O-setenta-tres! Having fun at Te-Bingo.

Monica's email said come join us for bingo and and a tea at the Oro Verde. The cost was five dollars per person and proceeds would benefit The Messengers of Peace Foundation. Their neighbors Mario and Yolanda were active in this charitable group. They explained that the charity supported a country rehabilitation center, school and even a foster home program for handicapped orphans.

It sounded like a worthwhile charity and once again, it looked like rain, so off to "Te Bingo" we went. It was a good decision and a delightful time was had in the fellowship of our tableful of new Expadorian friends and a gracious roomful of Ecuadorian hosts that made us feel quite welcome.

The afternoon also brought home a reminder that, as newcomers in this Spanish speaking land, it is fairly helpful (even essential) to know and understand a few key phrases "en espanol".
The utility of being able to ask "?Donde es el bano." comes to mind as one of the most obvious examples. Knowing commonly used numbers in Spanish is also helpful in terms of doing everyday shopping, asking what bus to take, etc. But here, just knowing the spanish number is only half the battle. With numerals, more than any other spanish words, it can be easy to become confused as to what you're hearing when spoken back to you. Carrying a calculator and pointing can help and is probably reccomended in a significant purchase negotiation. That's not always practical, however, in a busy shopping environment with impatient customers behind you. You simply need to learn those numbers!

And that, dear friends, brings us back to our afternoon of bingo. It turned out to be the perfect way to get in nearly two hours of practice in learning our numerales en espanol! I'm happy to report the lesson was good and the Yazells made significant progress in being able to understand the costs quickly thrown at us the next time we peruse the produce at the mercado. We still need extra practice on the numbers in the 60's (sesenta) and the 70's (setenta)because they often still sound alike to us. It was somewhat conforting to notice that even bilingual Mario who had graciously joined our table to help us with the numbers had to turn on occaision to the number board to determine the number that had been called.

We had a fun afternoon and we felt good in contributing to a worthy cause. We also left determined to do more practice on our numbers as we continue our travels, juntos en el camino de la vida!