As I was finishing up I saw a stand where they were selling craft items. Due to my daughter’s recent interest in knitting I first had to learn the trade so that I could coach her along. She got a nice kit for Christmas from my mom complete with a video. So we have been learning together and it has been fun. Well, at this craft stand I saw some pretty green yarn. So I stopped to ask how much it was.
As I was talking with the two little girls who were tending the shop for their mom an old lady came up and tapped my elbow a couple times with her hand that was stretched palm up. She was asking for money. I had seen her (and many others) already that day so I said no. I actually think that it was the third time I had told this woman no. But she wouldn’t take no for an answer.
She looked up to me, for she was hunched over a walker, and smiled a toothless grin and then patted my jaw as she said, “But such a lovely girl with such lovely blue eyes; you can give me something.” It made me smile.
The shopkeeper noticed that the lady was starting to pester and told her, “Look, her purchase is exactly 20 bolivianos and that is what she s using to pay. There will be no change.” She scurried off with my 20 B* bill.
But the elderly lady looked up to me and winked. She had been paying attention. She then said to me, “Look, they are trying to trick you. Each of those balls of yarn is 7 Bs, and the needles are 5. That is 19. You will have change.” She was indeed correct. And at just that moment the girl came back with my 1 B of change. Again the lady tapped my elbow and winked. I gave her the coin. It still makes me grin to think of her.
Funny Fruit Feature:
This is called “Tuna”. Pronounced like the fish. By the way, to say the fish tuna is Spanish is “atun” [ah toon’]. It gets confusing sometimes. This fruit is harvested from a cactus. It tastes like a mellow papaya. It has way too many seeds all the way through! (See the little dark grey dots.) It takes patience to eat the thing, because you have to spit the seeds out. It is a refreshing fruit.
*To say the letter B is the shortened term in English for the Bolivian currency called Bolivianos. Right now the rate of exchange is 8 Bolivianos to 1 US Dollar.
3 comments:
Clever lady. I guess she earned her coin.
We have had tuna before. Jake bought them at a Mexican grocery store. They do have a good taste, but those seeds are like rocks!
Enjoyed this post... oh, to get to a market... I miss that!!
that was a good story! i can picture her in my mind smiling at you hand outstreched.
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