• Family
• Parenting

Lost In Translation

Posted by : Tiffany | August 20, 2012

 

I just knew I was going to feel like a single mom for a week when the hubby took Caitlyn and Austin along on a missions trip to serve in Haiti. I would have to cook and clean after Jordan and myself while making sure she went down for naps on time so I could teach my lessons. I knew it might have been harder to keep her entertained, but I could solve that problem by sticking firm to the regular schedule and making sure to get out during the day. What I didn’t expect was to be “babysat” by Sam’s grandmother for a week.

My “Puerto Rican” husband and I had discussed the idea of her coming down on Saturday morning or Friday night to stay with the baby for the lessons that required me to travel BUT, I could have never been prepared for her to arrive as my students were leaving on Monday morning, raring to go. I thought it would be easy to set up a timeline of events, but there are too many to even tell you.

The sulking probably went on for about 15 minutes however it ended quickly because she came bearing food.  Arroz (rice), frijoles (beans), ropa vieja (shredded beef) and piccadillo (ground beef… Cuban style).  Thanks to her delicious latin cooking, and the fact that she brings all of this every Saturday, I am gaining a pound per day. I any case, the food was delicious and at 7pm the forbidden words were spoken “Ah, ponlo en el canal 51, mis novelas están empezando!”.  For those who don’t speak Spanish, that means to change the channel to 51, because her soaps are starting.

Now, I can understand some Spanish when spoken slowly, but with her soap opera’s, there was no asking anyone to repeat that.  So, here goes the evening- The line up starts as “Caso cerrado” followed by “Rosa Diamanté”, “Corazon Valiente”, “Pablo Escobar”, “el Rostro de la Venganza” and finally the news…”Noticias”. Now if you don’t speak English, then maybe you can feel my pain.

After an entire week of this, along with sleeping right outside my door and the general chasing and calling my name to do odd things… (measure the water heater?), I was sure I would go crazy.  Looking back though, I’ll admit that I was so scared the first night that I locked up the house 3 or 4 times to make sure all the windows and doors were secure! We’ve only lived in this house for a few months and I knew it made noises but with 5 people in the house, you can always dismiss them to one of its occupants. When you’re alone, those sounds chill your bones. I am actually grateful for her help and her time.

On day 4, I was sitting on the floor feeding the baby and I bursted out laughing! Abuela looked at me and asked me if I had gone crazy… I replied, “Maybe, I had just caught myself thinking in Spanish”. I think she knew how difficult it was for me, after all, she speaks no English. So why should I sulk when really she was in the same boat. In the end, we talked with each other all day, every day, for 6 days… I’m sure of only a few of our conversations, everything else was probably lost in translation!

Tags: Communication, Culture, Language, Tiffany