Dear Readers,
Firstly, I'm so sorry you haven't heard from me in forever. Somehow over the summer this website wouldn't let me post anything. It seems to be working again so Let me start my catch - up with a story from back in May ....
The thing about concrete block buildings is you never hear your next-door neighbors. You do, however, hear your upstairs, downstairs, and diagonally situated ones. Sometimes even from two floors away (we’ve had a neighbor complain about loud noises from my boss’ apartment...when they weren’t even home).
My upstairs neighbors are a young couple, I’ll call them Lisa* and Luke,* who speak very good English and have a one-year old daughter, Ana*. Ana likes to play with a plastic ball on the floor. I know this because every time she throws the ball, I hear the tap-tap-tap across my ceiling as it bounces away. I think it’s cute.
I first met Luke last year when there was a water leak between my apartment and the one below mine. I wrote more about this in my blog post “Just Roll with It”. Luke had come down because he knew about the issue (as it was a building-wide problem with the plumbing) and showed my landlord how to fix it. Later in the summer I bumped into Lisa in the elevator. Ever since then, I’ve seen these neighbors around, but haven’t really interacted with them much.
Then Monday happened.
It was 9pm and I was sitting on my couch reading the last chapter of a book, when I heard the tune of “Happy Birthday” through the ceiling. That, and a lot more feet than usual. I really felt the Spirit prompting me to send a text message (I have both of their numbers) and ask whose birthday it was. Honestly, I didn’t really want to, because I knew that I was about to be invited to join the celebration. But I did finally send Lisa a message, found out it was her birthday, and sure enough was invited to come up.
Now, it’s bad form to show up somewhere without at least some sort of contribution, so, I frantically looked around my kitchen. I finally settled on giving her some of the German candy I had brought back from my last trip. Then I went upstairs.
It turns out it was mostly family there, Lisa’s mother and brother, his wife, Luke’s brother and his kids, etc. Most of them spoke English, and Lisa’s English is really excellent, so I didn’t have to practice the local language much.
I sat there eating, talking, laughing and learning for an hour and a half. At the end of which we agreed that sometime soon I’d have them over for dinner.
Since that first evening, I’ve had Lisa and Luke over twice, once for chili and once for peach cobbler. I’ve also gone up and enjoyed dinner with them a couple of times. Most recently after my trip out east, because they wanted to see my pictures. I took some Reese’s pieces with me that time.
Now, thanks to a recent visitor, I have York Peppermint Patties, Double Stuffed Oreos, and Gold Fish to introduce them to. With the fall weather and apple season, I might even make an apple crisp to share. Are you hungry yet?