Funny, ha ha (by Lawrs)

We are looking for a new refrigerator, and we told our Spanish teacher about it.  She said she had just happened to see an ad for a slightly used fridge on the wall of a store this morning.  So after our Spanish lesson Isabel and I trotted over to said store for a look-see.  Sure enough, there was the ad and the woman who wrote it standing there beside it.  She told us the fridge was basically new but she was moving to Argentina and needed to sell it.  She told us where her apartment was and instructed us to yell up to the second floor for "Flavio"  once we got there.

Walking along the pedestrian street called Tanda Pata we passed a posse of police officers, excusing ourselves as we walked by.  Not 100 feet further down the street two of the officers went jogging past us.  I figured there must be some sort of foul play going on as these two were in quite a rush.  Like ambulance chasers we pulled right into their slipstream preparing to veer off to our street while they kept going straight.  As it turned out they too headed down the street that we were sent to.  They marched right up to the door that we were supposed to knock on and yelled up to the windows "Flavio!  Baja por favor!"  (Flavio, come down here please).  Flavio stuck his head out the window and, with a worried look on his face did a double take at the cops in the courtyard.

So.  Just who was this Flavio, and what was going on here?  Had we stumbled onto some sting operation?

Feeling brave and trying to solve the puzzle, I asked one of the cops if by chance they were there to buy the stuff for sale.  Yes they said, how about you?  Yup, us too, but we just want the fridge.  We all got a chuckle out of the circumstance, especially poor Flavio who was quite relieved after the shock  of having two police officers pounding on his door.  In the end the fridge was nice, but probably too small for our needs.

Later in the day (why oh why did I not have my camera?!) we went down to the street to play with some new friends that Isabel and Sophia have made.  There is a family with four daughters that makes and sells beautiful jewelry on the street corner outside our house.  The daughters are Ruth (6), Yanet (8), Mari-Luz(10), and Lizbet(12), and they are such sweet kids.  They hang out in the street after school lets out every day.  Sophia likes to sort buttons in the dress shop downstairs with Ruth and Yanet while Isabel and I go over her math work while Mari-Luz and Lizbet look on.  Yesterday Mari-Luz wrapped Sophia up in a "lliqlla," the ubiquitous woven cloth carried on the back and tied under the neck of any campesino carrying babies or supplies.   Their sat Sophia, all smiles, on Mari-Luz's back, being carried around in the campesino version of a backpack.  It was a great moment.

I am really happy that the girls are beginning to make friends here.  It's also really good for all of us to be speaking Spanish -- and speaking with children is an excellent way to learn.  I'll try and get downstairs with a camera the next time we play.