Los Maleducados

Today we spent the day cleaning the church for the 32nd anniversary party.  Good thing we had the kids from the Breakfast Program around.  They worked hard.  Many of them don't attend the church  Sundays and are not allowed to participate in things like the summer camp because of that.  But they all spent the day cleaning everything from bits of garbage on the ground to mopping the church itself.  Even the littlest were great workers.

Tomorrow at 4:30 we will have coffee and cookies and then the service will start at 5 p.m.

I am feeling fed up again.  Amongst other things I am sick of being called a "gringa".

When I first arrived people asked if they could call me "gringa' and assured me it was a term of endearment.  But then my taxi driver was shocked when I used the word, a doctors wife at the church asked me if I allow people to speak to me that way, friends at the gym have told me it is "maleducado" which means bad mannered, or rude.  I noticed that people who wash my car and others whom I speak with outside the church are careful to say "North Americans" or there is also a word for United States-ians.  Even my mechanic looked at me funny when I used the word Gringo.

To be honest I was never comfortable with the word.  But if it was part of the culture, as I was told, I didn't want to be rude and unaccepting.  For a long time I dealt with it, trying to get used to being called "gringa".  (Sounds like a monkey to me.)

One day we had a meeting for the Breakfast Program.  All of the volunteers met with the psychologist to discuss how things were going.  One thing that was brought up was that the kids are not allowed to use nicknames for each other within the church.  At that time I spoke up and said that I am not comfortable being called "the gringa" and asked them to stop.  I explained why it was offensive to me, and that in my culture we do not say things like that.  I asked that we talk to the kids about not using the word either when teams from the US come to serve.

The kids have all stopped using the word.  In fact they scold each other if someone says it.  But with the adults it continues.  Almost always it is behind my back.  I know that because people come up to me and say so-and-so was talking about you the other day and she said, "La gringa..."  

Certain people say it is as a deliberate attempt to be disrespectful.  So I have decided that from now on rather than referring to those people by their proper name, I will call them "la maleducada".  And maybe they will finally understand how I feel after almost three years of being called "La Gringa".

Of course by tomorrow I hope to be less frustrated about all of this stuff and will probably never follow through with these bold (and admittedly not-so-wise) intentions.  But for today, the idea of speaking my mind for once sure feels good.

Sometimes it's hard to be a missionary in Honduras.

Happy Friday.