Thursday Night Tradition

So BJ and I have gotten into this tradition and we always get together on Thursday afternoons just to hang out. We’ve been trying to find little spots to go where we can hang out and not really be bothered with Spanish and all the other stuff. We’ve gotten lucky and found some really good spots. However, this week we succeeded on the good spot, just not so much on the secludedness. To have to say an “hola” or a “Buenos tardes” is no big deal, but this week, it was really bad. First, we had this lady come up, she was from a neighboring town that was actually quite far for her. And here we were sitting in the middle of a field, surrounded by corn and cows and yet she found us. At first she questioned us about where we were from and then asked us about Patricio (the legend volunteer who worked in my town over 2 years ago). Apparently Patricio had taught English is her town…which again is no surprise because Patricio was definitely a super volunteer. Well, the lady wouldn’t leave, even when there were lulls in conversation she just kept standing there staring at us, which was incredibly awkward. At times when their were lulls, she would again bring up how beautiful the valley is and whether or not we liked it. That was a question we probably answered at LEAST 3 times in the conversation. Then, she spotted BJ’s laptop and began asking “how much” questions. Finally, finally after being polite and cordial for very very long, BJ and I just decided to start doing work on the laptop and look really engaged in it. With some time, the lady got the hint and said her goodbyes.

An hour or so later, we were approached by an interesting looking gentleman, this guy didn’t wait for us to chat he just started going, and going, and going. We heard about the money his kids send him from lima, and the entire story as to how he told them to go, and how people always ask why he is so skinny and he always loses weight from walking so much, he named all the towns in the valley, he even talked about fruit at one point I think. I could tell that this guy was a little off. For one he didn’t seem to concerned about the 2 white people sitting in a field listening to music, it just seemed like he wanted to talk, and he had stuff to say and we were sitting there, it could have been anyone. After what felt like forever, he spotted BJ’s lap top and asked about it, and as BJ was answering the guy just walked away, and that was the end of it. It was kind of a funny end.