Silly Gringos!

The best and most humorous Gringo-esque mistakes I’ve made so far have to do with my less than secure grasp on the Spanish language. The girls are having fun repeating the stories to others for laughs. On our second day here, Manuel, the school director came to pick me up to go to the bank to cash our traveler’s checks to pay our tuition. On the way, he asked how things are going, and I attempted to tell him in Spanish that our host family is very kind, but he just looked at me, puzzled. Then he brightened when I told him in English. It turns out I had told him that they were “very furniture”! (muy mueble vs. muy amable)

Then Thursday Rochelle and I went alone to the mercado and I wanted to buy a Honduran soccer T-shirt as a souvenir. Our host family’s son, in who’s room we’re staying, is a big soccer fan and I saw the name Salva Vida on the jerseys of the team-photo poster he had in his room. I figured I should get a shirt of the team that he roots for, so I asked a t-shirt vendor for a Salva Vida shirt when I didn’t see one hanging up. He dug through his stock and pulled out two that said Salva Vida, and they were cheap enough that I thought I’d buy both, in two different colors. I was proud of my purchases, but when I got home and showed them to Carlos, he said I had bought an “enemy” team shirt. (Think Phillies fan buying a Mets t-shirt) I said I was confused because the team on his poster had the same Salva Vida name on their shirts. Oh!, he said with a laugh, Salva Vida is the name of one of their sponsors, which happens to be a famous Honduran beer company!

Silly Gringo pastor!
~Carl