Missing Things

     Santiago is beginning to grow on me. I am going to miss it when we go home. I like the dogs and the crowds and the construction and the buses and the traffic and the hole-in-the-wall shops and the caracoles (type of shopping mall) and waiting for an earthquake (temblor)....
     I will miss our guards and joking with people and everything all locked behind fences, and church meetings where I dont understand anything being said. I will miss living across the street from the temple, and all the missionaries and church employeees we meet and greet....    
     I will miss the little Primary and will wonder how Matteo is doing. I will miss shopping at Lider and the feria and walking and bussing to and from them with our little red cart. I will miss people coming up to us and telling us they are Mormons, too, and prove it with a good Mormon handshake, special glow on their faces, and showing us a peek of their garment....
     I will miss the bus rides, the bus entertainment, feeding the pigeons at the bus stops, people offering their seats to us, balancing when there are no seats as the driver jerks and throws us off balance. I will miss the simplicity of our life and apartment that locks with two keys and the door knog is in the middle of the door....
     I will miss the elevators, especially the one in our apartment building. It cant take more than three people or it will stall between floors and that is claustrophobic, and the mosquitoes that seem to like the elevator...
     And I will miss our little red cart on wheels that has gone everywhere with us every day but Sundays...