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a meeting in town. She dressed up smartly and patiently waited until one of
the frequent rain showers ended before proceeding to pedal her way from our
house to town using a dirt road shortcut through the jungle between the
dairy farm and the women’s dorm. Unfortunately, she hit a hole in the road
that was deeper than she anticipated and she was sent sprawling. She
found herself splattered with red-clay mud! Undaunted, she returned back
home, changed clothes and met her appointment.

In the latter part of the year we moved, my mother was again pregnant. It
was close to delivery day when we gathered in the family study to discuss
the possible gender of the newborn-to-be. Edda said, “I would like a girl.” My
mother followed with, “I would like a boy!” I blurted out, “I would like an
airplane!” In retrospect, I can now see how predictive that was of my later
behavior. I did not quite know what everyone was talking about, but I had to
share my two-cents-worth. As usual, my comments were off the mark.
Later, I would learn to carefully husband my thoughts and speak only if I
really knew what was going on. Most of the time, this meant I would not
speak at all! However, that was not such a bad strategy; people began to
assume I was simply very wise.

Elaine arrived in January. .A few days before she was born, Edda and I had
our first unforgettable encounter with Santa Claus. I had heard all the Santa
stories: the sleigh, the reindeer, the rooftop, the chimney, red suit and all that.
However, to tell you the truth, I was a bit skeptical.

That Christmas Eve we were at the dinner table when someone heard a
noise on the roof. Edda and I dashed out through the front door to look, but
we could not see anything on the roof. We went back into the living room
and, lo and behold, there was Santa in his red suit, beard and everything!
Now, that really floored me! We had not seen any reindeer on the roof and
did not have a chimney, so we were mystified as to how he managed to get
into the house! Santa bellowed out “Ho, Ho, Ho” for a while and then started
handing out presents. He wanted me to come to him and receive my
present, but I was not about to get close to him! I never did warm up to
Santa on that Christmas. Nevertheless, that baffling encounter with Santa
made a real believer out of me!

Edda and I have faint recollections of our life on the chicken farm, but most
of our experiences at Veve Cottage are still in our long-term memories to this
date. It was here that we first recognized that we could speak both Spanish

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