You recognise awkwardness in any language

(Wednesday, 1 April 2009)

The night before I stayed with that family with TV. A bed for me and another for Gaspar – the 50 years old local guide from the Xeo village who’s with me. We stayed in the common living room where the all family sleeps. Sweet.

Today we arrive at another village to spend the night. The same kind of very basic infrastructure, but this family seems to be (relatively) well off. They’ve a small field surrounding the house (not many do…), and several animals: goats, pigs, chickens.

It’s early in the night, but bed time: we’re exhausted. Surprise comes when the family man starts covering part of the ground floor balcony at the entrance of the house with a big plastic. Then, a dirty and small sponge mattress is laid on the ground. A cloud of dust gets in the air, as the ground hasn’t been cleaned.

I see awkwardness in Gaspar’s face. He looks at me a couple of times; I keep looking at the mountains, but the same “what the f*ck?” question is going through my mind.

He asks a few questions to the man. They speak Ixil. He comes back to me: “It looks like we’re going to sleep here – do you mind? and do you mind sharing the mattress?”

I reply “it’s ok”, with the same conviction I see in his eyes. What could I do?

We just have a blanket each. Nothing to cover up the dirty mattress.

He has again an awkward smile in his face. “It’s a bit tight for the two of us, isn’t it?”

I suggest I sleep in the hammock just above. As dirty as the mattress, but at least frees us some space.

I put all my warm clothes, including raining gear – I’m glad I brought them. 2h30 after, at 10.30 pm, I give up. I go back to the mattress as I haven’t managed to sleep for more than 15 minutes straight, and my back hurts like hell.

We wake up early the next morning, with the sun rise. Not much interest in staying in “bed” anyway.

Of course, we survived. But even if we didn’t speak a word about it, I could see Gaspar shared my awkwardness.

There are things you don’t need to put in words to understand or communicate. Awkwardness. Impoliteness or unwelcoming guests, for instance. (There was plenty of room inside, and we could have shared the space with the family, as the night before, right?)

Like in any culture, there are pleasant and unpleasant people. Welcoming and unwelcoming families.

A free iPod to those who guess which category I think this family belongs to…