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2/21/01 6 PM

Yesterday I went to Lily’s host parents for dinner. They have a modest clean house that reminded me of smaller houses in San Francisco. Each house is attached to the neighboring house. Martin and I shared a couple of Coronitas and discussed how the children are doing. Martin studied English many years ago in high school. His English was very broken and hesitant when we first met but has improved markedly in the 2 weeks he’s practiced with Lily. Lily’s Spanish is much better than when she first came. I heard a lot of it as she would help translate between her family and me. I’m impressed.

Lily’s host mother Jilda made a very nice dinner of flattened steaks with a lot of seasoning, potatoes, beans, salad and queso. It hit the spot. Lily was eating pretty well while she was here. Later we went up on their roof to check out the view. We could see the Cathedral not too far away. Lily and the kids played Nintendo games on the TV.

Lily was lucky to have such a fine family to take care of her. Or maybe luck had nothing to do with it. Erika had done a remarkable job searching for and screening host parents. She tried very hard to find good matches and in our case and the others she succeeded. Thank you very much Erika. I hope we can do as good a job for the Mexican kids coming up to stay with us.

I took some digital photos of everyone and used the software and cable I got yesterday to move the photos on to my computer then on to theirs. They do not have an Internet connection.

By prior arrangement Erika came to pick me up and take me to her house so I could use her cable internet connection. They have a very impressive home with beautiful furniture. Her mother showed me some archeological artifacts that she bought for a song from a vendor she encountered in her many travels. I could not believe the things that were on her coffee table. They belonged in a museum. I took photos of these as well. She showed me lots of jewelry she had collected while traveling in Mexico. She really could start a museum.

I was able to download Cute FTP and upload the 21 MB of photos in about 10 minutes using their cable connection. Pretty cool. I have cable envy.

We picked up the kids today at the school and said our goodbyes to the hosts families. Many of the Mexican children were crying. Out kids were sad to go but also anxious to get home to see their families. The host kids are losing their guests they have grown close to and they are already home so their loss is unmitigated.

Our 11 and 12 year old kids did something very brave and special these two weeks. No doubt they will always remember the experience and their generous host families. I hope you all remember their courage and respect the growth in their character when we return. We all have much to be proud of.

We will be leaving the hotel at 2:30 AM (12;30 PST) to go to the airport. We then face about a 6 hour flight with a stop at Guadalajara. I’m sure we’ll all be tired but glad to see our families.

I’m going to write more on the airplane if I’m not asleep. Hopefully I’ll also be able to transpose Lily’s journal entries and annotate the pictures I sent. We’ll see.