Oil

So while a sweet gal from the church watches my kids and cleans the bathrooms for me this afternoon I head out to get the oil changed on the truck. Little errands like these are fun for me. Mainly because I get out of the house and see new things.

As I am driving up to the car place I see a paint store. “Perfect,” I think to myself, “Raimy needs to have some of that stuff that you rinse your brush out with when you use oil paints for an art project she wants to do.” I tell the guys at the shop everything he needs to know about the truck and head out the door. It is a beautiful day and the little walk is very nice. I passed: a couple fruit stands, a bread shop, some other oil change places, some corner markets, some car parts shops, some bicycle repair shops and a place that sells lawn sculptures. Then I come to the paint store.

The guy is helping another customer at the counter. I go up and explain to him that I need the stuff you use to wash out brushes when you are using oil based paint. This is not an art supply store, just lots of big paint buckets and big brushes around. So he gives me the normal response, “We don’t have any of that.” Knowing that was not true I explained once again. This time he said, “We don’t have that. But we do have…” And now I am going to phonetically write what he said: TEE nair.

One strategy I have developed in understanding Spanish is that sometimes the brand names and the newer technical terms keep their English spelling and are just pronounced in Spanish. So I listen to the way they say the word, picture how that would be spelled in Spanish and then read that word in my head in English. So this would be the Spanish spelling for the word he pronounced: Tiner. The letter ‘h’ is silent in Spanish. So I make the connection and understand he is referring to: thinner! He has paint thinner! Perfect for my little daughter in her first attempts at an oil painting.

So I ask how they sell it. They come in half liter or one liter. How much is the half liter? Six Bolivianos, the equivalent of about 90 cents. I’ll take it. He walks over to some large plastic jugs with screw tops down behind me. He crouches down and begins filling a personal size empty Sprite Zero bottle with thinner. He screws the lid on and hands me the bottle. I give him the money and chuckle as I walk away. I am carrying paint thinner in a half liter Sprite Zero bottle! That is just funny to me.