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Give papaya

Author: Lars Brink

Don’t let people take advantage of you!

In the cultural opinion of Peter he mentions shortly the rule of Papaya. I would however say that it goes a little deeper than do not wear a miniskirt as Peter writes.

First time my good friend Alfredo - a good Colombian - told me about the papaya rule I didn’t really believe him. That was because he told me before I tried to live here in Colombia for a longer time. After living here I can see that the papaya rule is alive and well and something that the Colombians live by without even thinking about it.

Two simple sentences

The papaya rule consists of two simple sentences but underneath these lie a lot of interpretations. First let's take a look at the rules:

Rule number one: You cannot give papaya to anyone! Rule number two: If you see papaya you have to take it! These are the rules as simple as they look. But lets take a closer look at the two.

First of all the word papaya is not the main thing in the sentence. It could have been any fruit or any other object for that matter. I’m not really sure why it was papaya and not something else that was chosen, but no importa as we say.

Papaya in this context means more or less everything and even situations!

You should not do anything that lets other people take advantage of you. Here we are back with the miniskirt. If you are a girl and you wear a short skirt you are giving papaya to all the guys who look at your legs! Don’t leave your house without locking the door, don’t park your nice car in the center of town at night and don’t leave your wallet unattended.

Why not? - because you are giving papaya!

These are a few examples of more or less material things, but the rule also applies to things that you say or do. If you tell your friends that you did some really stupid thing the other day and they laugh at you for the rest of your life it is your own fault. You gave them papaya, and according to rule number one you cannot give papaya.

Well you can then say that the friends who laugh at you are not really good friends, but that is not true. They are your best friends and will stay your best friends even after that.

Here we get down to rule number two. It clearly states that if you are telling your friends that you did something stupid they HAVE to make fun of you. They simply have no choice other than do so. If not – they will break the second papaya rule.

Park your car in Denmark!

In Denmark where I come from we can easily park our car anywhere, we can leave the house without locking the doors. Why is that? Well in Denmark very few people know about the papaya rule. Only the people that Alfredo told about it know the rule.

So why is Colombia unsafe?

There is no clear answer. The drugs, the guerrillas or is part of the explanation that deep inside they really live by this papaya rule??? I don’t know, but daily you will see examples and you will be able to point to things or situations that are examples of use of the papaya rule.

In Denmark we have a set of 10 rules called the Jante Lov as well, but that is a whole other story...

By Peter (Moderator) (Trustee board) (Dev team) on Sep 11, 2000, 13:29 in Friendly Talkzone.

Peter (Moderator) (Trustee board) (Dev team) (☼Travelguide writer) says on Nov 11, 2003, 13:30:

chibchas gave papaya to the spaniards
spaniards took the papaya to Spain,
the english, french and dutch bucaneers wanted the papaya,
the spaniards lost the papaya to Bolivar and associates,
New Granada became la Gran Papaya Gran Colombia,
papaya for everybody,
Gran Colombia gave papaya to Uncle Sam,
Uncle Sam can't live without papaya,
Europeans love papaya,
we are still fighting over papaya,
make sure not to give papaya to anybody you don't know,
papaya, where are you now that I am lost in the first world?

Poor but snappy

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Peter (Moderator) (Trustee board) (Dev team) (☼Travelguide writer) says on Nov 27, 2003, 14:41:

Sol y Luna wants papaya
There are papaya hunters around and it is difficult not to give them the fruit.

My experience lived in the motel SOL Y LUNA , Medellin, Colombia.

(Motel is a Colombian word for a place to rent a room for 3-6 hours. For making love mainly. Some of them are basic and other luxurious)

There are many papaya hunters in Medellin, but the SOL Y LUNA is probably the most pushy in its price category (high enough in Colombian standard I should say).

The hunting is going on 24 hours a day everywhere in Medellin. The taxi driver gives you a Paso de courtesies which assures you to get a discount in the SOL Y LUNA. If you believe you almost give papaya but it is still yours. The papaya is gone when your are inside.

