We just moved in. We are the only foreigners on our street. Our neighbors keep their distance and watch us a lot. We know we are living in a fish bowl. We would like to introduce ourselves, but when we walk down the street, people go inside and watch out the windows. What are we to do?
Obviously, we messed up somewhere. We are really aware of how much we don't know about the culture and the language. Its so frustrating not to be able to walk up to someone and introduce ourselves. Yes, we are isolated. Yes, its our own fault.
We are particularly annoyed by the children and one of the adults in the house next door up the hill. The children constantly taunt the dogs, running at the fence and poking with sticks. When I tell them to stop, they do, but come back 10 minutes later. The guy in the house has his own subtle method of taunting the dogs when he walks by. We're also pretty sure he's the one who is tagging our garden wall.
We were at our wits end and discussing our problem while out exploring the city when we walked by a bakery and had an idea: let them eat cake. We went in and purchased several cakes. The women in the bakery thought we were a little nuts, but we had a plan.
We went home and put all of the cakes in the fridge, except one. We took that cake and went to visit the house next door down the street. We rang the doorbell. They didn't answer. We rang again. We could hear them discussing us from inside the house, but still they didn't answer. We rang the doorbell again and waited. And waited. And waited. When it was pretty clear we weren't leaving, the eldest son, who is about 12, came out to see what we wanted.
The son speaks English fairly well, so that was a relief. We told him we were his new neighbors. He introduced himself as Jesus and started asking us all kinds of questions, especially about the dogs. Eventually, his mom came out. She is a lovely woman named Beatrice. After awhile, we also met the dad, Enrique. They are a very nice family.
We did so well with that one, we went back upstairs and got another cake. We went to the rest of the houses on the street, introducing ourselves and explaining how glad we were to be in this beautiful city and to be their neighbors. It went pretty well.
We saved our up the hill neighbors for last. With some trepidation, we knocked on the door, cake in hand. The eldest daughter answered the door. We introduced ourselves and forked over the cake. She was quite surprised and explained that no one else was home. She tried to hand the cake back. We insisted she keep it, and smiling, she went inside.
The next day, one of the women from next door stopped by to introduce herself to us and thank us for the cake. We made a little small talk. We couldn't say much, but we all did our best and gestured a lot..
Now when we are outside, our neighbors smile and wave at us. We delightedly wave back with big, goofy grins. The kids still taunt the dogs, but we have made a beginning.
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