Midwinter, pt. 2

A delightful surprise: today an Ecuadorian came in for tutoring. I helped him with his grammar and then we talked about the Homeland. It turns out, we both cheer for Barcelona Sporting Club, and his family lives in my parents’ neighborhood in Guayaquil.

“Do you like South Bend?” I asked him.

“I do,” he said. “I go everywhere on foot. Compared to Guayaquil, this place feels very safe.”

In South Bend he’s found two other people who’ve lived in Ecuador: another IUSB student (I met her, too, last semester) and, of course, the Pedro.

But the winter displeases him.

It displeases me less and less. As I walked home along the East Bank Trail, the frozen river looked lovely; the trail itself had recently been cleared of snow. And yet I noticed just one other pedestrian. I had the city to myself.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

My Kenyan friend brought food four times last week. Four times! Some of her dishes are elaborate, some are not. One day, she’ll bring over a complicated chicken dinner; another day, a tuna sandwich. I don’t know how to react. Kenny charmed her in Swahili pretty well, but I think he’s out of phrases.