Oakwood and Victor

When we arrived in Virginia, the main Oakwood (often lovingly referred to as the mothership or Oakhood) was full. With no objections, we were moved to another temporary housing location, which we LOVE.  At the main Oakwood, it's pretty much a given that 99% of the people you meet are there for the same reason you are. The case is different where we live. So unless we walk around in a State Dept shirt or ask every person we meet who they work for (a little peculiar habit without scaring people off), it can be hard to meet other FS families.

During cool weather, we would go to the main Oakwood to play and meet people. It gave us a change of venue and offered a better opportunity to make friends. That carried through until summer, when their pool was warmer than ours, so again we went. Until this week, we hadn't gone over to the main Oakwood for a while. Most of our friends had left for post, and our pool had warmed up. The starvation for information during our first months here had waned or been fulfilled, so the yearning to make friends and get information wasn't the factor it had previously been.

While we enjoyed playing (while trying to avoid construction areas), we did get to see one thing the other Oakwood had which we had very much missed... our good friend Victor.

If you've lived at the main Oakwood, I'm sure you've seen him and maybe shared words. From our first visits in April, he was a friendly face. He took a shine to Ceiba right away. Everytime we see each other, we pause to share words.  My spanish is minimal, as is his english, but we always seem to communicate just fine. He was thrilled to know Ceiba was born in his neighboring Guatemala, and the love for his native El Salvador shines in his eyes. Ceiba lights up to see him and get sweet compliments in spanish. We will miss our "holas" on our visits across town. His warm smile and greetings make our visits all the more enjoyable.