Phew, IT´S HOT, RIGHT???

I have never ever ever been much on small talk. "it is a useless waste of energy and oxygen. unless you have a genuine interest to get to know someone, why speak to them? just to hear yourself speak, perhaps?" i use to think. i have had to make plenty of small talk in my days and....never saw the point. you want my number..... ask for it. you want a favor..... ask for it. you want something done..... ask for it. yeah, yeah, you could get rejected or told "no," BUT let me know where you are going with the conversation. plain and simple.

well, living here, things are not....that....simple. small talk is not small talk. It is always an icebreaker to a conversation. for example, Lauren, friend and volunteer that lives about 45 minutes away, was telling me of a story. Pri, another health volunteer who is leaving at he end of this month, were off into the villages to make stoves. they walk into this house, where they were going to build a stove, and there stood a woman making tortillas. "so, ya making tortillas?" Pri says. Lauren thinks to herself "Uh, yeah she´s making tortillas. how obvious!!!" (those weren´t her exact words but i imagine that is what she was thinking and if you´ve never seen tortillas being made, take my word for it, it´s obvious, like making mini pizza crusts). so, lauren is telling me about her day and we both agree that every conversation always starts with something obvious. as Pri says, "you gotta state the obvious." like.... "Whew, it´s hot!" (like the mammoth sized balls of sweat weren´t indicators) or "It´s raining, huh?" (hmm, hmm yep, we are soaking wet, walkng in a foot of water) or "So, you are walking?" (yep.....suuuurre am). why state the obvious???

well, here is my theory. this is a very direct indirect society. we are told in training that Hondurans are very indirect people. Bashful. They have "pena." They have "shame" to say certain things. To some extent i agree. To some...i don´t.

They are NOT afraid to ask or make comments about:

skin color

race

weight

anything that has to do with physical appearances

your religious background (especially)

marital status

the difference between men and women

They beat around the bush when it comes to:

asking for water or another serving of food

help

directions (they´d rather give wrong directions than no direction)

interest in opposite sex

Well, okay, were am i going with this???.. i have to say, i´m getting pretty good at the small talk. I "state the obvious." at first it took some getting used to. but, i´m getting the hang of it. think about! Honduran sees gringo. honduran doesn´t know if gringo speaks english. gringo says "Que calore, verdad??" in their most superb spanish ever and then...honduran feels comfortable speaking to gringo. it´s classic.

i´ve actually gotten to know many people this way. you´d be surprised how much somone opens up to you when you make a little small talk. I have a new found respect for that that use to make no sense to me. I can´t say that i´m gonna start chatting up with the people in grocery isles when i get back to atlanta, but...I can say "So...ya buyin' some groceries, huh?!"