Vecinos

     When I came to this house about three years ago, I met my neighbors Jamili, Miguel and Jorge. At first I only played with Jamili because she was the only girl. All we played was school and house, school and house. I really had no idea, at the time, what she was trying to say to me, so I just went along with what she showed me to do. After a while I started to understand her and she started to understand what I was trying tell her. That’s when I started to play with the other kids. We built clubhouses, made mud cakes, planted pretend gardens, and played soccer. One time we found an old Christmas tree in the vacant lot down the street and we spent a whole day making ornaments and decorating the tree for our clubhouse. Every spare minute that we had, we spent together playing. Jamili and Miguel come to church with our family almost every Sunday.
     Jamili’s family is not the richest family in Mexico, but they aren’t poorest either. Both her parents work so they can live in their very small house. They can’t afford to play sports or go to private school. Jamili’s mom works as a housekeeper at the Rosarito Beach Hotel; that’s why their hair always smells like hotel shampoo. When I play with them, I don’t worry about how I look, talk or act. Most of the time we are all barefoot and I feel like I can just be myself, act silly, and be goofy. Sometimes though I feel like I have to be careful when bringing her in our house with the things I show her, because I don’t want to make her feel like her house and her life is not as nice as mine. It is so easy to have fun with them, we just play and have fun.
     Today we had a good-bye party for our family since us kids are heading across the border tomorrow while my parents move our stuff to the Baby Home. We did what we usually do: play games, have fun, eat, and spend lots of time together. Jamili’s mom made tacos and my mom made a cake. We made posters and hung them all over the house. Everybody made cards for everybody else. We played this game where we tie a balloon to our ankles and we have to run around and try to pop the other people’s balloons. I was the first one to lose of course. That was super fun. The whole time I had Spanish worship music playing just trying to make a last impression on them. We also had a water balloon toss and everybody lost at the same time.
     I’m really going to miss this house, this neighborhood, and especially our neighbors. Mom says that we will still come by on Sundays to pick-up Jamili and Miguel for church, but it will never be the same. In Mexico when you move 15 minutes away it’s like you are moving to another world. We won’t see them everyday and I won’t wake-up to the sound of them banging on my gate to come out and play. We could come get them and bring them over to our new house, but it will never feel right because everything is so nice and new looking. This house was really perfect for us. I’m going to miss it because I’m going to miss my life that came with it.
     PS - If you are viewing this post by email, you will have to go to the blog to see the photos.