An Amazing Local Interaction

The kids and I went for a walk today and had an amazing impromptu interaction with some of the locals. There is a house down the road from our Airbnb that is being remodeled. A man working on the house smiles and says ‘hola’ to us almost every time we walk by. We walk by A LOT as it is the only way to the main road.

Connecting Across Smiles, Words and Wildlife

Today, as we walked by he came over to us and said ‘Tu hablas espanol?’ We understood that he was asking if we spoke Spanish, but beyond that we did not understand the string of words that followed. He was talking extremely fast and pointing towards the trees behind the row of houses. At first Alexis thought he was warning us about a dog. There are dogs roaming everywhere and not all of them appear to be nice. He took out his phone and quickly showed us a picture of a sloth. Aha! He was telling us there was a sloth in the tree!

He gestured for us to come with him. We followed him and his two boys behind the houses, over a barbed wire fence and back to the trees. Soon his daughter followed, and we were all staring up at the tree trying to find the sloth. The man and his boys took turns trying to throw things at the sloth to get it to move. Braxton quickly joined in. After many attempts and failures, the man took off his shoes and started climbing the tree! He shimmied up the trunk like he did this all the time. He started to shake the tree and we could finally see the sloth! It was very high up, and the picture doesn’t really capture it.

Eventually the man’s wife came over to see what all the commotion was about. She spoke excellent English and it was so enjoyable to engage her in conversation. The generosity and enthusiasm of this family to show us something unique about their country was so heartwarming! Also, now we can cross the sloth tour off our list of excursions. The kids were on the fence about doing this anyway, and this was so much cooler!

Learning, Playing and Lost in Translation

The woman told Alexis that she could practice Spanish with her daughter any time. I asked if her boys wanted to come up by our Airbnb to play soccer and they quickly said yes. It was extremely hot today and eventually Braxton wanted to come inside, but he didn’t know how to say it. Alexis tried to help him and the next thing we knew all the kids were coming into our house. When I asked what they were doing Alexis said ‘I tried to tell them we wanted to go inside and I guess I invited them.’ Ha! Everyone looked extremely uncomfortable. They made their way back outside and as the clouds rolled in, enjoyed playing volleyball and practicing their Spanish.

It’s always amazing to me how one interesting interaction can buoy your entire day. Thank you local family for being that buoy today. I wish I knew how to repay you!