When you arrive to someone’s house here in Paraguay, you don’t walk right up to the front door and knock. Instead you stand at the edge of their porch and clap. If they don’t come to the door, you can try to clap again louder and say hello to see if they just didn’t hear you the first time.
Several times there has been someone at my house and I didn’t realize it until I just happened to walk out into my kitchen and see them. I am not quite used to listening for the clapping, so I think that is the main reason I miss it, though we do almost always have a fan too on which drowns out a lot of noise!
How do you announce your arrival to someone’s home in the country where you live? I’d love to hear!
6 comments:
Well some of my older kids friends just walk in and sometimes say hello!!!
Seriously about gave me a heart attack the first time I came around the corned and found and Indonesian man standing in my hallway!!
Now get me right, I love my big kids friends, but I keep the door locked more often so I don't get such surprises!!!
That's so interesting! What if you're hard of hearing or listening to music etc?
Manuela
That is so cool and different! I love hearing your stories of Paraguay...sorry I haven't been over in a while. Life has just been busy! Hope you and your family are doing well and being blessed!♥
I love it! This is so interesting! It seems like a fun and friendly way for people to announce their arrival.
Here in Russia all of the entrances to all of the buildings are very well secured. To get into our apartment (which is just an average sort of building) you have to first buzz the apartment number to be let in the main entrance. Then there is a large metal door that secures our door and the doors of 3 of our neighbors. After that is our heavily locked front door that goes into our entry way, and behind that is another wooden door that goes into our apartment! That makes 4 doors before actually getting into our home! Yikes! Needless to say, knocking or clapping doesn't really work. You have to ring the special intercom or call on a phone to get in!
Our home is like Ashley's. You have to ring a buzzer for the front gate. I have a PA system that allows me to talk to the person before buzzing them in, however, I find that too impersonal and most of the time I have my front door open that allows me to see my front gate.
So, when I hear the buzz I just stand at my front door (behind a locked iron door and a locked iron gate) and say "hello". Most of the time it is beggars and I can just hand them food through the iron bars.
I swear, sometimes it feels as if I am in a prison.
I found your post to be very interesting ...
When we lived in Chihuahua, Mexico, people picked up a rock (or used a key or something) to clink against the gate. That is how we knocked. Here in Durango it varies from house to house. Our house has a button that rings a phone in the kitchen so that we can greet our visitors even before we open the door. :)
Love your blog, Shilo! It is always a refreshing place for my spirit.
Kimberly Knapp
Post a Comment