I attended a party the other day. It was for one of my colleagues who was going on secondment to the USA for a few months and since her birthday was about the same time she decided to have a few friends over for a bit of a sizzle. (kiwi for barbeque).
Said colleague is an Argentinean (albeit married to a kiwi) and so the majority of her guests were all Spanish speaking. Mexico, Colombia, Spain, Ecuador all had representatives there. There was a kiwi guy there who was with one of my other colleagues and he spoke fluent Spanish as well. He had learnt in London if you believe it. Anyway, being a predominantly Latin party, most of the conversation was in Spanish and although I couldn’t understand a word it seemed like I was at a party in Lagos Nigeria.
I have written here before on the similarities between African and Latin culture and I was feeling that closeness all over again. I mentioned to Tope that we should really sit down and learn Spanish together and then when we have kids we could switch to Spanish whenever we didn’t want them to follow our conversation!
One other funny thing happened, I had a lot of anecdotes and stories from Sweden (Sverige Sverige Sverige!!!) and I shared them quite expansively and humorously as only I can do. Later Tope mentioned that a lot of those stories she had either never heard them before or heard quite distinctly different versions. I then proceeded to let her understand that one of the creeds of a story-teller is never to let the truth get in the way of a good story!
Ask any charismatic speaker or motivational speaker and they will tell you how the re-telling of a fishing trip will progress with bigger and bigger fish until it turns into a whale of a story! And if you are still not convinced, ask Hilary Clinton how a sedate walk down a tarmac turns into a Special Forces op Jerry Bruckheimer style! Sniper fire, camouflage paint and near death experiences become an intricate part of the narrative.
I still think she will be an excellent President though. And with her recent win in Pennsylvania the super delegates who will decide the nominee might start thinking she will be THE winning President as well.
1 comment:
bros i have got no comment than me seeking advice from u,i have got an aunty in newzealand n i have been trying all my effort to come down to newzealand but all effort prove abotive,i am a nigerian i have travelled to south africa,united arab emirate,india .pls if u are willing to help pls send a meesage to my mail box,tshabilemartin@hotmail.com.i pray God will be wit ya,thankx alot.
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