Saying no

My roommate, Katie, went to Morocco this weekend. Before she left this weekend, she got a warning from one of her friends:

"Watch out for what they try to sell you there. One of my friends wound up with 12 goats."

Well, as fun as 12 goats would have been, Katie and the rest of her friends only ended up with a rug each. Not just any rug, but one of those rugs you'd stick in your family room. They went into a store with a whole bunch of rugs, were given tea, and then shown the "magic rugs" where if you touch it, you buy it. Hence, the purchases made of around 200 euros each for one of these magic rugs.

Which brings me around to the subject heading: saying no. Saying no in a foreign country, rather. After the marathon mass I went to with my señora (mass was only 35 minutes long), we went out for beers. I knew it was coming, it didn't really bother me by now, but all the same, I said no yet still wound up drinking whatever she put down in front of me. Today I looked up "How to say No and still be cool," one of those teaching guide websites for teachers. These are the steps:

HOW TO SAY NO AND STILL BE COOL
To say "no" and make it stick, try this three-step technique. Ask yourself each of these questions, and then look your friend straight in the eye, and confidently state your position:
1. What's the problem?
Be very specific about what is wrong. Give it a name. Say "that's stealing," or "that's dangerous," or "that's mean."
2. What could happen?
a] Could anyone be harmed by it (including you)? How?
b] Could it get you into any kind of trouble? What trouble?
c] Would it make you feel bad about yourself if you did it?
3. What could we do instead?
If you suggest something else to do, it makes it easier for your friend to go along with you.
If you can't change your friend's mind, walk away, but let your friend know he or she is welcome to join you. Say something like "I'm going to the park. If you change your mind, come on over."

That's pretty cool in America. I'd feel cool saying no like that in the US. The problem is when you're confronted with a woman with only one good eye who keeps on saying"Bebe, bebe" and you're TRYING to say that the problem is that you don't feel like drinking right then, but by the time you get to "what could we do instead" that means that you're trying to use a minimum of 3 verb tenses, and the meaning is a little lost. Also, back to the glass eye, you're trying to look her straight in the good eye, which is inevitably already looking for the waiter to get another beer, while the glass eye deceivingly looks at you as though it can see. The long and short of it is, it's hard to get your point across in the matter of beer, rugs, and goats in a foreign country.