Community Love

Slowly we’re becoming a part of the community here, not just a part of la JEM. We spend a lot of time with one single mother, Maura, and her family. They all have the best smiles, contagious loving smiles that’ll warm your soul. Even the grandpa, who never leaves the house, lights up like a firefly in the night, flashing his dental implants and making us feel giddy. We laugh and talk about simple things, share our differences and bring each other treats. They come with canned peaches and coffee, and we bring over our lentil soup for them to taste. Instead of staring at us like we’re aliens, the kids hang on our shoulders and tickle our sides, helping us with our Spanish and putting their dimples to good use. It’s a magical experience; it almost feels like home.

This feeling has extended itself outside of San Pablo, too. Saturday night we stayed in Linda Vista since I was working close-by, and so we went to visit a family we’ve stayed with before. On our way we were invited into the house of another family we know, and there we all exchanged thoughts on health, money, politics, and recipes while chowing down on Connecticut-quality apples, buttery avocados, and tomato salsa. They were elated to have us in their home and we felt honored to be there. Again, the smiles filled us with happiness and we went onto to our final destination where again we ate dinner and happily responded curious questions about ourselves. We went to bed and woke up satisfied, content, loved. We’ve stayed at many houses and conversed with lots of people, but somehow now it seems different, more open, more real, more like family.