Megan is a volunteer here from Ohio. She arrived on Sunday and will leave this Sunday. She is a cute, smart 22 year old environmental geography major. She has had about 7 years old French between high school and college but not a word of Spanish. Not. One. Single. Word.
When I arrived and Donald asked if I spoke Spanish I told him poquito- A little bit. I joked that I knew the important words like el bano y cerveza and that my best sentence was Uno mas cerveza por favor. I repeated these to Donald's coworker when he asked me what I could say in Spanish. He laughed that I really liked cerveza. Si, senor!
Growing up in Texas you can't help but pick up a few words. I use Hola and Si all the time. Por favor and gracias are also used often, even in emails and on business calls. Some words you just can't help but learn. You only have to eat huervos ranchera one or two times to pick up that huervos are eggs and it's hard to find a breakfast menu without the word listed.
But Megan seriously didn't know one word. She said that she needed to pee when she landed but didn't know el bano so she justed rushed to the cab. She was excited that she found enough people that knew English to get from the airport to the bus station to the Super Weber. Donald was waiting for her when she arrived.
Im trying to learn as many words as possible. Donald speaks in English so I'm constantly having to ask the Spanish words but he has a whiteboard and writes things down for me. Xinia on the other hand doesn't speak a word of English. This isn't a problem when Donald is around but he was gone all day Tuesday. Three meals and lots of chores with Xinia is a long time with communication issues. We ate in silence today but we are trying to communicate. At one point I pulled out the Spanish/ English dictionary to understand when she said "me gusto lluvia" - "I like the rain." she smiles when I try new words so I think she appreciates my effort.
I'm hoping to learn a lot of words while I'm here. Megan is pleased that she can say please and thank you now. She is also excited that she now knows what cerveza means on her Corona bottle. She'd always wondered. Tomorrow we are going to set out to get a cerveza for her here.
