Esta Bien

For those that I have shared this story with before...my knowledge of Spanish....Espanol.....grows week by week.....1 yr at a time.  Many moons ago....for some strange reason I was under the impression that the phrase "mucho gusto" meant....vey good...or nice job.  I was working with a relative of an fellow employee.  During the process of our fittings, I repeatedly and wrongly used the phrase, "mucho gusto",....many many times.  It wasn't until about day 2 or 3 of fittings that one of the other relatives said to one of the Spanish speaking people, why does Paul keep saying "Nice to meet you?"

Turns out I didn't know Spanish as well as I thought.  To this day I use phrase mucho gusto, tambien, and esta bien...almost interchangeably and at completely inappropriate times and places, in jest....i.e.  Thank you....tambien....that looks great...mucho gusto.  My broken Spanglish has infected many of our team. We nearly have our own language....silly and fun.

Everything gets lost in translation 

It's completely sad that most young Peruvians speak a English, while most Americans speak little if any Spanish. Over the years, as our team has grown, We consistently struggle to find interpreters for our ever expanding, busy team. 

A few years ago, we had the pleasure of fitting Jonathan with a prosthesis. His two Peruvian friends in tow, were Kelly and Flor. Unbeknownst to us Kelly and Flor were both in school for translation. For the entire week, they served as our interpreters. Perfecto. This year we reconnected with Flor and she was able to connect us to 4 more friends that are more than happy to help us with our poor Spanish.   

People, people are the single thing that make life the most frustrating. They are also the single thing that make life worth living for.  It is the person to person connections, both personally and professionally that breeds success in everything that we do. They make us and inspire us to invest in each other.  I think some people call this magic. ....Today in Peru, we rely on Flor, Johanna, Diana, and Giuseppe. They express our words and our patients words and and emotions in strive for understanding.  The proof of that understanding will partly be the future success of our patients.

Today through a translator we were able to connect Rob with Dominque.  Upon meeting 11 yr old Dominiue, we said Hello.  How are you?  "I like chicken." Dominique said.  Johanna responded.....well let me introduce you to someone else that like Pollo (Chicken).  When Dominique met Rob..."Whoa....that's a lot of chicken".

Buenos Noches, mis amigos

Pablo