Guests for lunch

Today I invited a young man from church here to meet me for lunch. His name is Reuben, he is 13 years old, and he lived the first eleven years of his life in New York, so he speaks fluent English. He also speaks fluent Spanish, and appears to fit into his peers here pretty well.

Walking home from church last Sunday, he asked me if it was normal for a boy his age to be "beastly hungry" all the time. I reassured him that it was, and invited him to meet me for lunch today at a Chinese restaurant down the street from here at 1:30. Well, 1:30 came and went, and I called his mother, who did not know where he was, so about 2:00 I went on to eat by myself. Then, just as I was finishing up, here came Reuben, with a couple of his friends that he met as he was walking there. I invited them all to sit down and order, as I figured that Reuben wasn't the only hungry one, and they did. Here they all are, eating like this was the first food they had seen in at least 2-3 hours.Reuben is on the right, while Luis [Lucho] is in the middle and Juan [Juancho] is on the left. I asked if either of them spoke English, and they said very little. Most of our conversation was in Spanish, except when Reuben and I spoke in English. They are all well-mannered young men, although I think that they don't have much experience interacting with adults in a social setting. This may have been compounded by language issues. At the same time, at the end of the meal they all thanked me and seemed to have had a good time. I know I did.

It has now been raining for at least 4-5 hours, and we are glad to have it. This is the first real rain we have had in about a month, and we need it badly. On the other hand, there is a leak in the ceiling in the kitchen, just in front of the sink. I will report it to the landlord, but in the meanwhile, a large bowl on the floor contains the water, and we are not troubled by the sound of the drip. And the rain has cut way down on the party noise for tonight.