Adventures in Spanish

I was sitting on the floor playing with 9-month-old Milly when our handyman Pablo walked into the room holding a toilet flapper.

Assuming Pablo's task for the day was to repair the flush valve I asked, “Which toilet broke?”

He knelt down beside me and replied, “Do you have gasoline?”

“Gasoline?” I said. “You mean like an extra gallon?”

“Gasoline,” he repeated.

“We used to,” I said. Everyone seems to run out of gas in San Felipe, so we are constantly loaning out our gas can. “Ask Randy.”

“Randy told me to ask you,” he said.

“Me?” I couldn’t fathom why Randy would tell him to ask me for gas, unless he needed gas money and Randy didn’t have any money on him. So I asked, “Do you need money to buy gasoline?”

“No,” Pablo said. “Randy said you have gasoline.”

“Randy is crazy. I don’t have any gasoline.”

Pablo shrugged his shoulders. “I will use a hose and syphon some from the boogie,” he said, referring to the dune buggy with flat tires sitting in our parking area.

“Do you want me to call Randy?” I asked.

“No, he is outside.”

Why the heck would Randy send Pablo inside to ask me for gas if he was already outside? And why was Pablo holding toilet parts if he needed gasoline?

Pablo left and I tried to call Randy. He didn’t answer so I went back to playing with the baby.

A little while later I bumped into Randy and asked, “Why did you tell Pablo to ask me for gasoline?”

“Vasoline,” Randy said. “For the toilet plunger.”

Just then, Pablo walked by with the flapper in his hand, all lubed up with gasoline he had syphoned from the boogie.

“Vasoline, Pablo,” Randy said.

“Gasoline,” Pablo replied.

“No, vas-o-line,” Randy repeated, emphasizing the "V". “Vas-o-line.”

“Oh.”

These kinds of misunderstandings happen to us nearly every day. Because whether it is Spanish or English, one letter can make a huge difference. But we're learning! One letter, one mistake, and one success at a time.