International Misunderstanding

It might have been my fault that I misunderstood the housekeeper when I heard her say that the wife had told her to be sure to clean where the shoes are lined up and corrected her that she should actually pay attention to where the suitcases are stored but she (housekeeper) had really meant that the pair of shoes my wife had given her would clean up nicely but she'd rather carry them now and wear her flip-flops home.

What can I do? It happens over and over again, I misunderstand by applying my (limited) knowledge about what's actually going on to what I thought I heard. Might make a good sitcom, sort of Fawlty Towers like with the interaction between Basil and Manuel.

Like yesterday, when I had promised that same housekeeper that the driver could take her and some of the leftover wood from our packing crates over to the roundabout. (The crates that our shipments come in are amazingly well made and the wood highly prized.) There was just a little problem of which roundabout I had agreed to. I had heard Jakande (jah-kahn-dei) but was thinking Jankara (Jan-car-ah) and was wondering why they needed to go so far. After some explaining, I got the idea that it was to be just the first roundabout so that wouldn't be a problem for getting the car back in time. Fortunately it all worked out, although I'm still unclear about who actually went where.

I have to keep relearning to just let things work themselves out. I have learned (mostly) to stop worrying about the car. I can get out at the store in the most horrendous traffic jam with full confidence that the driver will find a place to park and be waiting when I emerge. Or I can direct him down a maze of narrow crowded potentially one way streets with every confidence that we will get through successfully. (The one wayness decided arbitrarily by the local policeman based on several unknowable factors including his desire to have some money for lunch.)

Am I the only one who noticed that the seats on that Pan Am flight in the movie "2001" look remarkably like today's airline seats, complete with the flat screen TV in the seat back? Whatever, I'll be off on the silver bird back to the "states" Sunday morning and will stay for most of March so I can be baffled by that culture and just as I am getting settled in, be ready to come back for more misunderstandings.