Cultural Differences

I've been here a whole two weeks today! I thought I would tell of some cultural differences I've discovered since arriving here.


1. Greetings: while walking, you must greet everyone who you cross paths with. But instead of saying "hola" (hello) they say "adios" (goodbye) - or good morning/afternoon/night. If I forget to greet somebody Odilia nudges me until I say something. I could never greet everyone on State Street!


2. Number of Kids: 2 or 3 in the States (and it's ok if you don't have any), but here 8-10 children is normal. Odilia has 12! She says it's because nobody wants to use birth control.


3. Clothes: everyone wears the same thing for 2-3 days or more until it's too dirty to wear. It makes sense! Men wear jeans/pants and t-shirts and women wear a corte (skirt), güipil or blusa (blouse), faja (long belt), delantal (apron) every day - all ages! I'm going to a wedding on Saturday of Odilia and Santos' godchild and am going to wear traditional clothes so I'll be sure to upload some pics :)


4. Honking: In the US, you honk when there's danger. Here, you honk at everyone you pass to say "hello!" Santos says if you don't honk, the person thinks you're mad at them. Half the time the horn in the steering wheel doesn't work so they have another little red button near the radio that I press sometimes when we pass people. Today Odilia and I were in a truck where no horn works so she had my roll the window down and yell adios to everyone we passed.


5. Refridgeration: doesn't really happen. Some people have fridges, but we don't. That means that whatever shrimp, meat, and cheese we buy at the market stays at room temperature until we eat it. And of course there isn't a freezer - I miss having ice water! When the family wants soda, they buy it right when they want to drink it because the store next door has a fridge.


6. Who you live with: your parents (with their rules) until you get married and move into your husband's parent's house with his entire family. If you are a man, you stay with your parents forever. It's rare for somebody to have their own apartment or live with friends like I do in Madison.


7. Drinking: There are a couple of village drunks. There is no such thing as "having some wine with dinner" in this town. The kids that are around my age couldn't believe it when I told them that drinking on the weekends with friends or on a sunny afternoon is very normal in Wisconsin. I've only had 2 beers in the last 2 weeks - a new record! :)


8. Showering: Plan ahead to heat water up on the stove. Then add cool water until it's a good temperature. Then carry it to the bathroom and use a plastic bowl to pour it on your body and bathe. I prefer bathing in the temascal.


9. Laundry: Scrub laundry in the pila, then hang it out to dry and hope it doesn't rain for a few hours. One of my sweatshirts took three days to dry because it's so thick!


10. Gold: Few wedding rings but EVERYONE has a little gold or silver in their teeth. Usually just outlining a few in the front, but some people have gold stars on their front teeth. It is a flashy fix, but I'm very thankful for dental care in the United States.


11. Indoor Hallways: Rare to come by. In most houses, you have to go outside to get to the other rooms. Usually it's covered by some sort of roof (mostly tin), but not always. For example, I have to walk outdoors to get from my room to the kitchen, bathroom, living room, and other bedrooms. It's not a problem unless it's pouring rain!


12. Counting: In the US, we consider one week to be 7 days and two weeks to be 14 days. But here, they count "today" as one day. So if today is Thursday, next Thursday is in 8 days and two Thursdays from now is in 15 days. 


13. Shaving: The girls don't usually do it here, but they don't have a lot of body hair and rarely expose their armpits so it's not really needed. The other day Odilia asked me why I shave my legs and not my arms. And I really didn't know how to answer - it's just like that in the United States!


14. Friends: Nobody has had a friend come to the house or left to go over to a friend's house, although everyone has friends. I guess they see their friends at school, around town, and outside but house time is family time.