Friday, June 02, 2006

Communication Problems

As foreigners in a foreign land we EXPECT communication problems. Cultural differences and language barriers combined together, cause large hurdles in smooth communication.

So, what is the excuse when two Americans who have been married almost 8 years have breakdowns in communication?

Today, Troy bought Mozzarella cheese for me at the grocery store. I told him I wanted 4 or 5 packages. The packages are at the deli counter and are about a half pound per package. I was basically asking for 2 pounds of cheese. As we have shared on past occasions, dairy is the most expensive thing you can buy here. We thought we would cut out dairy almost completely, but when our kids do not drink any milk we try to at least get some cheese in them, so they don't end up with osteoporosis at age 7.

Troy purchase a lot more cheese than we asked for. When I saw the price I said "You bought $30 worth of cheese???? Why???" He said, "You said four or five pounds. I bought five."

No, no ... I said "four or five packages." Here is Hope photographed with cheese that weighs as much as all of her limbs combined. The price on the package $224.00 Haitian Dollars. Divide that by 7.8. = 28.71 in Mozzarella cheese.

I see a lot of lasagna in our near future.

The second communication break-down of our day was caused by the two year old photographed to the right. Currently, there are two obsessions in his life. Shoes and powder. He must have shoes on. He must have powder on his buns after a diaper change. Today he decided powder in his baseball hat would be a lot of fun too. The photo cannot show you what happened when you patted the top of his head. He was a traveling dust cloud for the next few hours. The Haitians all shake their heads in sympathy for me ... even they can recognize a trouble-maker when they see one. Like one of our staff said today, "Dezode Noah!" (literal translation for dezode would be "misbehavior" - but they are trying to say "naughty!") There is work to be done with this one! :)

Have a great weekend!