Today I ran into what some people would call....a bit of luck, and what some others, such as my coworkers Rebecca and Faby, like to call "benediciones (blessings)."
At 6:36am this morning, I got off the 45 minute bus ride and started walking the several kilometers it takes to get to work, as usual. However, this time, a vegetable delivery truck made an insanely fast U-turn and a whole sack of green beans fell out of the back onto the cold black asphalt close by where I was walking.
I yelled and waved and jumped, but the driver just waved his hand out the window as if to say that he knew but didn't give a, "you know what." He then apparently pressed his foot full force on the gas pedal, and sped off no less than 20 miles over the speed limit. People kept walking by going about their business. Taxies and busses avoided colliding with the bulky road hazard by nearly jumping the curb. I decided to act. I walked right into the middle of the street....and grabbed the thing.
I felt weird for a split second, wondering if I was doing the "ethical" thing. And then I started deducing the current wave of information that suddenly presented itself...
1. The driver clearly saw me and the fallen goods.
2. He refused to stop and in fact, sped off.
3. I dragged the 50 kilo sack from the middle of the road to the sidewalk.
4. It's mine!!
I rejoiced at my newly acquired bounty. I even started chanting "finders keepers, loosers weepers," like one of my 5th graders. A passer-by who saw the whole event laughed and quoted "su pérdida es tu ganancia," which translates to a "their loss is your gain" sort of thing.
I started slowly, painstakingly dragging the awkwardly heavy load in the general direction of the school. It had to have been 50 kilos. (Google: 50 kilos = ? pounds.) I spotted Zacatecas taxi cab number 79 and motioned politely (and perhaps a little frantically) for him to help me and my rather large amount of green stringy vegetables. He helped me lift them into the trunk. And eventually lifted them out again at the front gates of the school. I dragged the bag to my office and thus began a vegetable sharing spree. A dozen teachers, janitors, students, and parents went home with a gallon sized zip-lock bag loaded with green beans. I was so giddy. And to my surprise, so were others. As my sister, Victoria, said, "It's like [I] got to be the Santa of green beans!"
4 o'clock came and went. I eventually clocked out and left work. There are still kilos upon kilos left in my office for more bean gifting happiness tomorrow. I'm writing this blog entry on my way home now, with about 5 kilos of green beans in my purse to share amongst family. Looks like it's green bean casserole, green beans with pearl onions and bacon, and vegetable stew with green beans the rest of the week!
Random fact: Right now, fresh green beans in Zacatecas, Mexico are at $13 MXN/kilo and $3.50 USD/pound in Texas, USA. (It's so cheap here because they're grown locally.) That's about $650 pesos in green beans. And if this had happened back home in the states....it would have come up to the equivalent of $350.00 dollars...in one of my favorite vegetables.
I've had a rough month, y'all. I really feel like it's about time some "bendiciones" or whatever you want to call it, get sent in my direction. I'll take it, in whatever form I can get it...even if it's in the form of green beans.
