Bread for the Scare

When learning language it often happens that you go months, perhaps years, being oblivious to certain words or phrases. You can be so focused on understanding what a person is saying that your brain just skips over a word you don’t know and it never registers in your mind. Or maybe it is a phrase you learned but you haven’t yet heard it used in a real-life context, and so the phrase is merely theoretical. 

And then it happens. Someone points out a word to you and you start to hear it everywhere. Or you find yourself in a situation that fits the particular phrase that has been floating around in your mind, fuzzy and unused. All of sudden the abstract is wrapped in a real-life context and a connection is fused between the word and your world. 

One example of this is the Spanish phrase “un bolillo para el susto” which translates to “a bread roll for the scare.” This means that when someone has had a scare or has just gone through a stressful situation the advice is to eat a bread roll. Whether it is bad news, a car accident, or an earthquake, a bolillo will help calm the nerves. There is even some scientific studies that back up the age-old advice.

We first heard this phrase about a year ago, but it only existed abstractly in our minds until one Sunday evening. We had just finished our Sunday service and I was pushing Ernesto in his wheelchair back to his house. Blocking the doorway was his brother’s horse, so I gently moved the horse to the side so Ernesto could manoeuvre his way to the doorway. 

As I moved the horse back into place, Jose Luis, Ernesto’s brother, showed up. He smiled as he chewed his bolillo and then asked if our kids wanted a ride on the horse. I nodded and we walked up to the outreach centre and asked the kids. The three oldest were willing, so we hoisted all three up onto the back of the horse. 

Jose Luis led the horse by the halter down the street and then back up again, with Elizabeth, Pearl and Lewis holding on to each other and trying to enjoy the ride. Lewis occupied the rear position and looked a little concerned, sitting so near the end of the horse. His concerns were well-founded as suddenly two or three street dogs approached the horse from behind and started barking. The horse startled and reared up a little. Lewis slid back and nearly fell off the horse. 

Jose Luis kicked at the dogs and told them off, then he grabbed his half-eaten bolillo with his dirty, sweaty hand and offered it to Lewis – un bolillo para el susto!

Lewis refused the bread and assured us he was okay, not realising the bolillo was meant to calm his nerves and take away his fright. Jose Luis tried again to give Lewis the piece of bread, but his well-intentioned gesture was refused a second time. Seeing the half-eaten, soiled state of the bread, we convinced Jose Luis that the bolillo wasn’t necessary. But, we did understand why he was offering a bolillo, and what was once merely a Spanish saying we had learned once upon a time, was now a useful phrase that helped us makes sense of the world around us.

Jose Luis continued with his horse ride for a few more minutes more, and then a neighbour’s kid walked over and was offered a ride as well. We helped our kids down from the horse and thanked Jose Luis for the ride. He smiled, bolillo still in hand, and waved goodbye.

Not only did we get a free horse-ride that night, but a language lesson as well. We won’t soon forget it!