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¿Necesito la dirección?

September 29th, 2007 No comments

Went up to the post office this morning to mail Jayne hats – of course – and there was a woman there who spoke no English. This was a problem, because she had a question and none of the clerks spoke Spanish. There was another guy in line who spoke Spanish, but no English. D’oh! So I opened my big yap when they asked if anyone could help. My Spanish used to be pretty good, but it’s been about 12 years since I used it on a daily basis, freelancing for Canal de Noticias NBC. Well, any port in a storm, I suppose.

It took a while before I finally figured it out. She had a money order and wanted to know if it was important to have the address of the sender filled out. She had me look through about ten pieces of paper and I still wasn’t quite getting it. Finally she had a conversation with the other Spanish speaker in line, and from hearing what they said to each other, I finally understood. So I asked the clerk, the clerk told me, and I told her. Problem solved!

Even though I’m 99 percent sure I communicated accurately, I’m still paranoid that I may have somehow screwed it up. The money order was coming from or going to someone in a detainee facility in Atlanta, sooo… I really, really don’t want to make this woman’s day worse than it already probably is.

On the up side, now I will never ever ever forget the Spanish word for “address.”

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