Getting to Know Nancy

My life in Guatemala has become much more light hearted and humorous these past few months thanks to my new found friend, Nancy. I’m pretty sure I’ve introduced you all to her, she is the latest of the thread of replacement shop keepers. Lucky for the Cooperative, she is on her second month and staying strong. She did threaten to quit after her one month mark but I arranged an intervention and Adan, Alfonso and I managed to convince her to stay. Gracias a Dios.

I knew Nancy and I were going to get along the moment she revealed to me, “I don’t know if I want to get married. I have enough to worry about as it is, the last thing I need are in-laws.” She goes against the Guatemalan grain. She is a breath of fresh air. Since she started working at the store, the monotony of the tienda’s retail atmosphere has vanished.

I’ll give you an example.

At the store we sell some typical produce: onions, tomatoes, potatoes, bell peppers, carrots etc. The stock doesn’t always fly off the shelves so we are constantly looking for ways to keep the produce fresh for as long as possible. Our most recent salvaging act was performed on a handful of wilting, rubbery carrots. I showed Nancy how to maintain the veggies fresh by sticking them in water and refrigerating (a trick I stole from my mom- love you mom- also works great with celery). Nancy filled a little plastic bowl with water, placed the carrots in the bowl stems up. Then she turned to me before placing the bowl in the fridge. The following exchange ensued:

Nancy: “Do we cut the greens off?”

Annalisa: “I don’t know, what do you think?”

Nancy: “What do you think?”

Annalisa: “I want to know what you think will look better.”

Nancy: (While gripping her ponytail) “Well, if you cut off all MY hair, I think it would look a little strange.”

We kept the greens on.