because you speak english.

we got our tv fixed. (i wrote finally here three times before i decided that one week without a tv does not warrant a finally. it's not like we were completely tv free - we still have another tv - a 15 inch, 15 year old, no control, no volume control tv but it works)

a technician came to fix the cable this afternoon. i was doing laundry in the bathtub (remember the broken washer?), samil was in his underwear and amely was dancing like a ballelina to sexy and i know it (she is, and she does. and tells us frequently."mami, sexy and i know IT")

i was a little embarassed, a little flustered - i didn't expect the technician to arrive at all, let alone so quickly - we just reported the problem yesterday. that is an unheard of turn around in this country. he comes in, looks at the tv table in the living room and the empty cable hanging out, not plugged into anything.

"um, i came to fix the cable."
"yah, come on in. sorry for the uh, craziness"
"well, i'm here to fix the cable, but i don't think the cable is the problem, miss"
"oh no, really, it's not been working. we can't see any channels at all."

he looks again at the tv stand. i, completely oblivious to his confusion, explain away - the neighbors cut our wire so thin stealing borrowing our cable and when we fixed it, we obviously didn't do it right.

"miss, um, you know i uh, i'm not sure if the cable is the problem."
"well, what else would the problem be?"
"well, you don't have a tv."

ha!
i needed that today.
once i explained the broken tv (burned out lamps or something - a problem with the inconsistency of the electricity in the country) and that it was in the shop, and that yes, there is another that he can use to check the problem, he got down to work. he was a bit wary to drink my juice and kept looking at samil's ironman underoos. obviously, our whole interaction took place in spanish (i  speak really good spanish), but when he left he  says,

"uh, miss, i'm sorry that i couldn't communicate with you because you speak english. so if you have any problems, call customer service, they have an english line." what?

some days are just funny, i guess.

(on the tv front, for those of you living in similar electrical  situations - apparently the rise and fall of the voltage here is hard on LCD tvs - i mean obviously it's not healthy for any appliance but lcds really dislike it - and even if your tv is just in standby the difference can cause problems. so, the backlight on the tv burned out. after some research online i was discouraged because the best advice they had was "get a new tv" becuase the repair costs about $400 USD. welcome to  the dominican republic, $40 USD later we have a fixed tv and the wise words to unplug the thing at night to avoid further problems)