notageek

One summer at $Chain_Drugstore, I rang up a Spanish-speaking woman and counseled her clumsily in Spanish. This endeared me enough to her that she transferred all her husband’s prescriptions and wanted to chat next time she came in. Specifically, how many children did I have? None? When I explained that I have a husband but no children yet, her face relaxed.

This spring, in the midst of a rotation at $Big_Hospital, I was cooing and making faces over a Somali baby, when his mother asked how many I have. She has, well, more than five, and she knit her eyebrows when I didn’t immediately come out with a number.

“Boyfriend?” No, I explained, I have a husband. I am just still in school. She grinned. “In my country, no boyfriend, no girlfriend. Better. Good to be married.”
Secretly, I am heartened to know there is a worldwide stratum of busybodies who are looking out for me. Just don’t tell them, or I’ll never hear the end of “WHEN YOU HAVE BABY?” in any language.

In my medical Spanish class in school, one of the instructors pointed out that patients from Spanish-speaking cultures will sometimes present with “alta presion”, or high blood pressure, as a primary complaint. It means a different thing than high blood pressure does to healthcare workers.

Anyway, I think I know why my co-worker the herbalist cracked up when I asked him what’s good to use for heat in the throat.