For the past three weeks, I’ve walked uncertainly (or perhaps all too certainly – I haven’t mastered the Salvadoran stroll yet) down unfamiliar streets, greeting people in a still unfamiliar language. And it makes me scared as heck. Saying hello is scary enough without having to confront machismo in the streets.
For a while, I just wouldn’t look at anyone who I passed so that I wouldn’t single myself out. But, do you know, being scared to look people in the face makes the world into a scarier place than it actually is. Now when I pass people (unless I’m getting creepy macho vibes) I greet them with “Buenos!” or “Buenas!” depending on the time of day (BuenOs dias, buenAs tardes, buenAs noches). And here’s my favorite thing about this: when I smile at someone and say hello, their frown magically disappears and they utter the most enthusiastic greeting back! Turns out the world is an extraordinarily welcoming place if you give it a smile!
And I have a feeling that this observation isn’t limited to El Salvador 😉
Universal Gravitation 
Buenos! I too have found that when I doggedly smile at people on the street, when they eventually smile back, their faces are transformed — they become really beautiful, instead of grumpy strangers. Great idea! Though also a good idea to be conscious of the creepy macho vibe…
You are right — it’s not only in El Salvador. I have been surprised when scary people smile back and say hello. And since I often walk on the same path, I see them again, and we seem like friends.
This is kind of related. After yoga at the YW on Monday, I thanked the woman next to me for being so accommodating. The room was crowded and to be able to do everything, we had to keep adjusting where we were. It turned out that she was worried that she was bothering me because she had come in late. Then she told me how much she liked my earrings, that she had noticed them the other day. Then in the gym, there was someone I pegged as unfriendly on a machine I wanted to get on, but I smiled at her and went to the next machine. She stopped on the way past to ask me if I had gotten my earrings from Isabella catalog (sister to Chinaberry), and then told me she had been thinking about ordering them but wasn’t sure how they would look with short hair, but now she was going to get them.
In both cases, I expected the person to be unfriendly. But *I* had been the unfriendly one, not noticing either of them before, while they were watching me. That surprised me!
Buenas! What a great observation!
Pingback: A Humble of Homeless | Universal Gravitation