Do I have sucker stamped across my forehead?......wait, yes, I think I do

Today my new friend Denise came over to help me with my overwhelming house. I am at that point where there are piles of things sitting around because I just don't know where to put them. (Kind of like I have been for the last 20 years!) It is always easier to get something done when you have a friend there to keep you going and motivated and so she came over to kick my bum into gear.

We tidied and I emptied a big box and we got everything off of the floor in the "great room" area. It earned this remark from the kids when they came home from school. "Hey wait, it's clean in here. What happened?" (said in an incredulous voice). Well, after all that work we definitely needed some lunch out and so we hopped in the marvelous mini-van and toodled down the road in search of a place to eat lunch.

There was a place called "Don Pinchos" that we have passed on our frantic trips down the one-way streets of the capital. With all of these one way streets and no left turn signs around here you get to see a lot of areas you never would have traveled on. So we decided to be brave and give it a try. Remember, we are 2 ladies from northern Utah with a very minimal hold of the language going into a lunch spot that is teeming with locals. (Denise got here 1 month after me. She is from Layton, Utah and her husband is the new director of Church Welfare here. They have 6 adult kids and are here being empty-nesters. They are here on a three year assignment. We have a good time laughing at ourselves and our hacking of the language)

When we entered the restaurant we came in a door right next to the bathrooms. I thought that we must have gone in the back door, but that was the front! There was a buffet type area where everyone was walking down the line and giving a lady their order (kind of like a line in the school cafeteria when you grew up) and then paying at the end of the line. The food looked good, but as we were struggling to try to ask the server some questions a waiter came up to us, shook his head, and directed us to a table with some menus. Well, this looked promising. Denise and I commenced trying to guess what the items were. We knew it was some kind of beef or some kind of pork, or some kind of chicken or a mixture of something, but exactly what it was we were ordering was still a small mystery. I went for the easy way out and got a chicken sandwich while Denise was brave and went for Pinchos Mixtos which ended up being a delectable shish-kabob made of beef, chicken breast and pork. The meal was yummy, but no one else seemed to be eating what we were. When the bill came around, my sandwich (insert sandwich only, no pickle, chips or fries accompanied that lonely plate) was $150 pesos and Denise's kabobs with salad and rice were $315 pesos. Add on to that a 26% tax and a tip and you've got the idea. We paid up and while Denise used the restroom I asked the serving lady at the line, in my broken Spanish, how we would do the line, if we came again. She informed me that the cafeteria style line came with your choice of several rice dishes, a meat choice and a salad for $90 pesos.......no tax and no gratuity added on top.......... and then she smiled and sadly shook her head at me. Yep, that waiter saw me coming..........

That is one thing that makes me crazy here. I feel like I constantly have to be on the defensive against being ripped off. They expect a tip for everything and there is someone at every corner asking for money or selling something and they will not leave you alone. I just say no, shake my head and wave my pointer finger back and forth (that's the way you say no here) and then pretend they are not there. Which, by the way, is against all the courtesy and charity lessons I ever received in the US in Relief Society!!!! The prices are always higher for me, because of my white skin, unless it is at a store where they scan things in. Several times my friend Emily Munives, from Mexico, has taken me to the farmer's market. When I come with, the prices are higher than when she goes alone. The last time the guy actually gave her one price for a pineapple and then told her my price would be higher. Now I have to sit in the car when they shop. :-) Her mom went and got the plants that I wanted for the house for me. When I was there they were 1,200 pesos for one. When she went back without me, she got 3 for $1,200 pesos. Now we have a system where I show them or tell them what I want and then they go buy it for me..... making sure that the seller doesn't see us together!

Isn't discrimination illegal?