A Bolivian woman carrying her son in the mountain town of Quina.
The past three months I have been thrilled to use my Spanish; granted, it can be taxing on the mind after communicating a full day in another language! I love when wide-eyed little kids stare at me and my white skin and then get a big smile on their face as I talk to them in their language. All those Spanish classes have paid off!
I wrote about my time in Quina, Bolivia in my last post. As we constructed on the orphanage, many of the local villagers would pass by as they went about their daily routines. Coming across a group of gringos is a site to see!
“Buen dia!” I would shout. This would usually get a big smile on their face as well as a tip of the hat or a wave. Occasionally, a local would stop on the road and watch what we were doing. Like I said earlier, we’re quite the sight!
I walked over to the road to say hello to a young woman carrying her baby and towing two cows behind her. She was very excited to meet me and we carried on the typical conversation- hello, my name is, where are you from, what are you doing, etc. I said “Chao” and we went our separate ways.
A little while later, an older woman was walking by when she stopped to watch us working. I walked over to her and introduced myself. We attempted to carry on a conversation, but she didn’t understand me and I didn’t understand her.
Quechua.
(Ket-chew-ah)
That’s what she was speaking. Of course! Why didn’t I think of that before?! The native language of the country folk is Quechua. If a person is under the age of 40, chances are they’ve been taught Spanish in school. But, if a person is 40 or older, chances are they won’t understand any of what I’m saying.
The older generations speak Quechua, not Spanish.
So, in my gringo Spanish and her Quech-ish (Quechua and Spanish combined), we carried on a brief conversation. With some great charades on my part, I was able to explain why we were there and what the building would be used for. After many smiles, we said our goodbyes and went back to our work.
I chuckled as I walked away, mostly because I knew my time of communicating with the locals was coming to an end. In one short week, we’ll be packing up our bags and heading for Eastern Europe. Albania to be exact. Now if you know where that is on a map, gold stars for you. And if you know any Albanian, let me know…I’ll be needing all the help I can get!
But, it was a good reminder that a smile communicates a lot. I think I’ll be smiling a lot in the next 8 months… 🙂
A typical house found high in the mountains of Bolivia.
