A number of times when I've been in the countryside in Bolivia, I've quite naturally been asked where I'm from. I'm very often completely bemused by people's responses when I tell them that I am from England.
When asked the question by a teenager in the village of Amarete once, the conversation went something like this:
Teenager: Where are you from?
Me: I'm from England
Teenager: But which country are you from?
Me (bemused): I'm from England
Teenager: Yes, but which country are you from?
Me (becoming more bemused): I'm from Europe.
At a wedding party, again in Amarete, a middle-aged man got talking to me. The exchange was more or less as follows:
Middle-aged man: Where are you from?
Me: England
Middle-aged man (in all seriousness): England? That must be another planet, right?
Me (slightly shocked): No... not another planet, just a different continent
The man next to him clearly had more geographical awareness and explained to him more or less where England was.
More recently another conversation (between me and a Kallawaya - a traditional doctor) went something like this:
Kallawaya: Where are you from?
Me: I'm from England
Kallawaya: So you're American
Me: No, I'm from England.
In this case the Kallawaya seemed more bemused than me (I've become used to the fact that people don't know where England is), because he clearly thought that England was located in North America.
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