Monday, September 2

When Janie and Dan were here and we were visiting with Jose and Hans, we talked a little about making chili and eating Tex-Mex food. We wanted to have Jose and Hans over to show our appreciation for the nice things they had done for  us so we made tacos and a pot of chili and some rice and they came over for lunch. As I said yesterday, we already made the chili and played around with the spices. We were afraid of making it too hot, but I think it came out all right.

We sat at the table and talked and explained how to eat a taco and that it was alright for you to make a mess and eat with your hands. All very American. They ate everything we gave them and I went into the kitchen and filled several more tacos for Jose and me. We always have a wide-ranging discussion with them. In fact, that is true for the other two sets of neighbors. We asked them where they kept their poor people in this country. We don't see any evidence of them except in Amsterdam. They told us that 10% of the population is under the poverty line. That seemed alarming but, I don't know what our percentage is in the States. There must be public housing around someplace. They told us that the poor people are embarrassed that they cannot afford to go on vacations or enroll their children in sports so they keep a low profile. There are recycle bins for clothes (textiles) and the sign looks like our Goodwill signs. These bins are next to the other recycle bins for plastics, glass, plastic, etc. However, we think that Soest and Baarn are very affluent towns, so its not a good place to look for the poor.

After they left, we cleaned up and I mowed the lawn for the last time. Linda put in some wash so we wouldn't arrive home with a bunch of dirty clothes. (Isn't this interesting stuff?).

Tomorrow we will have Peter, Liesbeth, and the kids over for the same food.

Wednesday we fly to London for an overnight layover. The adventure is almost over. How time flies. But, that's the way it always feels at the end of a trip.