It was my wise and wonderful mother-in-law, of blessed memory, who always said, "Ivan doesn't know a stranger." She said this about Ivan since he was about 2 years old. He would approach anyone who struck his fancy and announce, "Hi, me Iben." And that was it, they were now friends.
Here in Costa Rica, it is pretty much the same thing. He has met and established friendship with the neighborhood kids. After Ivan spent an afternoon playing with these three brothers and the kid across the road from us, they appeared here the following afternoon, and every afternoon since, I might add. This is what I see outside our fence every afternoon. They wait quietly and patiently for Ivan to appear outside and go play with them. Ivan speaks no Spanish and they speak even less English. It doesn't seem to matter to any of them.
They play tag,
marbles, soccer, or rather, futbol, hide and seek, eat popscicles, and talk together. Yes, they talk. Ivan is never quite sure what his friends are saying to him and I am quite sure his friends haven't a clue what Ivan is saying, but it doesn't seem to matter to any of them. I think I could learn a lot from these boys.
Awesome! That is The Quintessential Ivan.
Love that about him. =D
Posted by: Marta | Tuesday, October 09, 2007 at 12:08 AM