Knuckle Smacking Cards

As we work more on language, we’ve seen that we need to find more ways to be immersed in people’s conversations to increase our comfort and understanding. One of the things our language teacher suggested is that I come to the weekly card game he and his friends hold on Sunday afternoons, after they linger at church or home a few hours. Things that have struck me about this card game after I’ve stopped by for a few months now: They play outside next to a major dirt road, under a short palm tree, which means they are constantly moving the coffee table they use to keep it in the shade. These guys love slapping the cards down as hard as they can with their knuckles facing the table and making a large cracking sound. This reminds me of the force I’ve seen people in Jamaica slapping down Domino tiles. They have really interesting ways of shuffling and turning cards over that I’ve never seen before. It’s really hard to understand a fast moving card game when it’s in another language and you have no idea of the rules to start with. They usually play a form of Belote, which is popular in France. It’s a game with partners, and they always use the same partners. When one partnership wins 5 times in a row, they get their names written down in the notebook. If there aren’t enough of the right partner combinations there, they will play what they call “American 8’s” which I think is probably the same as Crazy Eight’s (since Americans are synonymous with crazy, right?). There’s always a lot of laughing and side discussions, and usually at least one person left staring motionlessly in utter disbelief at the end of some hand, while his friends try to tell him how he should have played to avoid such a great downfall. I haven’t gotten really good at conversation yet, but the guys who play here have been noticeably warmer and more willing to say something to me whenever I see them now.

--El Padre