Amy la famosa or You sweat a lot!

One of my dance teachers was a younger woman who lived with her mom. Both ladies were about ready to leave the island and were planning their upcoming moves around the globe. Spain and South America both held interest as the women were Spanish speakers. My teacher, Amy, looked at me one day and said, “Maya, if anyone asks you who taught you how to dance, will you tell them about me?”

I replied, “Of course! I’ll say Amy, la famosa, surely you’ve heard of her?”

For weeks, Amy told me that she wanted me to find salsa lessons and continue learning, even after I’d left Curacao. One day, she asked, “Do you know why I tell you that?”

I, of course, didn’t. I expected to hear her say that I was a prodigious student and that I held great promise. Instead she replied, “It’s because you sweat a lot! It means you are losing weight!”

Nothing like a sassy salsera to bring you back to reality.

Bon dia!

Imagine entering a doctor’s office and greeting all of the patients in the waiting room. When people in Curacao enter a building, they wish everyone around them “bon dia,” or good day. No exchange is begun without the proper formalities and if you skip them, as Americans are wont to do, you are considered rude. Coming from the American culture of expedience, this custom sometimes struck me as labored and frustrating. I imagine that it originates from small town life, the old Curacao in which people knew the majority of others around them. While greeting people promotes friendliness and good manners, throughout my two years on the island I never quite got into the habit of saying hello to strangers that I had no real intentions of conversing with.