Tenga solo veinte dollars, no puedo mas

A funny thing happened yesterday in the border line. I was driving a visitor back across to the states. For a while, I wanted to buy a blanket from Mexico. I wanted it to be clearly Mexican so that when I came back to life in the states, I could always remember my time in Mexico. Well for months I had waited knowing that eventually one of the shop owners would walk up to the car with the blanket I wanted. Finally, yesterday a man came up and asked if I wanted a blanket. I asked how much this one large blanket depicting the Mexican flag would cost. He glanced over, kind of raised his eyes and said, “for you, $60”. I shrugged, I only had $20 that I could spend. I just couldn’t pay more. He shook his head and said that he could sell it for $40 but no less. For better or worse, I was persistent. I only had $20 to spend, and if that didn’t work, I didn’t need the blanket. For about ten minutes he persisted, running along side the car as I slowly moved along the line. Slowly, but surely the price continued to drop, from $40 to $35, $32, $30. About this time, he went grabbed the blanket and with one of his assistants unfurled this blanket/flag and showed me what a great blanket it was. He asked if there was any other blankets I wanted for less. Continually, I explained I wanted that blanket and I could only spend $20. If that didn’t work, it was no problem, but I couldn’t pay more. $28, $24, $22, and finally rather furious, he tossed the large blanket in the car. I handed over my $20 and he stomped off. He went over and talked to a couple of the other shop owners and started ranting to them. They both looked my direction and glared. I had to laugh with the visitor I was driving. I had told them multiple times, I didn’t need to buy it. I only had $20. I found it crazy though, that in the end I got the price down to two thirds the price.

Just as an encouraging note, the entire conversation with this shop keeper was in Spanish. The blanket doesn’t matter much, but being able to communicate in Spanish was really encouraging. I realize the grammar wasn’t perfect, and I’m sure I stumbled and used a couple wrong words here and there. But he still understood what I meant and what I wanted. Just tonight again, I shared the story with one of the older boys. He understood and laughed at the story. Just this morning I was joking around with the little boys. I understand most of what they talk about, and I am really beginning to enjoy getting to know them on a more personal level.