeping on it in their yard. Some of them even have that pirate look which can be a little intimating but I am finding out that they are really not that scary at all. One time when I was getting on the panga ( the little boats that take us across ) I was sure we were going to be hijacked when 2 pirate looking dudes got on, seriously, they made that little pirate guy that’s on Pirates of the Caribbean look like a wimpy boy.....no hijacking, they were just ordinary dudes. Speaking of being Miss nosy body, as I’m writing this I have to keep getting up to look out the window and see what’s happening across the street, they’ve brought out a PA system and are setting up chairs in the street....so I have to keep on top of that. There is just never a dull moment, this afternoon my neighbour’s son was sitting on the front step with his guitar, he was picking in a very Spanish sounding way......not the cowboy Spanish way but more like the Spanish from Spain, his voice was awesome as well, he kept me entertained for an hour or so. As noisy as this place is during the day with the music, the guitars, the quads, the motos and the honking sales people it is amazingly quiet at night. Everything seems to shut down at about 6 or 7 pm. Thursday night I came home at 9 pm from my taco excursion (that story is coming soon) and I stuck my head out my window and there was not a sound, I could hear the breeze rustling the leaves in the trees, aside from the roosters and the occasionally squawking of a cat you do not hear anything in the evening. By the way, the cats are wild and scary looking here, they all look crazy and are fighting and squealing everywhere but the dogs look beaten battered and tired and just seem to laze around and mind their own business.
I did my laundry this morning and as I was washing my blouse that I wore on Sunday I had to laugh a little. The kids at Villa Union love it when you pick them up and hug them; the little ones just cuddle right into your neck. I noticed on Sunday that they also take that opportunity to wipe their snooty noses on my shoulder. Oh well, I like their cuddly little hugs and they need a clean place to wipe their nose, we all get what we need. I didn’t let that bother me; it was just funny when I saw the crusty shoulder on my blouse this morning......it washed out.
I am trying really hard to conform to buying food for the day only, but that is so hard and today I failed miserably. This morning my land lady’s dear sweet father ( Senor Papa) gave me 2 big papayas because they were ready to be eaten and he was going to go away for a few days (I think is what he said) Then in the afternoon I go to the general store and buy 2 big bags of groceries (which only cost me 98 pesos) on my way home with my heavy bags nearly yanking my arms out of my sockets I pass Senor Papa and he sees my groceries and I am sure he is thinking “has she eaten those 2 papayas already and had to buy more food?”.
Island people are very interesting to me; if my Spanish was better I would be Miss nosy body on this Island. I want to know everything, most of all I want to know what people do with all that coconut milk. Everybody is tearing apart coconuts in their front yards and pouring the milk into containers but I have not seen coconut milk for sale anywhere or fresh coconut, what are they doing with it, where is it going? Also, they are pushing wheelbarrows down the street all the time and I want to stop them and say “hey, what you got there or where are you going with that?” Of course I can’t do that, remember.....the whole nicety routine would have to be followed again. Most people here make their living in some part of the fishing industry, you can tell who the fisherman are they wear tall rubber boots, have their pants tied up with fishing line and most homes have an overgrown dead boat with about 8 cats sleeping on it in their yard. Some of them even have that pirate look which can be a little intimating but I am finding out that they are really not that scary at all. One time when I was getting on the panga ( the little boats that take us across ) I was sure we were going to be hijacked when 2 pirate looking dudes got on, seriously, they made that little pirate guy that’s on Pirates of the Caribbean look like a wimpy boy.....no hijacking, they were just ordinary dudes. Speaking of being Miss nosy body, as I’m writing this I have to keep getting up to look out the window and see what’s happening across the street, they’ve brought out a PA system and are setting up chairs in the street....so I have to keep on top of that. There is just never a dull moment, this afternoon my neighbour’s son was sitting on the front step with his guitar, he was picking in a very Spanish sounding way......not the cowboy Spanish way but more like the Spanish from Spain, his voice was awesome as well, he kept me entertained for an hour or so. As noisy as this place is during the day with the music, the guitars, the quads, the motos and the honking sales people it is amazingly quiet at night. Everything seems to shut down at about 6 or 7 pm. Thursday night I came home at 9 pm from my taco excursion (that story is coming soon) and I stuck my head out my window and there was not a sound, I could hear the breeze rustling the leaves in the trees, aside from the roosters and the occasionally squawking of a cat you do not hear anything in the evening. By the way, the cats are wild and scary looking here, they all look crazy and are fighting and squealing everywhere but the dogs look beaten battered and tired and just seem to laze around and mind their own business.
