"adivina que..."

means "guess what?" in spanish and, guess what, little kids use it all the time here too. on the liberia bus while i sat in the aisle, little blas sang me a song. he´s five and wants to be a singer. i asked him what kind of music he would sing: "all kinds,¨" he answered breezily.

soon he had parked himself in the aisle ext to me and was asking me questions. "adivina una cosa. adivina adonde vamos nosotros." "i want you to guess, to guess where we´re going."

he heard me speak english and obligingly spoke all of the english he knew: "ello" "vai-vai" and the numbers up to twelve.

"adivina que está en el mar más profundo de los estados unidos." "guess what´s in the deepest ocean in the united states."
"fish."
"tiburones! hay que nadar en la orilla solamente." "sharks! you have to swim just on the edge."

"adivina que es mi animal favorito." "guess what my favorite animal is."
"snake."
"no! murciélago!" "no! bat!"
"why?"
"porque no nos ataca a nosotros! comen semillas, y frutas, e insectos." "because they don´t attack us! they eat seeds, and fruit, and bugs."

"adivina que es mi animal favorito en toda la historia del mundo." "guess what is my favorite animal in all the history of the world."
"dog."
"no! está rayado de blanco." "no! it´s striped all white."
"tiger."
"tiburón tigre." "tiger shark."

"adivina que es mi animal favorito de aqui hasta el sol." "guess what is my favorite animal from here to the sun."
"spider."
"no. es la más grande en el mundo. la ballena azul! es la más grande, sabe usted?" "no. it´s the biggest in the world. the blue whale! it´s the biggest, did you know, maám?"

i taught him to play twenty questions. it seemed right up his alley.




p.s.
another sound byte, from the internet cafe:

"hold on dude. i totally fell in love with this girl in guatemala and i gotta write her back. how do you spell `permanent´?"
"p-e-r-m-e-n-e-n-t."
"sweet."