the spoon incident

Eating beans and cream (or beans and creams as I like to call it) for dinner is not a very satisfying meal for an epicurean vegetarian such as myself. But I'm quick on the problem-solving front, especially in matters of food. Longing for more and better food, I bought myself some peanut butter and crackers and stashed them in my room at my host family's house as an extra snack. In retrospect, this all seems like some sort of clandestine operation when all I really wanted was just something more to eat between meals.

As every peanut butter eater knows, peanut butter is a gooey, messy substance which requires a utensil to get out. Therefore, one hungry night I borrowed a spoon from the kitchen of my host family in order to indulge in secret. Forgetful me forgot to return the spoon the next day and it just got lost in an abyss of books and clothing. Hence, the spoon stayed in my room for a few days until one day, while eating lunch, I eavesdropped on a rather terse conversation between my host sister, Auxilladora, and the maid, Elvira.

First some background information about maids in Nicaragua....
Maids are referred to as empleadas, or employees in Spanish. They can be found in most middle or upper class Nicaraguan homes. Las empleadas in Nicaragua work 8 to 9 hour days, 6 days a week cooking, cleaning and washing clothes in exchange for a very meager income of 1500 cordobas (about 75 dollars) a month and lunch each workday. Let's compare that to the wage of a sweatshop worker (of which there are many in Granada) earning $150 a month, working 40 some hours a week. Not much, huh?

Anyway, back to the story.

While my Spanish has dramatically improved, I am still not up to par for eavesdropping on Nica conversations in other rooms. However, I listened closely and heard the maid, Elvira, declare the following "una cuchara" (a spoon) , "cuesta cinco pesos" (costs 25 cents) and "me voy" (I´m leaving).
At the mention of the cuchara a light bulb went off in my head. The spoon in my room! I still needed to return it to the kitchen! But wait -I thought- Elvira and Auxilladora couldn't possibly be arguing over said spoon. Not sure what was going on and needing to know, I approached Elvira after my host sister left the kitchen and asked,

"Excuse me, were you talking about a spoon?"
"Yes, they think that I stole their spoon but I didn't. Perhaps I accidentally threw it away. I don't know."

¨Oh no,¨ I thought as I realized said spoon was the spoon resting quietly in my room. "I am so sorry. There has been a huge misunderstanding. I have the spoon in my room. I used it to eat peanut butter a few days ago and it completely slipped my mind to return it to the kitchen the next day. I am so, so sorry."

Elvira laughed nervously, shaking her head and sighing in relief.

I promptly returned the spoon and continued apologizing profusely.
I explained the whole situation to my host sister, the only family member in the house at the time, and she laughed about it and told me not to worry. But I still did.

I left the house that day I feeling awful and responsible for the wrong accusation and silly- turned-sour situation. I was the spoon thief, even though it was unintentional. Why did they accuse Elvira of stealing a spoon without speculating over other possibilities first? Who counts their spoons anyways? A spoon is a spoon....or is it different here in Nicaragua where people´s homes aren't overflowing with stuff like any average American home?

The next day I was relieved to see Elvira still working in the house after declaring her departure the day before. Elvira was glad to see me as well. In secret she whispered to me that she was leaving, that the family had apologized to her, but she had had enough. She said she didn´t know how long she would go without working, if she would be able to find another job easily, but she was still going to leave.

Oh, how I wished that day that I could just take this honest and hardworking woman and her children and grandchildren with me back to the States where she could work and probably live more comfortably. Where (even in spite of the down-spiraling economy and all the complaining) there are so many more employment opportunities.
Nothing seemed fair that day and disparities seemed enormous and a spoon seemed to mean a whole lot more than I ever would have imagined.