I did my laundry this morning and as I was washing my blouse that I wore on Sunday I had to laugh a little. The kids at Villa Union love it when you pick them up and hug them; the little ones just cuddle right into your neck. I noticed on Sunday that they also take that opportunity to wipe their snooty noses on my shoulder. Oh well, I like their cuddly little hugs and they need a clean place to wipe their nose, we all get what we need. I didn’t let that bother me; it was just funny when I saw the crusty shoulder on my blouse this morning......it washed out.
I am trying really hard to conform to buying food for the day only, but that is so hard and today I failed miserably. This morning my land lady’s dear sweet father ( Senor Papa) gave me 2 big papayas because they were ready to be eaten and he was going to go away for a few days (I think is what he said) Then in the afternoon I go to the general store and buy 2 big bags of groceries (which only cost me 98 pesos) on my way home with my heavy bags nearly yanking my arms out of my sockets I pass Senor Papa and he sees my groceries and I am sure he is thinking “has she eaten those 2 papayas already and had to buy more food?”.
Miracles needed and wanted
Acts 3 tells the story of Peter and John healing a lame man in the name of Jesus. Peter and John were not Jesus, they were ordinary men, no different from anyone else. Peter acknowledges in verse 16 that it is in Jesus’ name that the man was healed, not through the power of Peter and John. It was through the name of Jesus that Peter had the authority to say in verse 6 “in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk”. Did Peter just assume he had the authority to say that or did he receive a message from Jesus telling him to say that? Last week at Casa Damasco we prayed over a man that is in great pain. He had a leg injury of some kind (I don’t know the whole story) the doctors put a metal rod inside his leg and now he has a very bad infection, his leg is all swollen and the flesh did not heal around the rod and now seems to be shrinking, the rod is almost completely exposed now. It is a horrendous sight and I feel pain just looking at it. We laid hands on him and the Pastor prayed (as we always do) and when he finished another gentleman said “but we didn’t pray for a miracle of healing, that is what the man needs” so we prayed again, for miraculous healing to take place, when we finished we all shook the mans hand, gave him a hug and wished him well and went on our way. When we finished praying I noticed that no one asked the man to pull up his pant leg so we could see if he had been healed.....why? Why did I not ask? Could the answer to that possibly be the same reason why a healing did not take place? I didn’t ask him to pull up his pant leg because I didn’t think he would be healed, why did I bother praying then? Why did I just know that I didn’t have the authority to say “in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk”. I prayed in the name of Jesus Christ, I believe that Jesus can still heal; I believe that Jesus does give the power of healing to us ordinary people. Is it my faith that is stopping the miracles from happening? Yesterday we had another instance when we felt we were on the brink of a miracle but nothing happened. There is a lady that lives on the Island that I am on that has MS, she is in a wheelchair and cannot use her hands anymore at all, her fingers are so clawed that she can’t even turn the pages of her bible, she’s a very devout Christian. Her husband and her two young sons (17 & 19) have to take care of her completely; I can’t imagine how humbling that must be for her and my heart just goes out to her. Since she can’t come to our Bible study we go to her house to do a bible study with her once a week. This week the La Vina had a missions team from the US come so about 4 of the team members were with us as well, just before we left we prayed over her (as we usually do) we were saying our good-byes and one of team members was just over come with the Holy Spirit and she felt that there would be healing taking place so we laid hands on her again and prayed, the lady was crying out, most of us were crying in anticipation of a miracle and nothing happened. Two of the people had visions of her getting up and walking, she said she felt her feet get extremely hot and felt that she should be floating.....but nothing. As I was wiping her tears my heart was just breaking for her, I felt like we had gotten her hopes up and then failed her. Why did God hold back? This is the kind of miracle that this Island needs to bring glory to God; I think an amazing miracle that this would do amazing things for Gods’ Kingdom. The devil has ruled here for so long why is God not taking this opportunity to take back some territory? Or is it not God that is holding back, is it us and our weak faith that is holding God back? I feel like I’m way over my head here.
