Machismo

So clearly this country has a lot of "machismo" aka male chauvinism aka guys think they're "all that" and can say whatever they want to women.  Ok, not all men, but it is a common theme here. 

Today I was on a mini field trip with my Access students practicing giving directions.  They were giving me directions on how to get to the market, but we actually went to the market, and of course made a few detours here and there.  It was a fun trip.  Well, on the way there, one of my boy students pointed out that some men were hissing at me so I told him a story about one of my guy friends here (another PCV) who likes to wave to the men and say "Adios mi amor" as a joke like he is acknowledging the piropo (catcall) and the men usually get embarrassed because obviously they were not directing their calls to him.  I told my student that he needs to protect his girls while we're walking down the street.  So he said ok and we continued walking. 

A little bit later, a man said something in Spanish toward the group of us girls and my student turns and says (in perfect English) "Hey, shut up stupid!"  Ok, not exactly what I meant, but I couldn't help but laugh!  I guess it's ok here because the guy might not have understood much except for "stupid" and they use the term "shut up" in Spanish fairly often, but hey, he was just protecting his girls and that's alright with me.