We are so grateful to our landlord, Gaston, for hiring out the construction of our new security wall in front of the house. Our house was the only house in the area without such security and we felt that in order to rent to future students they should build one. It is almost finished and will have lighting and a video intercom/doorbell. The kids will now be able to play in the front yard and I will not have anymore solicitors knocking on my bedroom window. (this actually happened a month ago)
The builders compared living here in San Jose as living in prison only you have the key... he was joking, however it does take some getting used to. We call it living in bird cages, as all the houses are caged in. In addition to the new wall in front, we have bars on all our windows, iron gates with padlocks in front of every door and a high wall surrounding our back yard. And to think that just 8 months ago I left the keys in my car in my driveway each night!
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In Papua New Guinea, some people said that a family's economic status could be determined by "how much razor wire surrounded the home, how high the fences were, and how many dogs were in the yard".
I didn't call it economic wealth so much as the security needed to stay alive when some people perceived us to be wealthier than we were.
The challenge was, and continues to be, how to maintain relationships with those outside the razor wire once I got used to the comfort of being inside. It's much easier to reach out to people when there's no fence sequestering you.
Kind of a metaphor for our Christian life, isn't it...
Keep on breaching the fence!
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