Screen Team

On Monday, the Screen Team visited the Village of San Jose, the largest village we have visited yet at just under 2000 people. They screened a record number of windows, 150 on 38 houses. The team was led around by a local who was very organized and had their entire route planned out for the day—very efficiently!
The team has also been taking pictures of the children in the village and printing them out in their van so they can keep them. Many times, this is the only picture that the family has of their children. They are so excited to get them! The team has taken and handed out about 50 pictures through mid day on Monday.

On Tuesday, in the Village of Chonux (pronounced Chinush), they were still working hard on screening the homes of the villagers, completing 83 windows on 19 houses. A local villager, named Reggi who accompanied the team gave them a history lesson for South and Central America. He was a teacher, principal and beekeeper, although not necessarily at the same time.

One of their lessons was the history of how the word “gringo” came to be. According to Reggi, it refers to the American troops who wore green uniforms and were taunted with cries of “Green go!” According to another who researched this term, their research says that most sites viewed this idea with a healthy dose of skepticism.

Another site with a question-and-answer column called The Word Detective, offers a more compelling explanation of "gringo" and its origin. The detective says, "The most likely source of 'gringo' is the Spanish word 'gringo' itself, which means 'foreigner' or 'unintelligible gibberish.' The root of 'gringo,' in turn, is thought to have been 'griego,' Spanish for 'Greek,' often applied as slang to any foreigner."

If nothing else, the origin of this word clearly has some controversy.

This team led by Mike Hall, this team includes Bill Cheatham, Todd Morency, Jerry Phillips and Brian Stover.