Paget's Belize Journal
The Preliminary Trip-
It Begins The Actual Stay-
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Nov 12, 1999 Meeting and Greeting and VisitingMost everyone will greet me as I walk down the street here, but I have to say something first usually. (Except for those post-pubescent boys of all ages who can all say an understandable "Hello, Mama, Hello, Sweet Thang" no matter what their native language is and no matter the age or condition of the greetee, as long as female.) In the morning, you say "Good Morning," In the afternoon you say "Good Afternoon," About 4:00 you switch to "Good Evening," and after dark you say "Good Night." These are all greetings. There really doesn't seem to be a parting phrase; anyway, most conversations take place on the fly. That is, folks appear to start talking to someone about 50 yards out and keep talking until they're about 50 yards past or out of earshot. But people rarely stop to chat. Or even to turn around. This also works as you walk or bicycle by someone sitting on their verandah or stoop. Or even if you're both traveling the same direction. You can have a nice conversation even if you're not walking together. If you don't know the other person, often the response to a greeting is just a short affirmative-Yes, Okay, Fine, Yes ma'am, Surely. I haven't quite got the feel for this yet, but at least it doesn't startle me any more. Every night one of Mr. Serano's daughters comes by about 8:30 on her way home from work, I think. She's an adult, surely a grandmother, maybe even a great they start early here. She's one of those large women with a prow-like bosom and a resonant voice who sort of floats along even though you can tell her feet hurt. Down the block a ways she starts calling "Good night, Daddy, good night, Dad, good night, good night." He replies in a lovely rumble, "Good night, daughter, good night, dear, How you? Umm-hmmm." Then the little Guatemalan boy whose parents run a tiny, little store in the bottom of Mr. Serano's house, very enthusiastically, very squeaky, "Good night Mimi, good night, good night." Then Mimi again, "Good night sweet pea, good night darlin', good night." It's a lovely sort of bedtime song that I've come to enjoy and will surely miss if Mimi gets a different job or something. Sometimes you do go to visit people. But since the houses are always opened up to catch the breezes, you have to sort of warn people that you're approaching. You don't go up to the door and knock unless it's a house that 's all closed up because it's air-conditioned. For living quarters on the second story, you call up as you approach the house, "Hello, hello, Mr. Serano, are you home?" You know perfectly well he's home because all the doors and windows are wide open and in the evening the lights are on. But if he doesn't come out and say something to you, then for all non-emergencies he's not home. So you're not supposed to go up the stairs. Well, also in the houses where 8 or 10 people live, the person you want might not be home and no one else wants to be bothered. For first floor quarters, you just start calling out further away. And don't look in the windows. With this technique firmly in place socially, I have to leave my downstairs door and my balcony door open (but the security gate can be locked) or people assume I'm not "receiving" and won't stop. This causes me some difficulty because I don't want to appear snobbish and I _really_ don't want to miss anything, but I also try to keep the mosquitoes out. What's the point of having screened windows, if the unscreened doors are open all the time? I've managed to be quiet enough to attract back several geckos, but they aren't that good at mosquitoes. Also on the downside, sometimes I get weird visitors that I'm not sure what to do with. The other night a handsome young (20ish) Guatemalan (I assume, maybe Mexican) man hollered me up with a "Good night, miss, good night, miss" quite stridently and when I went down proceeded to tell me a long involved story in not much English about his girlfriend who was only 16 and "no pasaporte, shhhh, shhhh," him or her, I couldn't tell which, and the China's place down the street and nothing to eat and lord knows what else. I gave him half a loaf of bread, a can of Vienna sausages and $5 which seemed to make him very happy. But I'd really rather not deal with that. Still I guess it's worth it. Week-end coming up, we're hoping for some relief from rain
ourselves. Been a lot of it lately, even more than with Hurricane
Mitch last year, they say, but not much wind so it's just inconvenient
and messy. I hope you all are well. |
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