Jokes in Grenada

Tonight turned out to be a great example of how humor doesn't always cross cultures. At least both parties involved found the outcome funny, except for maybe the waitress (who probably thought the men she was serving were incredibly rude).

It was one of my classmate's birthdays so we decided to go out to dinner to celebrate. We had purchased a cake yesterday to bring along with us. After we finished dinner, we pulled out the cake and asked our waitress if we could borrow a lighter. She was a really nice Grenadian and told us yes on one condition-we sang really loudly and let her sing too :). We laughed and of course agreed, lit all the candles, and sang Happy Birthday. Amazingly enough, it only took a minute to get all the candles lit (unlike for my cake where it took a solid 20 minutes to successfully light the candles-same restaurant too!)!

We had cut up the cake and were eating it when another waitress walked by and told us that the 3 middle aged men (at least 1 was American) she was serving had asked her where their cake was. Apparently they told her that since they had sang too, they wanted some cake! So she walked over to ask us. We laughed and told her to tell them if they brought us plates they were welcome to some of the cake (all assuming they were joking at this point). She walked away back towards the kitchen, and much to our surprise, returned with 3 plates a few minutes later! We were very surprised and a little taken aback, but we had left over cake and figured that if the guys wanted to be rude about it, they could have cake. So off we sent her with 3 plates of cake.

I overheard their reaction when she arrived at the table with the cake-they were just as surprised as we had been! Our table had a good laugh over the apparent miscommunication between all of us and this poor Grenadian waitress! One of the guys later walked over and offered to buy our table a round of drinks. We graciously accepted, and they bought each of us whatever we wanted to drink! Very nice of them.

I thought this was a very amusing scenario for how actions and behaviors don't always cross cultures. Another classic example here of this is horn honking. They honk horns to say hello to a passerby. Americans honk horns to convey irritation and annoyance at others' actions or just out of general frustration. This is why I try very hard to be as humble and polite here as possible, I am really concerned about something not translating appropriately. Best to avoid any trouble whenever possible!