Columbia

Watching Channel 4's special on Columbia reminded me of an incident at a language school where I worked after leaving Italy. I did some teaching and so over a few weeks got to recognise a lot of students. I gave each one a cheerful hello because I'd just spent two years in a village. It was just the way things were done there. One of the students was a Columbian guy. Everything normal, everything ok and then he began dating a girl from the same country. The reception to my hellos changed and after a particularly sarcastic response I ignored them. I realised that they thought I fancied him. Maybe girls don't give boys cheery hellos in Columbia? It irritated me a lot because it's never nice to be misunderstood like that.