Gypsies

Prior to coming to Chile, the only knowledge I had of gypsies was that they were travellers from the southern estern parts of Europe and they were sent to the concentration camps with the Jews. My time here in CHile, particulary La Serena has changed that. There are a few minority groups here in Chile, one of them is the Gypsies. I have not come across any in Santiago, but here in La Serena and some of the other smaller but still substantial towns, there are large groups of Gypsies who roam the streets every day. You can pick them out of the crowd from their wild hair and different dress. To tell you the truth I have never seen a male Gypsy over the age of 4 or so, so I don´t know how the men dress. The women on the other hand all wear long, faded, and obviously aged skirts and oversized sweaters. They look as though they have not bathed in weeks and their accent, although many of them have lived here in Chile for all their lives, is very distinct. Anyways, the women roam around the centro, but mainly the plaza, and offer to read people´s palms. It is actually more than an offer, they almost demand to read your palm. One of my friends explained what often happens. They will read your palm for a few hundred pesos and then tell you that your future doesn´t look too good. They ask you for more money, and yor future gets better basically the more you give them. That´s funny, I am pretty sure the future doesn´t work that way. I have always tried to avoid the women
but there was one time that one of them approached me as I was readin in teh plaza. I kept denying her the chance to read my palm and she eventually got so frustrated that she started cursing (or at least I assume that is what she was doing) at me under her breath. That´s okay, I am pretty sure that God can protect me from her curses.
Today, I was readng my Bible in the plaza and a young girl who could not have been more than 16 years old came up to me with a baby in her arms. She told me that she was going to read my palm. I said no and tried to get her to go away as politly as I could. She would not listen. She started telling em about how the baby needed a doctor because of this or that and how she needed money for the doctor. I reached into my purse and grabbed 100pesos and gave it to her, but said very clearly, NO MANO. She thanked me for the money and then wanted to see my hand so she could read it. I told her no and I explained that I didn´t believe in it. She looked confused so I told her that I believe in God and the Bible. And the Bible says that it is not good. Of course, this all being in spanish and with her thick accent and my broken spanish I am surprised that we could talk at all. After some explaining of why I didn´t want her to read my palm, she was looking lost. She kept saying that it was a regalo (gift), so I looked her straight in the eyes and smiled as I told her that the money was hers and I didn´t need a gift. Anyways, she left and smiled as she did, somehow, someway, we had come to an understanding.