Friends

Being a friend here, means not only getting to know each other, sharing good and hard times, sharing common interests, but also hosting and being hosted in each other's homes.  That can present quite a difficulty at times for us as some of our friends are a good 30 minutes car ride away and very few of them own a car.

We managed to tackle a few of those hurdles last week and got to have two meals with friends here at our house.  It was fun to share food and conversation.

I was also struck by the fun difference in our neighborhood acquaintances here.  I have to struggle sometimes with my frustration level at needing to stop and talk to everyone even when I'm in a hurry.  In my western world, often the task takes first priority and people around me know and understand that, at least I like to think they do.  Here, people are always first.  As I was hurrying through the streets to find a lost friend trying to get to my house, I had to stop to talk to no less than 6 different groups of people.  It became obvious really quickly that one of them wanted to rattle on for a while.  I quickly said that I'd love to talk to him later, but I was late.  He totally ignored me and continued to rattle on for 5 minutes.  To him, that meant nothing.  An appointment was not important but the person in front of him was. 

I was also laughing at my different life as I walked home from the grocery store loaded down with groceries the other day.  I only had 2 bags but when I added up the weight, it was around 20 lbs.  I'd been out walking all afternoon and was already tired when I went to the store and the day was hot and sticky.  I was late again, imagine that, and I just needed to get home with my goods.  The first offer to walk me home was when I was less than a third of a mile from the house.  I laughed to start with and then realized he really meant to leave the task he was doing and carry my groceries home for me.  "No, no.  Just getting some exercise," I laughed.  After the next offer several houses down, I began to take stock of why everyone figured I needed help.  I looked down and realized that the two plastic bags containing all of my goods was cutting off the circulation and all of my fingers were actually blue by now.  Second, I realized that all sorts of short hairs had escaped my raggedy pony tail and they were sticking out in every direction because of the humidity.  Third, I realized that the heat and sun was probably putting a serious flush on my no makeup face.  All told, 4 people offered to carry home my goods in that last third of the mile and one of them was a sweet old man with no teeth out trimming his boss' hedges.  Note to self, next time, take a taxi! ;)

With love,
Heather