The Mexicans are Here! (Email to Parents)

Wow- it’s so strange to be all of the sudden surrounded by Spanish! The Mexicans are here, and Vivian is enjoying speaking her native language. It's so funny because I’ve never heard that language spoken here (I mean, we hear Vivian speaking to her mom on the phone)- but between real live people…it’s strange!! Panna (the Kahani lady who makes our food every day) and I had a little debriefing session when she got here…
“Ahh, Panna, come in here, quick!”
“What? What?”
“They are speaking another language, I don’t’ understand!!”
“I know, I don’t understand either- ahh!!”

We laughed about it- she thought it was pretty neat that I was experiencing what she experiences every day. It’s not as if she would understand if they spoke English, because she doesn’t understand any English!! But, still- she joked about not being able to understand- and since I also can’t understand, it was like we connected even more…

HOWEVER, I told Vivian- I have to learn Spanish now…at least a few things, for this week- I can’t take not being able to understand!!!! I mean, it’s not a bad thing, but I want to be able to understand, and communicate!! They can understand and speak SOME English, but Spanish is preferred….Anyway, we’ll see how much Spanish I can learn in one week….

About two months ago, I did tell Vivian, I wanted to start learning Spanish from her….though we haven’t done anything with that yet- mainly because if I’m going to be studying another language, I should be studying Kahani!! If my supervisors ask how my language learning is coming along and I said, “O-la! Como estas” they may not be impressed. But, depending on my schedule when I return home, I’m wondering if that might be a fun thing to do- take some Spanish classes….and, Daddy- you can come with me! ;)

Who knows, a year from now (less than that now!) is still a really long time away to be thinking about what to do next!

Love ya!

~ Elizabeth