It’s a 15-minute walk to my house from the nearest bus stop — or taxi stand, in local parlance — up a cobblestone street, and then down a dirt road. It’s clear I stand out, even though I walk this road most days and I like to think I am becoming a part of the scene. So most days, I use it as a chance to practice my greetings. “Mwaramutse,” I say in the morning, or “Mwiriwe,” in the afternoon. Often I’m beaten to the punch, and the ladies will say, “Bonjour,” so I have to do the exchange in French. There are days I forget to wonder whether women should greet men they don’t know, and I say hello to the men, and on those days, they tell me their names, and sometimes try to tell me more, but I never understand.
Yesterday, I simply did not feel like talking to anyone. I walked quietly, staring at the road and all the little flowers that are popping up after our days of rain. A young man in a nice, bright red shirt walked at the same pace, a few feet to my left. I should have greeted him, but I wasn’t up for it.
He finally goes for it, the most unusual greeting I’ve had yet here. In French he says, “Excuse me madame, but will you permit me to ask you a question?” I nod, pleased with myself for understanding the French.
“I was wondering, do they have these trees in your country?” He points to the banana trees just behind us.
“No, we don’t have these.”
“Ah! You are from America!”
What? Maybe I’m missing something, but we do have banana trees. They’re not native, but we do have them.
Good call, Reese. I actually don’t know where we have banana trees, but I’m willing to bet you’re right, and that we’ve got them some where. Do you know where? I’d love to find out… We definitely ain’t got ’em in my part of the country and not, I would venture to guess, in most of the rest. But then, my credibility on this question is already shot.
Thanks for your comment–you’ve inspired another botanical post, about native species, that I’ll save for a rainy day…
This website, about “unusual, uncommon, and unique things about a diversity of subjects” has trivia facts about bananas. They claim that:
“Bananas are not grown commercially in the continental United States. They are grown in Latin and South America from countries like Costa Rica, Ecuador, Colombia, Honduras, Panama and Guatemala.” http://www.corsinet.com/trivia/bananas.html – here learn all you ever wanted to know about bananas. yes, i do not have anything better to do with my time.
Hey J, there are TONS of banana trees in the Goleta/Santa Barbara area of California, as there is a banana farm just down the freeway from UC Santa Barbara. They grow many varieties of bananas there. But perhaps his comment was more that banana trees are not NATIVE to the U.S. Perhaps. Don’t know. (Should I ask my neighbors, the arborists???) I’ve been hitting them up for a Money Tree – esp. the species that grows hundred dollar bills – but apparently, they’re quite, quite rare. 😉
We have them in areas that have at least a semi-tropical climate. Areas like southern California, like lovelylinguist mentioned, and we have them here in Florida as well. My father owns some property where there is one tree and he used to bring home the bananas. We never ate the bananas though, they’re just not as good as what you get in the store, and they don’t get as big.