I am writing tomorrow`s entry today since I`ll be busy with a friend for a good part of the day tomorrow. Following my daily sessions in one of the local internet cafes I met briefly with a friend on a street corner hoping we could have coffee together but it turns out he had other plans which is okay. He strongly refused to allow me to repay him the money I owed him from dinner Saturday during the English conversation club. It turns out that I underpaid my meal by around five bucks because I am still learning the currency and today he roundly refused my offer (insistence rather) of paying him back. Such incredible generosity!
He left me at the cafe where I proceeded again with my current drawing when a mother and her university student daughter approched me, Again admiring my work and asking me questions about it. Honestly this is getting a bit weird. After I showed them my finished drawing the mother offered to buy it! Well, I told her that it isn`t for sale, wisely I think, and I would like my friends in Vancouver to see it anyway. But lovely, friendly and gracious people.
In the snootier neighbourhood of Zona G (or Zona T, I still get them confused) while waiting to cross the street I noticed a bus belch forth a huge cloud of black smoke. I commented to the gentleman crossing the street from the other side (he was all decked out in a suit, likely works for a bank or in commerce or similar)
"Que humo negro se echa" or that`s some black cloud of smoke, eh?. He kind of grunted and tried to ignore me. Likewise while trying to squeeze by a couple of young women just ahead of me I excused myself in Spanish and got quite a frosty response.
My friend from Bogota has warned me that a lot of the local people will seem unfriendly because they´ve been traumatized by the violence of the recent past. I agree with her. I also think that there is something coded in the class system here. With the women, I have noticed, very much like their counterparts in Vancouver, that the more make up they are wearing and the higher their heels, the snottier they are going to be. Likewise the men. The more expensive the suit and tie the less likely they are going to give you the time of day.
Now, I don`t want to make this into a crude generalization because I have also been very pleasantly surprised by people I`ve met here. I think though that trauma could also play a role in heightening people`s reserve and suspicion of others.
And now I am off to dine in a restaurant called the Ugly American.
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