This evening when I was looking forward to a relaxing night at home the fire alarm went off. I was ready to just stay in my apartment because I was ready for bed and now I had to change my clothes. When my wife and I got to the back of the building there was only two families outside and they were both from our floor. I was thinking, “Aw, man. Why didn’t we just stay chilling at home?”
It was good we didn’t. I got to spend about an hour talking to our next door neighbors about life here in America and what life was like for them in Bolivia. It is interesting to see the differences in culture in one country. My neighbor says that he and his wife are very different even though they are both from Bolivia. He is from the high mountains where it is cold and people are very serious and she is from the hot region where people like to party. He says their cultural differences are sometimes very difficult to navigate in their relationship. So much for the bi-racial marriage.
My neighbor used to be a big time banker in Bolivia and when the an economic crisis hit the banks hit rock bottom. He now works as a parking valet. It is nothing like he was used to. He said he used to go into the office when he wanted to and now he has a boss that is very demanding. He is trying to learn English to get a better job to provide for his family. He said that in his country life was different. He said here time seems to move much faster and there is hardly any time to be with family. He used to eat lunch and dinner with his whole family and here he only has Sundays off to be with his family. He and his wife work hard. They opened up their lives as if Lisa and I were their only friends. The told us about their hard times and their good times. My Spanish isn’t all that great, but I didn’t really need to use it b/c they were doing all the talking. At the end of the night Lisa and I felt very fortunate to be able to get to know our neighbors a little better. We want to invite them over to have some Arabic food. They also want to have us over for some Bolivian food.