Guirky Livin
When you live on a quirky Island you have to be prepared to live with some quirky things, one of which is our water supply. For the last 3 days the whole Island was out of water, our water is piped in from the mainland and apparently a boat hit and busted our water line Friday night. From what I hear this happens once in awhile, it’s just part of life here. After 3 days of having a sponge bath in the morning it sure does make you appreciate a hot shower. I’m learning to appreciate a lot of things and I am already wondering how I am going to be able to merge back into my old life without alienating and annoying everyone around me. I don’t think it will be a smooth merge. For instance, can you believe I am really enjoying hand washing my laundry? There is something so therapeutic about hand scrubbing my clothes under the big bugambilla tree in the heat of the morning with sounds of birds, chickens and roosters around me. I do laundry about every other day so that it does not pile up too much. I did sheets the other day which was a bit of a challenge but I managed. It’s wringing them out that is the hard part, I feel bad for women that have to wash jeans, they would be the toughest to wringe out, I didn’t bring any jeans. If I was staying here longer I would buy and old wringer washing machine, I see them everywhere in used furniture stores, but I’m not here long enough. It is very satisfying to have the laundry back in the house, dried, de-linted and ironed; I get a great sense of accomplishment out of it. I think I will miss that when I come home.
I’m getting used to the roosters crowing at all hours of the night; they don’t wake me up as much anymore. I might have to get some roosters when I get home.....oh right, we have bylaws and stuff. The other night at about 10 pm I had just put away my knitting and I had almost fallen asleep when a car drove by, I was so startled I literally jumped, thinking “what’s that?” and then realizing that it’s just a car, I rarely hear a car drive by my house after 7 pm.
When I first arrived I found a little store that sold Pepsi and I can’t remember where it was, it may not even exist any more. So I have replaced my Pepsi addiction to Toni-Col, which is a vanilla flavoured soda pop that is made right here in Mazatlan, together with a little bag of Cheetos (36 g) makes for a nice evening snack for me on my roof-top as I am winding down my day. I haven’t even seen Cheetos in a bigger bag than the 36 g, which is a good thing for me.
Yesterday I found myself doing something I never thought I would need to do, I had to pretend that I couldn’t speak Spanish.....I know! You’re thinking, “What do you mean pretend, you don’t speak Spanish” It wasn’t until I was pretending not to understand that I realized I could understand everything, and really had a hard time pretending that I didn’t. It was Sunday night and I was coming back from Mazatlan at 9:30 pm and arrived on the other side of the docks and had to wait for a boat with a older gentleman that had gone into the city to have some beers, a lot of beers, so the first thing he asks is do I live on the Island (rather obvious that I do as I am here this late catching a boat) so I say yes, well then of course, he wants to know where I live, this is when I pretend that I don’t understand him and I do the whole “no se” routine that I do with the lady at Casa Damasco. The poor man tried so hard and I must give him credit for that, he did not give up. The whole way on the boat he kept listing off names of people whom I could be renting from, “Carlotta, Sofia, o Daniela” I just kept shaking my head and sticking to my “no se”. It was during all this that I realized I could understand everything he was asking and I could have had a conversation him had I wanted too. I am getting a little frustrated with everyone wanting to know where I live. Last week some time I met a another gentleman that immediately upon meeting him decided he would bring a chicken to my house and we would BBQ, I told him I don’t have a BBQ, he thought an oven would be fine I said I didn’t have an oven either, then he was going to pick up an already cooked chicken, I told him I don’t have a table or chairs and that I was not set up for quests, I wanted to scream “stay away from me with your chicken”, but that would be rude, instead I just walked away in mid conversation, much politer. I don’t understand why Mexican men feel its ok to invite themselves to a women’s house that they have just met 2 minutes ago, or am I being too paranoid about this? Last week was terrible, if I wouldn’t have resorted to lying and being flat out rude I would have had a parade of men coming through my house all week. I don’t even care if they all had good intentions and just wanted to stop by to make the new gringa feels welcome, I don’t want men coming through my house every week, I’m just not that sociable and hospitable. The women I am meeting are just as friendly and willing to chat with me but don’t feel the need to invite themselves over. Oh well.....soon I’ll be old news around here, and then I might wish someone would stop by with an already cooked chicken.
