Day 20

Whew, made it thru another weekend. There aren’t a lot of ‘planned’ activities for the kids over weekends so we need to become more creative. We decide to do a walking tour of the town. Our first on foot visit and it actually reminded me of New York, lots of people milling about, crowded sidewalks, jay walkers, lots of street vendors side by side selling exactly the same cell phone accessory thingey or whatever. I felt right at home.

We bought our lunch from an excellent bakery and walked. Most stores look like they are hardware stores from the front, and most of them are hardware stores but we also found electronics stores, book stores (a lot of them for such a small town) even a music store of sorts, max was really interested in that store of course. Found the local barber and I had my first haircut here. The barber came from India 20 years ago, gave me one of the best haircuts I have ever had. He even includes a sort of massage at the end, he leans you over and slaps the crap out of your back a few minutes…..

On Sunday Kayla went to the Kubuye market [see a previous post to learn more about Kubuye market] with a friend. She was pick-pocketed, luckily she only lost about $10 usd but it shook her up a little. She said she didn’t feel a thing. She also stopped by a new mall on the way home. Apparenetly there is a new gym there that she says in equally as nice as the Decatur YMCA in Atlanta, go figure….

So if you are reading this it’s because I have found a way to upload it. The Internet has been down for two days in a row, mirowave to the house struck by lightning, plus the power went out on Friday, all day, plus they turn the water off during the day to ration water because of the drought situation. Geez.

We are still living with only what we brought with us on the plane. Yes, we brought a lot of stuff with us but now I am glad we did. On one hand it shows you just how little you really need to get through the day, on the other hand I want my stuff already!! I’m starting to become bored in paradise, I need some of my toys. And I know the kids want some of their toys too. It turned out to be a huge blunder when I lost that DVD player, it would really have come in handy. Although I think I can borrow a VCR and hopefully they have some tapes to go with it.

Today is my birthday. It’s been an especially quiet one. Kayla had the car today so I was sort of stuck. I walked the kids to school; Max wanted to know if I was going to have my birthday at his school with cake and ice cream and presents. I said I didn’t think so, he leaned over gave me a big kiss and said that was my birthday kiss. Just when I want to send him to the Moon for a while he does something like that and gets me all choked up. Anyway, after walking the kids to school I return home and read most of the Sunday New York Times, took a nap, then picked up the kids at noon, went to the pool with Max for an hour, the kids then took naps, finally, Kayla came home we went out to eat at THE Chinese restaurant in town which turns out to be fairly respectable.

The kids are still really needy. They want to be carried and held all the time, they become jealous of each other now and really compete for attention. So you hold one of them while the other lies on the ground crying. It’s exhausting.