hello.hello.hola.

(our teammates Barry and Karla are traveling in the U.S. right now;  I am watering Karla's lovely garden while she is away  - - this is kind of a risk for Karla, since I have yet to prove myself as a true gardener;  but - - don't worry Karla! so far so good!)

I ran into Manuel last week;  Do you remember Manuel?  he's our garbage guy.
I caught him sitting on the curb down the street pounding away at a faucet.  was he fixing it? I asked.  No, he was just separating the copper from the aluminum because he could get different prices for each one.  Nice.

So I told him that Joshua and I had been talking, and that we wanted to invite him and his family over for dinner sometime so that they could give us their perspective on Mexico - - tell us what they love about their country, and tell us what things he has observed about our neighborhood.

Manuel seemed particularly uncomfortable with my dinner invite, so I quickly backpeddled.
"it's ok!"I told him "you don't need to come if you don't want to! . . . I know that we have only known each other for a little bit;  maybe you feel uncomfortable coming over?"

"No, no!" he told me
"It's just that people of your class don't usually eat with people of my class!" 

I told him that we don't follow those class rules.

Manuel, his wife, and his four daughters are coming over for dinner tomorrow
I'm super excited.