This embarrassing story has a moral! If you stay till the end you might just learn something. What a bonus. You can get a good laugh at my mistake, and we can all grow as individuals!
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I had taken a whole year of Spanish. After having a full year under my belt I was practically fluent... So I thought. It's amazing how children can really put you in your place, even in a different language. Humility always comes when you least expect it. What do I mean by that statement? Well I was on a missions trip with Christ Church of Oronogo. Our mission was to build a house for a nice family of four. Throughout the trip I was having a great time flippantly throwing around my linguistic skills and hoping that I was being understood. The people in Mexico are so nice, and I'm almost certain they acted like I was getting through to them just so I didn't feel stupid. After a hard day of churning cement and eating roadside tamales, I would spend my break time chatting with the local children. They always giggled and laughed at our frivolous attempts to communicate. I would stick with the basics like... "I like american football." "I have a sister." "I love Jesus!" But the one I seemed to use the most was... "I have 15 years!"
Like I said before, the children ALWAYS giggled after I said something in Spanish. But for some odd reason, they laughed more and more after I said "I have 15 years." I shrugged it off assuming my large size was funny for how old I was, or maybe there was some inside joke about 15 year olds that I wasn't in on. Either way I spent the rest of me trip throwing around... "I have 15 years." "HELLO! I have 15 years!" Street-side merchants, waiters and waitresses, and the occasional crazy old lady would all get a smile, a wholesome "HELLO!", and followed by a "My name is Isaiah. I have 15 years." I got a funny look from each one, but I still just assumed it was always strange when a random "gringo" was this friendly. By the end of the week I felt like the entire city of Tecate knew my name and that I had 15 years. Especially those who were common around our building site.
On one of the final days of our mission, school had let out early and some new children were playing around our building site. We always liked it when new children came over. We would play soccer or tag. As usual I introduced myself to the children and got the same reaction. All the small creepy giggles. It was kinda like the mum-chins in the Wizard of Oz. Well I guess one of the girls who had been at our site to play every day felt sorry for me. She pulled me aside, away from her friends. As best as she could the small Mexican girl gave me a Spanish lesson there in the dry dirt road. She drew a picture. It was a birthday cake. Above it she put the word anyos. She pointed to the N which had an accent on it. She said ANYOS, ANYOS, ANYOS over and over. Always emphasizing that YOS. Then in her cute little voice she tried to say YEARS in English. Then she drew another picture. She drew a picture of a butt. She said over and over ANOS, ANOS, ANOS. This time emphasizing NOS. And she then pointed to her hind quarters.
That's when the light turned on, as dim as it was. That entire week I had not been telling the people of Tecate, Mexico "I have 15 years!" I was telling them "I have 15 anuses!" To make matters worse I was saying it with a smile on my face and so much VIGOR! No wonder the children giggled. No one the people gave me odd stares. I was the gringo with multiple butts. I was the white boy with the grande derriere. I was so embarrassed. I spent the rest of what little time I had correcting my mistake to everyone. How humbling was that experience. It's amazing how there are those points in your life when you think you're amazing at something, you can always get a reminder that there is always more to learn. I just got that reminder from a small Mexican girl, and I will be forever in her debt. Because I was almost known throughout Mexico as "The boy with 15 anuses".
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