Blind Faith and Security

Katherine and I are waiting to cross the street to get massages today after school. We wait and wait for an opening to merge with the motorbikes. Sometimes it just takes faith, like I said, and sometimes, maybe on a Friday afternoon after a loooooong week at work, you just aren't as up for playing Frogger as usual. So we're waiting and waiting when we notice a man crossing from the other side. He's got one arm straight up and he's tapping a cane back and forth with the other--back and forth. He does not hesitate one bit. While Katherine and I wait, a blind man has crossed the road. Ponder that.

And this: our PE teacher from Ecuador named Daniel, who moonlights as a manager of La Cantina - a Mexican restaurant/salsa (as in dance) bar, sends an email out about celebrating Mexican Independence Day there, so K and I decide to go straight from massages/pedicures to the party. We order tacos and margaritas.

You know how some things just create a special secure spot in your mind, so that even when you have taken a crazy teaching job in Vietnam and every day something bizzarre happens-- like maybe a kid puts a snake in his nose and it come out his mouth and you just don't know what to do with that--so at those moments you can go to that special secure place and your whole world feels right again? Well, the tacos...the tacos. They make their own tortillas. They make fresh salsa. They roast pork for carnitas. They serve them with lime wedges. We are in heaven... I have to say: they are better than the taco bus tacos (but not cheaper). K and I decide we will go once per week; it will be my special secure spot, whether I am there physically eating the tacos, or in my mind, just knowing that I can go there and eat the tacos.

And as for Daniel, that Ecuadorian can salsa! We did not come dressed for dancing, but next time, he says, he will give us lessons. I work with some interesting people. They are all coming over tomorrow. We have a very long to-do list, so I think I will sleep now...