After 2 weeks
of travel we were standing at our front door exhausted and locked
out. We had gotten up at 4:45am that morning in order to make
it to the airport on time. At the end of our trip, with the taxi
driver was driving away, we realized that we didn't have our house
keys. Nahum, who had been house-sitting for us, wasn't there.
me
waiting in front of our house
Annette offered
to go over to the Casasola's house - just a block and a half away
- and get a copy of our keys that they have. As she turned the
corner at the end of our little block, Carmela and Daniela's heads
popped out of the "snacks and smoothies" store they
own. They are friends who have recently begun to come to church.
They knew we'd been away, so when Annette walked by they realized
we'd returned.
I
waved and they walked down to great me… leaving their store
unattended. We did the traditional Mexican air-kiss thing and
then I told them that we were locked out. Daniela said she thought
Benja, our animation artist, was at the basketball court the end
of the street. She said, "Doesn't he have keys to your house?"
She was right. I looked down to that end of the street and there
was Benja and 4 other youth group kids filming something as part
of a youth group activity. I called out to him and he and the
others turned waving enthusiastically and welcoming me home. Sure
enough Benja pulled a copy of our house keys out of his pocket.
click the photo
to see a satellite
image of our neighborhood (our white car is even visible)
I was pulling
the suitcases into the house when Annette arrived with the set
of keys she'd gotten from the Casasolas. She'd taken a bit longer
than the block and half trip would normally take so I asked her
what took so long.
"Well,
you know how Alfredo and Ruth are, you can't just say 'hola,
give me the keys' and then leave. So we chatted a
while. They sent their greetings to you."
I was telling
her how I got in the house when Emanuel walked by on his way to
the filming at the end of the street. He hugged us and welcomed
us home. Carmela, the "snacks and smoothies" lady, dropped
by again to invite us to her place for pozole (a traditional and
delicious hominy corn soup).
our
local Fruit & Vegetable stand at night
(they also sell flowers and pork rinds)
After we semi-unpacked,
we headed over to Carmela's little 10'x10' restaurant where we
ended up sharing the only table in the place with Carmela's whole
family and 3 of the youth group kids. I looked out the door of
her place able to see the "corner store", the bakery,
the fruit and vegetable place, the two butcher shops, the ice
cream store, the park and our barbershop. It was good to be home.
Tim