1. If you know papaya rules you phone to the receptionist to make this discount business clear and it turns out to be just a trick. No discount at all. But you are already in. If you phone from somewhere outside the information will be different.
2. The sauna is warm but not hot. How can you know it before put the heater on and wait for at least 30 minutes?
3. The turco is chilly. The same comment.
4. Any device can be found out of order. Probably it does not sound very important for you, but for instance a fan which is out of order can present a problem for woman with her hair long and wet.
5. The behavior of the employees in this particular case was very nice. They say they know that the fan is out of order and they do not have another fan in the SOL Y LUNA.
Anyway they will charge the overall price .

SOL Y LUNA has papaya!!

References:

Place: Motel SOL Y LUNA Medellín, Colombia
Date: 26.11.2003
Time: 14.20 -18.20
Room : 21 special
Receptionist : Tatiana

Poor but snappy

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LoboAmargo says on Jun 26, 2005, 10:04:

Dar Papaya So, at first, i lived in Colombia for about a Year.
The two sentences you mentioned are:
"No dar Papaya" = Don't give Papaya
"a papaya dada - papaya partida" = At given Papaya - splitted papaya

Like you already said, dar papaya means: Give the possibility to cheat you("dar papaya").I've you give the possibility, don't wonder if you get cheated ("a papaya dada - papaya partida"). This has nothing to do with a higher criminal potential - its more a cultural thing. Just look apon your things!!!

A difference is - You are in an Discothek in (for example)Germany and you are there with a bunch of guys you know a few days. If you go to the toilet and you collect all your personal stuff like your wallet your mobile..., they could get pissed, because they see that you don't trust them. In Colombia nobody would get pissed, because its normal to look apon your things. No matter in who you trust or not.

Following i would like to give a few examples more for give papaya.
- Carry stuff with you that worth more than 2 Monthsalary of an worker (about 300 Dollar)
- wear a wallet in your trousers so everybody can see it.
- leave your bycicle without locking it
- (sometimes) speak english
...

All in All, don't be stupid!!!

Viva Colombia

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Lucia Rojas says on Jul 25, 2005, 07:30:

papaya partida Maybe you are right... The deeply inbredded papaya rule is why colobia is such a weird place...somehow you are always expecting the worst from people... and that distrusts does build a strange atmosphere... and it ends up being a survival tool... We dont realize it, because thats the way we have always lived... but it is crazy

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Alout says on Aug 26, 2005, 14:42:

papaya and malicia indigena I guess the culture of the "malicia indigena" has also to do with these papaya rules. This smartness that colombians feel are innate in their DNA consists of taking as much papaya as possible. So if there are two ways of doing something but if you are taking papaya one way then is better because you feel that you have outsmarted somebody else.

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camilo torres says on Jul 15, 2006, 02:29:

It is true i am colombian, and it is realy funy wen a i went to denmark, and see a bunch of bicycle all over the place, the first thing i say was,it is Incredible that no body rob this bicycle.

all the colombians have this exeptional sence of "malicia indigena" (the best way of taking advantage of some body), but that is how we grow up, it is very hard to change that. but the important thing is to be smart don't give papaya, and always ask before you go to some were in bogota, it is realy big.

it is not that danger like the people think, i have live in bogota 6 years and nobody had robbed me.

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cuidate says on Mar 11, 2007, 18:03:

Papaya has a very different meaning in Cuba Perhaps the reason the reason "Papaya" was chosen for this expression is explained by how it is used in Cuba.

In Cuba, the fruit is never referred to as Papaya. It is always called "fruta de bomba". Certainly it's because it is shaped like a bomb, but more importantly, the word Papaya is always used to refer to the female genitalia. If you ask for "papaya" at an agro mercado the people within earshot will laugh their collective asses off.

I wondered for a long time why a fruit shaped like a bomb came to be so firmly identified with female genitalia since they clearly bore no ne similarities to each other.

When I asked him about it, my cuban friend said, simply...............slice it open.

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