Ayyyy No Dan!

I mentioned Dan in a previous post, he's my fellow volunteer in the clinic. I snapped this picture of him tonight before dinner...scubbing his hands like a true future doctor. He's been accepted to med school at Michigan and Duke, now he's just waiting to hear from Harvard. In the meantime he's been doing his best to keep the clinic pharmacy organized and the patients happy. His specialties include boiling eggs, teasing kids, running errands in the pueblo, Uno and dominoes...I've never seen him lose. I am very grateful to Dan because within my first 2 days here he communicated everything he had learned the hard way during his first 6 months on the job. Namely how to navigate the gossip and the jealousy of the women in the clinic. Not to mention, the particular ways of Dona Felipa.

When we're together everyone asks if we're brothers?...cousins? They can't believe that we didn't know eachother before we got here, we must be related. When I want to confuse the kids I tell them that Dan looks a lot like my actual brother, whose name is also Dan. Which is a true statement. Just to be annoying, some of the kids and encargados intentionally call me Dan and him Jeremy.

To appreciate the title of this post you have to be familiar with some of the accent of southern Mexico. The best way I can describe it is "whiney". Girls in particular are very good at it. Dan has this great dry sense of humor. When he teases them, 99% of the time, they respond with "Ayyy No Dan!" (in a whiney accent). I can't tell you how many times I've heard it. In fact, I can't hear the word "Dan" (prounounced Daan with a Spanish accent) without thinking "Ayyy No!"