"Jumper What's..."

America, Columbia, Venezuela

Dude, we are AMERICAN women…hear us roar!

“Jumper cables” I repeat, “Don’t you have jumper cables?”
Elizabeth gets this weird look on her face. “Jumper whats…”
Jumper cables, you know, cords…electrical wires that you hook from one car battery to the other car battery being careful not to touch the little red end to the little black end and blow yourself to Bermuda…makes dead cars come to life and do the whole honk, honk, vroom, vroom thing…
She’s already forgotten the point of the conversation and gives me a ‘we’ll continue this conversation later’ wave of the hand.
OK, well have it your way. They don’t have duck tape down here, maybe they don’t have jumper cables either. I mean really, anything is possible in a country that doesn’t stock duck tape!
So Jenni and I stand and watch as three of them push and one steers their dinky little dead car trying with all their might to pop the clutch on the bottom floor of the dinky little parking garage. Forward, backward, forward, backward. Then they realize that the poor little lady they have steering has no idea how to pop a clutch. “What! You mean I’m not supposed to be just steering?” …Now little old lady is pushing and big guy is inside, tentatively to pop the clutch, provided one of these times they get up enough speed to do so. Forward, backward, Forward, Backward…just when I’m thinking this is entertaining enough maybe Jenni and I should pop some popcorn and pull up chairs, they suddenly get a bright idea.
“Say Melissa, you and Jenni wouldn’t mind helping would you?”
I consider mentioning the ‘jumper what’s’ again, but decide to save myself the oxygen. Sure why not.
So we relieve the senior citizens of their post and take our stance at the back of the car. Surprisingly the car isn’t as heavy as it looks (or maybe it is our spectacular muscles…) and first try, just before the car slams into the concrete wall with bumpers and airbags flying…the car coughs and chokes and comes back to life…

Hu Ah! Americans, hear us roar!!