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I supposed I feel at home here, because I feel at home with the heart of the people here.  I can´t seem to sing the praises of my friends here enough.  I have so much to learn from them!

I wish I could introduce you to the heart of these people … their heart is what I love most of all here.  They often ask me about the States.  They want to know if it is beautiful and they want to know what makes us, Americans, tick.  I attempt to describe the protestant work ethic which drives our commerce.  I talk about the importance of liberty and freedom to our culture and the struggle between fairness and justice which permeated out lives.  I talk about my sadness over the sense of entitlement I see in my generation.  I talk about our spirit of entrepreneurship and of southern hospitality.  This is what I mean by heart.  These are the ideals which I see in the heart of my American friends, the best parts, the parts we mustn’t lose (or which we must strive to overcome in the instance of the sense of entitlement).

But I can´t yet describe the heart of the catracho, because I am still discovering it.  I can’t describe it, because in many ways my friends here are as different as the three pictured below.  I would like to describe to you in the coming few posts some little parts which I have discovered in the hearts of my neighbors … humility, generosity, dignity, hospitality and charity.