The subjunctive mood in Spanish twists the mind like overwet taffy. Rarely used in English, it’s a different set of conjugations used to express wishes, doubts or uncertainty.
According to my Spanish teacher, Latin America is the best place to learn it: ”La vida aqui es muy duro,” she said. “Entonces necesitamos pensar en un otro vida.”
She was joking, trying to alleviate my frustration and also, I assume, knowing the subjunctive probably existed before Latin America did.
Still, there might be something to this.
Things ain’t easy here. I wrote about this in my last post on Guatemala’s history, and other La Vida Idealist bloggers have as well. Seemingly simple things like utilities frequently fail. Money is short, and there’s often pressure to give as much as you can.
The latter has created a strange conflict within me; I want to give money to people asking for handouts more than ever. But, I’m torn by never being sure about where that’s going. I was hanging out with the director of my school last Saturday, and he gave a few Quetzales to a begging child. He said sure, he’s not sure she really needs it or will use it for food, but you never truly know so why not err on the side of compassion.
I miss that side of myself, the 8-year-old me that didn’t understand why my parents passed by every person asking for money on a Chicago winter night. I guess I have seen too many scams and have grown up too do-it-yourself American to fully get back to where I was.
How I’ve decided to resolve it is head out to stores and shops more. The reality is that Guatemala is pretty cheap, and so even though it cancels out what I could be saving, I don’t mind heading out for a hot chocolate when I need to check e-mail, rather than heading to my school where Internet is free.
It’s a feeble dream of trickle-down economics. But I hope (and here would be a perfect place for the subjunctive) that somehow, it helps.
Kent Green recently left his post as a teacher with Costa Rican English for Sustainable Tourism, which is looking for volunteers now.
Latest posts by kentgreen
- The Centries: Handing Out Awards to Central America - August 9th, 2010
- Nobody (At Least Not Me) Knows the Trouble Guatemala's Seen - August 2nd, 2010
- Oh No, Ojos! (or, Why Gringos Don't Make Eye Contact) - July 28th, 2010
- We Dance If We Want To (so why don't we?) - July 26th, 2010
- Getting Schooled in Spanish Schools - July 21st, 2010
- Guatemala's REAL Danger: Not Wanting to Leave - July 19th, 2010
- Living the High Life (and not even knowing it) - July 14th, 2010
- The Devils of Panama City - July 7th, 2010
- Paging Maintenance, We Have a Crisis in Aisle 4 - July 5th, 2010
- Bye, Bye, Bias - June 30th, 2010
I used to worry about the same thing until I heard a speech about giving and it changed my whole perspective on the topic.
“Sometimes giving is about you as a person so the end result doesn’t matter.”