When they finally had to leave to take care of their other duties, Kelly and I both had a secure grasp on several key phrases, and had passable pronunciation.

When Mhay and Cherry were both out of earshot, Kelly leaned over to tell me "Never before in my life have I heard anyone with the name 'Cherry' -

I nearly laughed when Mhay introduced her!"

"I know – that's why I nudged you" – "Nudge, my foot; I thought you were going to cave in a rib!" Kelly exaggerated – "to let you know not to.

Something else you need to know is that the country we're going to is roughly ninety percent Catholic; it seems like about two girls in three has the first name of 'Maria', so it's pretty common for them to use nicknames. There's no telling what you'll hear somebody called, so try to remember that no matter what it sounds like to you, it's somebody's name, okay?"

That sobered her considerably, and she thought things over for the next several minutes as I finished off the remains of the latest beer Mhay had brought me – my excuse being that I needed to keep my vocal cords well lubricated.

Finally, she spoke up again, telling me "It really is different, isn't it? I really didn't understand what you were telling me about customs and cultures and all of that; at least, not until we got on this name thing. I started thinking about what you said, about people's names; and I suddenly realized that my name could be laughed at, too – like in 'Kelly green'. I know I wouldn't like it much, and that gave me a different perspective; it kind of put me in Cherry's shoes. Now I really do understand that we're going to a different place with different rules. Before, it was still kind of abstract, but now it's real. If she comes back, I think I have to apologize to Cherry."