Random Observations

Whenever I travel, I like to jot down notes about small, everyday things that are different.  These just kind of accumulate in my notes until I can capture them on my blog.   

• I knew I did not remember much Spanish, but I was proud of myself for remembering "nice to meet you" and I used this phrase several times in the first days, always will a mildly puzzled response.  I didn't think my accent was weird enough to make this awkward, but then I suddenly realized I was using the wrong phrase - I was saying "me gusto"  (I like it) not "mucho gusto"!  I felt slightly ridiculous at that point. 
• Men and women greet each other with cheek 'kisses'.  This is right cheek to right cheek (always go right) and two smacks of the lips (kissing sounds, not actual kisses).  I got so used to this that it felt a little weird in church when I returned to just shake hands or give a hug instead.
• Rather than kisses, Men tend to greet other men with a 'hand grasp'.  Not a hand shake, not a slap, but a clasp (but without a chest bump). 
• At one point I asked about TV broadcasting.   I had seen several old aerials and wondered what viewing was available.  Surprisingly all of the TV screens I saw were relatively new flat screens (maybe 36"), not the old tube TVs I was expecting.  I was told that there was not an aerial broadcast and not cable.  People picked up "packettes" each week with new content (kind of like DVRs or something).  I'm not sure if they were USB thumb drives or what. 
• Our hosts fed us well.  I had mixed feelings about what I was supposed to be eating.  I don't normally eat huge breakfasts, but they prepared large meals for us.  I don't like to waste food and I didn't want to insult anyone by not eating what was offered, but I think they maxed out what they put out for us and we were probably not expected to eat it all.  I just hope I didn't look like a pig because I ate as much as I did (not wanting to offend). 
• In our night full of music and dance, at one point our older host (in his late 60's?) started singing misc old pop songs.  One was "Send in the Clowns"(Steven Sondheim from a 1973 musical).  My dad can still play this piece on the piano by memory!  The intersection of different cultures is crazy. 

This kitty came to say hi to me on the first night.  He was a sweetie.  I saw him around the dining room several times, but never caught his name.   The camp also had several dogs, but they didn't seem to hang out around the visitors much.  I was told they were friendly, but at night they were definitely on guard dog status and would let the staff know if anything was happening on the premises.  We did him them barking up a storm one night, but I don't know what they were excited by.  One lady remarked that mutts looked the same all around the world.  She called them 'perro del mundo' - dog of the world.  For the rest of the trip when I saw a mutt trotting around town I couldn't help but label it 'perro del mundo'.  She's right.  They tend to have a pretty similar look. 

One dog that didn't look like others that I saw belonged to one of the pastors.  It was a hairless Chihuahua and he was pretty ugly.  Darcy said he was so ugly that he was cute, but I'm not sure about that.  He was spoiled rotten and was quite sweet. 

I noticed that quite a few fences were constructed with live trees planted pretty close to each other.  In between the live trunks were just branches supporting the horizontal barbed wire (similar to ranches back home). 

A decorative patio lamp at the camp.  

Re-used glass bottles of various types were used as lanterns or wind chimes. 

Time lapse driving through Remedios.