In the assimilation article, I mentioned "not blinking when a gun is fired in front of your house." This is an area in which I have failed to assimilate yet.
For a few weeks, we were hearing gunshots, very close gunshots, nightly. At first it was making a nervous wreck out of me. After a while, I would just bring the dogs inside, try to go on with what I was doing, and ignore it. Not that it wasn't scaring me. It was more like when you hide your head under the covers, thinking the bogeyman won't find you there.
Finally, on the verge of a nervous breakdown and thinking that it must be the guard at the construction near us shooting at raccoons or something, I asked (demanded) that El Jefe go talk to him. He did and was told that it was some well-to-do teens who visit another guard at another construction and enjoy shooting their dad's gun around the colonia. The guard didn't like it either.
Moving down the road, El Jefe let the other guard know that it wasn't acceptable behavior. He also told him that when I'm home alone, I get very nervous hearing gunshots and that I might just shoot one of them by mistake thinking they were ladrones (robbers). "You know how women are."
El Jefe planned also to go talk to the teens parents the next day, but guess what? After learning that their own lives might be in danger from an unstable gringa with a gun, they haven't been back since.
I knew that a logical response of "This is dangerous. Someone could be killed or property could be damaged." would be met only with assurances that they are very careful, or don't worry, we only shoot up in the air, or "You can't tell us what to do." So the illogical response of "She might shoot back" seemed to work very well.
Welcome to my Blogicito — 
