Love your neighbor? UPDATE

This morning Francisco, our Head of Programming, comes into my office and says, "Leslie. Tell me about your Portuguese neighbors." I was obviously curious, so I asked why he wanted to know about my neighbors. He had just received a phone call from the university where they teach, requesting that we hook them up to our generator and water supply permanently. Did they offer any money? Compensation? No- they asked under the guise of being good neighbors and helping out the poor professors.

I told him the story, and then Sergey, my coworker and upstairs neighbor came in with tales of more abuse. His wife, Stella, is one of the sweetest, kindest people I have ever met, so it didn't surprise me to hear Sergey say that she would lend the maid sugar upon occasion. But when it started happening every day, Stella stopped lending, realizing that she was being taken advantage of. The crazy maid, of course, reacted by calling Stella selfish and rude.

After hearing the stories, Francisco called the university and told them that because of un-neighborly behavior on their part, we would not provide any services to them and that they should pay for services themselves. What a novel concept!