A Chepe moment- from Mary

I'll be the first to share a Chepe story with everyone. I began working with SWB as a volunteer in 2008, shortly after leaving my coaching job at Lehigh. Having studied French my whole life, I arrived in Granada armed with four words: azul, hermano, madre, and rapido (thank you Rosetta Stone level 1.1!) Chepe met Molly and I at the airport with Suyen and Elise, and within 30 seconds I had exhausted all of my Spanish knowledge...let the miming begin!

Just about a week after our arrival, Molly and Elise decided to venture out to the laguna for a swim, and Chepe suggested that he and I go see Catarina, a little town that overlooks the laguna from the ridge. I agreed, despite the fact that it would involve a minimum of 4 straight hours of alone time with Chepe and my horrendous Spanish skills.

We headed up to the local bus stop in the Mercado, where plenty of ex-US school buses were waiting to be filled, and we waited. And waited. And waited. Finally it was full enough to depart (ie. the seats, the standing room, and the roof were entirely packed with people and bikes) and we were off to Catarina! The day was amazing; Chepe was incredibly patient and we somehow managed to have one of our best conversations ever, imagining what FSF should look like in Granada and how we were going to get there.

After wandering around for a couple of hours, it was time to go home. While we waited at the bus stop, Chepe disappeared (no surprise) and returned with Oreos and a juice-in-a-bag for me...my absolute favorites at the time! Needless to say, the bus never came (why would they run buses after 5pm?) and we ended up tuk-tuking and then taxi-ing back to Granada (I refused to find a "ride"), but despite all of the hiccups it was my favorite day with Chepe.