I have always refused to live with anyone I wasn’t related to by blood or marriage. Until now. Now, I live in a house with five other people plus two NGOs.
Until I started this trip, I had never hailed a taxi. Then, last month, I took more cabs than I had ever before, cumulatively, most of which I flagged down myself.
And then there are the other new modes of transportation: mototaxis, collectivos, chicken buses, in town hitch hiking, and of course, mountain bikes.
Also on the list of nevers, I’ve been making myself do things that terrify me. The other night, a couple of my house mates had a dinner party and one poked her head in to invite me while I was working. Rather than take advantage of the work excuse, I got to a reasonable stopping point for the night and I joined them. All 11 of them. None of whom I’d known for more than a day.
Last night I went to a meeting for volunteers at El Nahual, where I decided to volunteer after the dinner party (pretty much everyone there volunteers at El Nahual). The big scary walking into an unknown group of people, yeah, not so scary, or the people unknown, for the most part, it turned out. I had met most of them at the dinner party. Then we all went out for Callum’s going away night, complete with rum smoothies and shisha.
Tonight I had a choice between salsa class (the almost-guaranteed-look-silly-in-front-of-people-you-know-option) and watch a movie at the school (the safe option). I nearly took the safe option, but at the last minute joined everyone for salsa. While I found the idea terrifying, the room was so small, and like I’ve said before, most people have such a strong focus on themselves, so no one notices anyone else until you run into each other. I had times where I did well, and times where I had no idea what was going on.
And I’m learning to bargain. I hate it. But it’s part of the culture, and I’ve yet to succeed with the whole arguing with reality thing. I’m taking it in baby steps. First I would just stand there and think. Often that’s enough to get a price drop and I don’t have to actually do/say anything. I’ve started asking for a slightly lower price sometimes. I’m still getting comfortable with the idea. When six red bananas cost $0.25, I don’t see the point of arguing.
There’s a karaoke party benefit thing for the school. I have no idea how I’m going to handle that, but I said I’d go. So, this one falls under being open to the experience. Vee shall see…
What’s the one ‘never’ you’d like to challenge yourself on?
