1. On your birthday in the country that I live in, it is custom to give all of your friends a cake and a present. No wonder no one knows when their birthday is!
2. I am raising a closet drinker. Recently, EB was crawling around the kitchen and crawled over to one of the cabinets she plays in. She pulled out a sippy sup full of water, drank out of it, put it back, and closed the cabinet.
3. I baked a red velvet cake for my friend’s birthday today. It was beautiful and delicious and the most complicated cake I have ever made. She took half of the cake out to the guards to give them some before taking the rest over to some friends. The guards took the whole plate – evidently the misunderstood. Then she came inside and said “Who at the rest of the cake?” Everyone in the house claimed innocence. The only thing we can figure is that the cleaning lady’s son, who comes with her and sits in the kitchen while she works, ate the rest of the cake. What a little rascal!
4. Our crate is coming! We just received an email that says our crate that we packed back in July will actually arrive in country TOMORROW!!! I will keep you updated on the progress of this!
5. Our city has a fabulous Indian Restaurant. It is the best Indian food I have ever had. I have asked DB to take me back there for my birthday date.
6. (Jody – this one is for you) I tried to tell one of our drivers that the city we live in is beautiful, but instead I said it is delicious. (The words are very similar)
7. EB is very ticklish – but only at night. All day you can tickle her silly with no reaction. Thirty minutes before bedtime, she will laugh her head off if you just act like you are going to tickle her.
8. DB has been sick for the past four days. They say you aren’t really doing your job in this part of the world if you don’t get sick much. (Should I feel bad about myself because I haven’t gotten sick yet?) They also say that everytime you get sick you build up more immunities to the junk found in the water and air – so after a year or so you just get used to it all. So here is the interesting thing: When he was sick for three days, I went ot the pharmacy, asked for Cipro, and was give 20 tablets for 2 bucks. No prescription, no doctor around, no examination of the patient – just walked into the pharmacy and walked out with Cipro imported form Germany.
9. For EB’s birthday she received a lot of presents from our national neighbors and friends. Scary presents. Like a teddy bear with red lightbulbs in it’s eyes that flash while he sings Happy Birthday in a freaky, chipmunk like voice. A doll whose clothes are held on with small nails. A doll that appears cute until you squeeze it and then it’s cheeks light up and it screams what sounds like profanity at you. EB loves all of these scary toys. She is no toy snob!
10. While EB loves her babysitter, we are not exactly sure we like leaving her to go to school for four hours everyday. If she is sick, that is a whole day of school that I miss, and with travel to and from school, it ends up being 5 hours a day. EB’s babysitter is wonderful, but I still feel a bit uneasy about the situation. Unfortunately, there are no other language learning opportunities for us at the moment. Please be thinking about this situation and how it can be resolved – either with me feeling better about it, or a teacher to come to our home. This is weighing on my mind, and is something big I am asking you all to be speaking with our Father about.