Unless you're Molly, in which case you get four strikes.
After spending the day organizing our schedule and planning ahead for the projects that will soon get rolling, we headed to Chepe's house for a traditional Nicaraguan meal of Pinto Gallo, huevos, and salsa tomate. With Elise out of town, we had to rely on our own pathetic but improving spanish skills to converse with the five Nicaraguans that so kindly welcomed us to their home. I had been waiting for one of us to accidentally insult someone or make a fool of ourselves..Molly stepped up to the plate.
Her first strike came almost immediately. The eight year-old daughter Daniela saw that we had brought mangos and kept saying "Yo quiero el mango" (I want the mango) . Our habit has been to repeat whatever sentence someone says to us, so each time the girl expressed her desire for the mango, Molly would reply "Yo quiero el mango." Finally I nudged her and explained that the girl was asking permission to have the mango and thought that Molly was fighting her for it. Selfish, selfish Molly fighting a poor young girl for a small mango.
Strike two occurred as we were discussing the various foods in the kitchen, what we like and what we don't like. Having just learned the name of the local rum "Flor de Cana" Molly announced that 17 year old Chepe "gusto Flor De Cana" (Chepe likes the rum). Chepe's mom instantly shrieked and turned to Chepe for explanation to which he insisted Molly was lying.
Strike three took place during dinner as Chepe's sister explained to us that some words that are dirty or bad in other cultures are actually normal in Nicaragua, they don't have as strong of a meaning. After hearing a few examples from his sister, Molly jumped in with "punta", a curse word we all know from Dani getting repeatedly frustrated at Lehigh practices. The whole room went silent as the 8 year old girl giggled after which they explained that punta is a bad word everywhere.
As if three strikes weren't enough, the fourth came when they gave Molly a little bit of pinto gallo to give to the dogs. It's a kind gesture for any family to feed one of the many wild dogs, but inappropriate to hold out one of their precious dishes/plates for the dog to lick clean. Again, Molly learned this the hard way as the room hooted and hollared for her to stop when she held out her plate to the dog.
Better luck next time, Mol. Karma will kick me in the butt for writing this post, no doubt.
After spending the day organizing our schedule and planning ahead for the projects that will soon get rolling, we headed to Chepe's house for a traditional Nicaraguan meal of Pinto Gallo, huevos, and salsa tomate. With Elise out of town, we had to rely on our own pathetic but improving spanish skills to converse with the five Nicaraguans that so kindly welcomed us to their home. I had been waiting for one of us to accidentally insult someone or make a fool of ourselves..Molly stepped up to the plate.
Her first strike came almost immediately. The eight year-old daughter Daniela saw that we had brought mangos and kept saying "Yo quiero el mango" (I want the mango) . Our habit has been to repeat whatever sentence someone says to us, so each time the girl expressed her desire for the mango, Molly would reply "Yo quiero el mango." Finally I nudged her and explained that the girl was asking permission to have the mango and thought that Molly was fighting her for it. Selfish, selfish Molly fighting a poor young girl for a small mango.
Strike two occurred as we were discussing the various foods in the kitchen, what we like and what we don't like. Having just learned the name of the local rum "Flor de Cana" Molly announced that 17 year old Chepe "gusto Flor De Cana" (Chepe likes the rum). Chepe's mom instantly shrieked and turned to Chepe for explanation to which he insisted Molly was lying.
Strike three took place during dinner as Chepe's sister explained to us that some words that are dirty or bad in other cultures are actually normal in Nicaragua, they don't have as strong of a meaning. After hearing a few examples from his sister, Molly jumped in with "punta", a curse word we all know from Dani getting repeatedly frustrated at Lehigh practices. The whole room went silent as the 8 year old girl giggled after which they explained that punta is a bad word everywhere.
As if three strikes weren't enough, the fourth came when they gave Molly a little bit of pinto gallo to give to the dogs. It's a kind gesture for any family to feed one of the many wild dogs, but inappropriate to hold out one of their precious dishes/plates for the dog to lick clean. Again, Molly learned this the hard way as the room hooted and hollared for her to stop when she held out her plate to the dog.
Better luck next time, Mol. Karma will kick me in the butt for writing this post, no doubt.
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