My conversation (or lack of) with a local...


		My conversation (or lack of) with a local...

	Today, I decided to take my camera with me on the way into town as often in the past there have been many ‘camera’ moments that I have missed. Even before getting out of the village I spotted a beautiful chestnut horse belonging to one of our villagers sitting down amongst the cut corn. Such a lovely looking animal with the sun glistening on its chocolate brown/red coat - Ah, a camera moment me thinks. Stopping the car and wrestling the camera out of its case, Custodio appeared in his little car. Custodio owns and runs the bar in the village and has a small shop attached to it. An elderly chap and very pleasant like all the Spanish I have met, he stopped his car. ‘Como estas Custodio’ (how are you?) I asked. Leche? No! ( no milk?) he replied. Then, in my not so good Spanish tried to explain that I was about to take a photo of the horse. Not quite sure what he was saying back to me as he was replying very quickly and like most andalucians drop their ‘s’ from words but when I showed him the camera and pointed to the horse he nodded his acknowledgement. Ata leugo (hasta leugo) – we bid our goodbyes. You can learn all you want from language books but you only really start learning when talking to locals. Custodio – a case in point.