I’m getting used to the roosters crowing at all hours of the night; they don’t wake me up as much anymore. I might have to get some roosters when I get home.....oh right, we have bylaws and stuff. The other night at about 10 pm I had just put away my knitting and I had almost fallen asleep when a car drove by, I was so startled I literally jumped, thinking “what’s that?” and then realizing that it’s just a car, I rarely hear a car drive by my house after 7 pm.
When I first arrived I found a little store that sold Pepsi and I can’t remember where it was, it may not even exist any more. So I have replaced my Pepsi addiction to Toni-Col, which is a vanilla flavoured soda pop that is made right here in Mazatlan, together with a little bag of Cheetos (36 g) makes for a nice evening snack for me on my roof-top as I am winding down my day. I haven’t even seen Cheetos in a bigger bag than the 36 g, which is a good thing for me.
Yesterday I found myself doing something I never thought I would need to do, I had to pretend that I couldn’t speak Spanish.....I know! You’re thinking, “What do you mean pretend, you don’t speak Spanish” It wasn’t until I was pretending not to understand that I realized I could understand everything, and really had a hard time pretending that I didn’t. It was Sunday night and I was coming back from Mazatlan at 9:30 pm and arrived on the other side of the docks and had to wait for a boat with a older gentleman that had gone into the city to have some beers, a lot of beers, so the first thing he asks is do I live on the Island (rather obvious that I do as I am here this late catching a boat) so I say yes, well then of course, he wants to know where I live, this is when I pretend that I don’t understand him and I do the whole “no se” routine that I do with the lady at Casa Damasco. The poor man tried so hard and I must give him credit for that, he did not give up. The whole way on the boat he kept listing off names of people whom I could be renting from, “Carlotta, Sofia, o Daniela” I just kept shaking my head and sticking to my “no se”. It was during all this that I realized I could understand everything he was asking and I could have had a conversation him had I wanted too. I am getting a little frustrated with everyone wanting to know where I live. Last week some time I met a another gentleman that immediately upon meeting him decided he would bring a chicken to my house and we would BBQ, I told him I don’t have a BBQ, he thought an oven would be fine I said I didn’t have an oven either, then he was going to pick up an already cooked chicken, I told him I don’t have a table or chairs and that I was not set up for quests, I wanted to scream “stay away from me with your chicken”, but that would be rude, instead I just walked away in mid conversation, much politer. I don’t understand why Mexican men feel its ok to invite themselves to a women’s house that they have just met 2 minutes ago, or am I being too paranoid about this? Last week was terrible, if I wouldn’t have resorted to lying and being flat out rude I would have had a parade of men coming through my house all week. I don’t even care if they all had good intentions and just wanted to stop by to make the new gringa feels welcome, I don’t want men coming through my house every week, I’m just not that sociable and hospitable. The women I am meeting are just as friendly and willing to chat with me but don’t feel the need to invite themselves over. Oh well.....soon I’ll be old news around here, and then I might wish someone would stop by with an already cooked chicken.
A Bone of leg of meat
I went back to the meat market and picked up my 225 g of bone of leg of meat this morning, he did not have coffee on and the usual gang was hangin out. The young gentleman (I forgot to get his name) was very helpful (of course he asked me where I live.....why do they always need to know this?) and even cut it up into small pieces for me. This went into my crock pot with beans, onions, some jalapeño pepper and some lard (yes, lard.....don’t you judge me, when in Mexico do as the Mexicans do) the recipe called for maple syrup and mustard but I didn’t have any. It ended up being very very good, and I still have some bone of leg of meat in my freezer, I didn’t use it all.
Here’s a little Mexican culture tip that I need to work on.
