Meeting the Neighbors

Today I had an opportunity to meet a few of our neighbors. Although we have lived here a month many people from Barcelona evacuate the city during August so until now our building has been quiet and largely devoid of life. Happily the people I met were kind, helpful and even spoke a little English. Helpful turned out to be the operative word today.

A couple of hours ago I heard a weird buzzing and then Jacob’s voice saying, “Help. Help! Help!! Moooommmm I need help!!!”.  This was a little odd since he had just left to buy bread. I couldn’t find him in the apartment so I went to the apartment hallway and yelled for him.. “Jacob?” He replied, “Mom, I’m stuck in the elevator”. He was right, he was stuck between the 3rd and 4th floors and there was nothing I could do to get him out.

I ran down to the ground floor but our ‘portero’ (doorman) was gone for lunch/siesta. It was 2pm and he was not scheduled to return until 4:30…this is Spain after all.

I then heard motion in the hallway and ran back up to recruit help. I cornered a young woman (Sophia) and explained the situation in my terrible Spanish. She tried to calling the elevator company but couldn’t get a call through. I then heard another person who I chased down. This was Alberto. He was also very helpful. Together Sophia and Alberto found the cell number of the portero and stayed with me and Jacob until help arrived.

Throughout the experience Jacob remained calm. Lily was able to slip his iPod through a crack in the door and he happily laid down on the floor and started playing games.

After about 30 minutes the portero was found. He used his magical key to pry open the doors of the elevator. The elevator was still stuck between floors so Jacob climbed, said “thank you” to his rescuers and headed out to get his baguette. He was very hungry.

I then spent a little more time getting to know Alberto. Turns out he had studied in New York and Milwaukee, and his son had just recently been in Madison. Sophia and I exchanged pleasantries as well before waving goodbye.

I am not happy that Jacob got stuck but I was very pleased to have finally met some neighbors. If we have another emergency maybe somebody will invite us to dinner.