Misunderstandings

The first picture is of the Borrego Famoso.The second is of Blas and little Alexis. The last picture is of all the sheep that Blas has in his yard now.



I guess everyone has them. Those times when you realized you’ve completely misunderstood what someone said. It happens, and I guess I’ve had my fair share of them.

My latest was about Blas’ sheep. He has told me that we were going to pick up his “Borrego” and something about babies, so I guess I “assumed” he meant the sheep was pregnant. When we went to pick up the sheep the other day, I mentioned its delicate condition and he laughed, saying it was a male sheep, not a pregnant female. The misunderstanding was that this sheep (male) was to help his sheep (female) have babies. Soooooooo….. a slight misunderstanding. Hardly a problem. But to me, it’s important because I don’t want to have misunderstandings as we minister here in Mexico.
The funny ending to that story is that the sheep was loaned out to another man who needed his skills to impregnate his ewe also. So Blas’ ewe has to wait.
We’ve had much more challenging misunderstandings, even earlier this year when the group came for the VBS.
A little girl, Paula takes care of her, came with her beautiful rainbow piñata to the class, and the group naturally thought she had brought it to be broken. So they had the kids break it, and the little girl went home heartbroken. Then some of the group decided we need to buy her another piñata to replace the one she broke, because obviously she just brought it to show us and not to break.
I felt there was a misunderstanding there, and asked Paula, only to find out that yes, in fact, the mother of the girl had sent the piñata to be broken by the group. The little girl never likes piñatas to be broken so she was heartbroken. Her mother said she will keep her piñata every year and never break it. We all had a laugh on that one.

Once, when I first moved to Zapata, BCN Mexico I was invited to a party. I told the woman yes, I’d come and when I arrived a week or so later at the event, the mother of the child asked if I had brought the cake. I said what cake? She said I had agreed to bring the cake for the party. At that time, I frequently said, “Si” when I didn’t understand something. That was the last time, however, and gratefully, some Mexican parties last for many hours and I was able to go home, bake a cake, decorate it and bring it to the party in time for the presentation of the cake to the guests….what a lesson I learned from that misunderstanding. Never say “Si” unless you know what you’re agreeing to.