Mexicans love idle chitchat and niceties. (Yes that is a word) When you pass a person on the street there is no such thing as just saying a quick “Hi” as you walk by, if you’re going to say hi, you are expected to stop and shake hands and say “good morning, how are you” then comes the reply “good morning, fine thank-you” now you’re going to continue walking so you shake hands again and say good-bye. If you are not prepared to do all this do not even look the person in the eye just keep walking, and do not say “hi”. When you approach a person to ask them something, whether it’s directions for someplace or you want to ask the meat guy for meat or the produce guy for some lettuce, you do not just walk up to him and say “hey, do you have any lettuce today”, you are again expected to go through the whole nice routine first, the hand shake, the greeting, and then you ask for lettuce and then the hand shake again and the good-bye, even if you just talked to him ½ hour ago on the other street, you must go through the routine. Plus, if you have met this person before or if someone that already knows this person introduces you, you also get a kiss on the cheek and are expected to kiss on the cheek back and from then on for ever and ever every time you meet this person there is cheek kissing. I’m not sure I’ll get used to this; do you know how many people I meet on Sunday at church? Remember I’m the greeter. You can choose not to participate in this but then you are known as the rude gringo and the Mexicans tend not to be as helpful......and I need all the help I can get these days. So I must remember to slow down, what’s my hurry anyway? I remembered after I left the meat market that I had forgotten to go through that whole routine with him so I must remember to do that next time or I’ll be labelled as the rude gringa in the neighbourhood and then who knows what kind of meat he’ll sell me. I also had a conversation with the shrimp guy this morning (didn’t buy any shrimp) and skipped the whole routine and cut right to the chase, “when do the boats stop running at night?” was what I needed to know, I don’t want to get stranded on the other side late at night. He was most helpful and according to my Spanish the boats run until midnight and then stop for “a little bit” and then for the rest of the night they run only one boat. I could not get how long “a little bit” is out of him. If you need a boat and it’s sitting at the other end you wave your hand in front of the light on the ticket booth, the flickering is the signal for the boat to come back. I love how most things are so simple here.
Here’s a little Mexican culture tip that I need to work on.
Mexicans love idle chitchat and niceties. (Yes that is a word) When you pass a person on the street there is no such thing as just saying a quick “Hi” as you walk by, if you’re going to say hi, you are expected to stop and shake hands and say “good morning, how are you” then comes the reply “good morning, fine thank-you” now you’re going to continue walking so you shake hands again and say good-bye. If you are not prepared to do all this do not even look the person in the eye just keep walking, and do not say “hi”. When you approach a person to ask them something, whether it’s directions for someplace or you want to ask the meat guy for meat or the produce guy for some lettuce, you do not just walk up to him and say “hey, do you have any lettuce today”, you are again expected to go through the whole nice routine first, the hand shake, the greeting, and then you ask for lettuce and then the hand shake again and the good-bye, even if you just talked to him ½ hour ago on the other street, you must go through the routine. Plus, if you have met this person before or if someone that already knows this person introduces you, you also get a kiss on the cheek and are expected to kiss on the cheek back and from then on for ever and ever every time you meet this person there is cheek kissing. I’m not sure I’ll get used to this; do you know how many people I meet on Sunday at church? Remember I’m the greeter. You can choose not to participate in this but then you are known as the rude gringo and the Mexicans tend not to be as helpful......and I need all the help I can get these days. So I must remember to slow down, what’s my hurry anyway? I remembered after I left the meat market that I had forgotten to go through that whole routine with him so I must remember to do that next time or I’ll be labelled as the rude gringa in the neighbourhood and then who knows what kind of meat he’ll sell me. I also had a conversation with the shrimp guy this morning (didn’t buy any shrimp) and skipped the whole routine and cut right to the chase, “when do the boats stop running at night?” was what I needed to know, I don’t want to get stranded on the other side late at night. He was most helpful and according to my Spanish the boats run until midnight and then stop for “a little bit” and then for the rest of the night they run only one boat. I could not get how long “a little bit” is out of him. If you need a boat and it’s sitting at the other end you wave your hand in front of the light on the ticket booth, the flickering is the signal for the boat to come back. I love how most things are so simple here.
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