What was that again?

Went to Haiti a couple years ago. While walking from my hotel to the school I greeted a group of young teenage youths. They followed me for a little while shouting, ‘Hey, blond,” but aside from a smile I didn’t’ turn around to chat since I didn’t know Creole and they apparently knew limited English. I did however walk a little taller with a little catch in my step, thinking that they had mistaken my gray hair for blond and that I was being given quite a nice compliment. I was feeling very youthful.

Unfortunately for me, I couldn’t keep my feeling of pride to myself and could hardly wait to tell our host at the school what the boys had called out to me.

And it wasn’t blond.

Apparently the word blond has a similar sound to the Creole word for ‘old woman.’ I think more specifically it means white hair but whatever.

Wish I hadn’t been so proud and had kept the compliment to myself.

I could have gotten a lot of satisfaction from that…if I’d just kept my mouth shut and not boasted about it.

Probably a lesson in there somewhere. That’s what I’m thinking about.