Moving In

So we moved about two weeks ago and as moving is for everyone, it sucked. We wanted to save some money (it can cost around $500 to hire movers to do all the work, get the truck, etc.) so I got a Uhaul truck, packed up my stuff, and headed over to Mindy's to get her stuff in there too. It was going well until I started to wear down and my mind couldn't figure out how to keep fitting stuff in the Uhaul.

I was reaching the end of my rope.

Then Diego came and saved the day. Mindy's work uses a warehouse somewhere and she got them to come help us out for a few hours.

It took Diego and his partner (who was Guatemalan, but I can't remember his name) 15 minutes to rearrange the truck so that everything fit. It was awesome.

We got to talking and Diego, who is from Ecuador, is married to a Guatemalan woman. Small world. So once I started to talk to them in Spanish and tell them about myself, they let down the facade that everyone has here when dealing with Americans that have hired them for a job.

Now we were buddies.

So they got us moved into our new place, handling everything very carefully, and then we paid them $80 each. They were expecting $20/hour and they helped us for less than three. So it worked out well for everyone.

It's interesting though the way that facade comes down so slowly because they don't really believe I'm from where I say I am. First they keep talking in English, kind of pretending they never heard me say anything. Then I keep talking in Spanish and they answer back, realizing that hey this guy ain't shitting us. Then they ask a couple key questions and then we are all good.

I pass the test, I am "one of them." Let the confiding begin.