Elder and Sister Partridge's Mission : 6 January 2013

Hermana here.

For those of you who saw the video of me buying fruit all by myself, here's why it took so long for me to buy a melon from our favorite street vendor. OK...I've gone over and over my numbers..."let's see 25 pesos is vente y cinco, 30 - trenta, 40 - cuarenta"...etc. etc. I had it all stored in my brain up to 100 pesos - cien. I ask for the "dulce melon por favor." He asks, "Un or do?" I recognize that's Dominican for uno or dos? I say uno. My man chooses one...looks at it, feels it, smells it (I don't know, he might have even listened to it)...I trust his judgement so I nod and we're ready to make the deal. I say, "Cuanto cuesta?" How much? He says, "Algo..." Now, I'm thinking..."algo? How in the heck much is algo? How did I miss that in my number drills?" So, I have that blank deer in the headlights look (I have that a lot!) and sheepishly ask again, "cuesta?" He smiles and says, seten...Ah...I recognize that...setenta which is 70. So I count out 70, he gives me the bag and I score! I pump my fists and walk away an independent woman of means. :)

Back to the car, I ask Billy, "What in the world does 'algo' mean? Is that a number I haven't learned?" Sir Bill smiles and says "Algo means some...(I thought that was algun) and he was probably asking in the typical Dominican way if I wanted something else. But since I didn't see or hear the question mark at the end of that I didn't realize he was asking me a question. So, my little brain has to concentrate, translate, meditate, investigate, conjugate and try to understand what the natives most often mutilate! ERG!

Next day my favorite whistling salesman comes down the road by our apartment whistling and calling out "AGUACATE!" with his basket on his head. I was ready for him...I've been wanting to buy an avocado from him since I first heard his cute whistle. I was prepared with 35 pesos in hand (plenty) and ran out of the apartment, down the stairs, out to the front gate, waved at him so he would stop. We shook hands. He's very tall. He asked how my family was, (so cute) and I said, "muy bien" which I say to everything I'm asked. He gets the basket down, there are lots of BIG beautiful avocados, some limes and oranges. I feel an avocado, it feels good, I say Oy? meaning eat it today? He feels it and nods and I take it and say "cuesta?" He says, "cual." OK, I thinking, "did he just mean cuar"...which would be cuarenta or 40 pesos. I don't have that much and that's a dollar anyway...way too much. Now, I'm prepared for a number - vente, trenta, etc, not cual. "Ohhh, popeye, not again!" So, I open my hand, he counts out all my pesos, smiles and says, "trentaycinco," (35) takes it all and away he goes. I stand there perplexed and say, "gracias," and wonder what just happened and go back scratching my head, thinking "cual, cual ?..." I relay the transaction to Sir Billy. He reminds me that cual is "which." (I knew that...erg!) He was probably asking which avocado I wanted. I wanted the one I was holding, of course! So he happily took all my pesos since I naively opened my hand and I paid 35 pesos for one avocado. Highway robbery! I bought one yesterday at the market for 20. But it was BIG...and may I say definitely worth 88 cents. It rendered 2 large dishes of guacamole...yes, eat your hearts out guacamole lovers...with fresh lime, fresh garlic, cilantro, cumin etc. I'll focus on that!

The big question is, "Will I ever get it?" It seems my learning curve just gets steeper and steeper. I keep saying to my tiny brain cells, "Come on girls, you can do it!" And we just keep sliding down the mountain on our bum-de-lay-ee-tees! But I am determined to climb or die trying!