Juan Carlos is one of the Vision Nicaragua staff who we have the privilege of working with every day. He is truly a man of God and is full of wisdom and great advice. And, as we are learning more and more each day, he is hilarious. As Lindsey and I write this blog, the conversations become funnier and funnier as we think about all of the Spanglish exchanged throughout the day. Pair him with Mario, and you get quite the dramatic duo. We wish we could remember it all, or know how to type it for that matter. Here is a glimpse of our laughter throughout today as we painted with him all day long…
Juan Carlos: "En la manana, solomente Espanol. Pero en la tarde, solo Ingles." (In the morning, only Spanish, in the afternoon, only English) This is his rule on the worksite each day; we can't say how closely it's followed.
Juan Carlos: "Que es tu calor favorito?" (What is your favorite color?)
Kacie: "amarillo, porque el sol es amarillo" (yellow, because the sun is yellow)
JC: "Soy triste para tu" (I'm sad for you)
K: "why?"
JC: "Porque hay solo doce horas en el dia!" (Because there are only 12 hours in the day)
next we asked him his favorite color, to which he responded, "blanco" (white)
us: "why?! that's not a color"
JC: "Yo un puritan man, Yo natural" (I'm a puritan, I'm natural?)
lots of laughter
JC: "Amy, que es tu color favorito?"
Amy: "pink and orange"
JC: "Felicidades" (Congratulations)
JC: "Felicidades!"
all the girls: "por que?" (for what)
JC: "Hoy es el dia de WOMAN"
and throughout the day, "great job woman"
… no, but really, the Nicaraguans have a national holiday for women…. so congratulations on being a woman because God created you that way!
JC: "Kacie, tu tienes un novio?" (Kacie, do you have a boyfriend)
K: "No, pero I had one, but no mas." (No, but I had one, but no more)
JC: "Oh, tu triste about it?" (oh, are you sad about it)
K: "No, fui, pero ahora no, porque estoy en Nicaragua" (No, I was, but not now, because I'm in Nicaragua)
JC: "Oh, es okay a tienes triste, en NIcaragua, if you want, tu you can cry and cry and say 'oh, boyfriend, no mas, no mas.'" (Oh, it's okay to be sad, in Nicaragua, you can cry and cry and say, 'oh boyfriend, no more, no more)
K: "But Teani has cuatro novios… una broma" (But Teani has 4 boyfriends… just joking)
JC: "En Nicaragua, es okay tener cinco o seis novios, but seven is way too much." (In Nicaragua, it's okay to have 5 or 6 boyfriends, but 7 is way too much)
To describe a funny experience with Mario and Juan Carlos, we were treated to a very delicious lunch of spaghetti at the orphanage. For starters, AFTER we all ate our packed sandwiches, Mario told us to get in the truck to go to the house… "Let's go people, a surprise!" We figured they would give us a little salad from their home-grown veggies again, but they had a whole lunch for us. We were so excited and decided that our sandwiches would have to just be an appetizer. Needless to say, we couldn't finish it all, but didn't want to be rude, so we tried to pass our plates off to other teammates to finish them for us. One table decided to play "spin the can" and whoever it landed on had to eat the extra plate of spaghetti. Watching these two was hilarious. They were so gun-ho about making someone else eat it, however, they kept respinning the can anytime it landed on them. They were so excited when it landed on one of us and they would take the whole plate of spaghetti and dump it on that unlucky person's plate. It was a never ending game, just like the never ending spaghetti.
There were so many other stories, but we can't remember them all, much less have the ability to type them all out. Hope you enjoyed!
