Friends, Moto, Mall and “Why don’t you like me?” the 10 year old implied

First the best part of the day...

In the evening, my friend and I took the scooter and went to the mall. It's a little crazy riding on the back with the traffic, but he's an awesome driver (even though he was looking at the camera and I was looking where we were going).

We sanitized and took our temperature on the way in.

Of course we ate tacos, then later got some ice cream.

We saw the craziest tree I've ever seen (yes, it's covered in spikes!)

Earlier in the day I was still working on new parts in some more of the toilets and learned a lesson.

It's not a good idea to put your tools (that have been used to change toilet parts) in the same pocket as your mask. Of course I did that all day long.

As if that wasn't bad enough, here is the worst part of the day... 

It was when I was confronted by Andrea and she asked me point blank "¿Por qué no me saludaste?"

Sometimes when I’m spoken to in Spanish, I try and I try and then give up and just nod my head and move on because it can be very difficult for me to understand. Somehow in this case I was prompted to dig deeper on her question. I say “oltra ves”. I say that a lot! It means “again” (like “say it again”). She says it again, I still can't understand and I give up on trying to understand with my abilities. I have a choice, I can just walk away or dig out my phone for the translation app (I pull my phone out a lot, like with most every conversation). 

I dig out my phone, open the app and ask her to speak into it. She says it again as plain as day (in Spanish) "¿Por qué no me saludaste?" (I’m still confused by the words). 

The phone translates…

“Why didn’t you greet me”?

Talk about a sucker punch in the gut! I could have (and probably have in the past) ignored other people’s Spanish words and selfishly given up on my attempt to understand Spanish. I could have beat myself up for literally studying Spanish for the last 839 days straight (never missing a day) on Duolingo and told myself “Dan you’re an idiot, you can’t even understand what this 10 year old is saying” (which, by the way, is how I feel most every day). 

Instead, I was prompted to dig deeper and ask again, only to find out that every conversation is NOT about me! 

This conversation was about a little girl (orphan to boot) that I had, just moments before, walked by, said hi to people around her, but didn’t acknowledge or greet her. By no means was that on purpose! I had no idea that I had done it. 

Of course when I found out how much of an idiot I was, I bent down and gave her the biggest hug and repeated “lo siento, lo siento, lo siento!” I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry. 

How often does this happen? 

How often do we make the world and our surroundings about us?

How often are things really not about us?

My takeaways today:

Every interaction I have is important. 

Even though it takes a few seconds to get my phone, open the app, hold the mic button and try to get the person to say it again, then read between the lines because Google didn’t hear everything…. It’s ok, it’s worth the time and the effort. Relationships are worth the effort. How I make other people feel is worth the effort. 

For the rest of the trip, I promise to step outside myself and beyond my selfishness. I will seek to understand and not just to be understood. 

Please pray for me, I can use help with that one