Lego Tower

Big boy

Hey! What happened to my tiny baby? When did he become this big boy?!

In the Village

It was fun to go back to the village and see all the people who we spent so much time with four years ago. I especially love spending time with the children I spent a great deal of my time with. It's crazy how quickly kids grow!

Once we got to the village, we had a pretty relaxing day.

We saw all the changes in the village house, including the new pet bird.

We enjoyed conversations and the breeze while looking at the beautiful view.

Ellie had a great time running around with the other kids.

 And, of course, hospitality in this country always includes food.

The highlight for everyone from the village was meeting Abraham. I think he felt a bit over-loved.

We had many good conversations and were able to catch up on the latest news. The funniest memory for me, though, will be after my head scarf scooted back so some of my hair was showing, one of the girls started looking at my hair. I didn't think anything of it, assuming she was seeing if I put enough oil in my hair since she was the one who taught me how to do it. Then, she said, "I'm going to pull." And all of a sudden I felt one of my hairs pulled out! She had found a gray hair. All the kids laughed. Then they laughed again when I took a picture of the hair because I thought it was so funny!

What a privilege to have close enough relationships to people in this country that they feel like they can pluck my gray hairs!

On the Way to the Village

A couple weeks ago, we went for a visit to the village we lived in while we were learning the language here. We took a bus part of the way, and then a CNG the rest of the way. Even though we reserved the CNG for ourselves, two men hopped in the front to catch free rides with the driver.

At least the four of us had the backseat to ourselves.

Ellie liked looking at everything we passed asking questions.

And Abraham was content sitting on Daddy's lap.
 

We passed interesting sights all along the way...

Farmers in their little fields...

cow dung drying in the sun to be used as fuel for fires that cook food...

paths that go to little village houses...

men taking their afternoon baths in the large ponds...

the school where the young girl we used to live with attended...

 My favorite things to see, though, are the beautiful, green rice fields.

Like Father, Like Son

Hosting Guests

We had some friends over for a meal who had never been over here to eat before. We wanted them to know how glad we were that they came and how special they are to us, so we needed to make lots of food. I had Beli, my househelper, come in the afternoon to help me prepare the food.

It doesn't matter that my kitchen is tiny and has no counter space because most meal preparation is done on the floor here. 

Check out how much garlic went into our food for the night! :) Yum! (This is how you grind spices here.)

On your mark, get set...

....eat!... Well, watch us eat.

A little more than a week before I gave Abraham his first taste of rice cereal, we started having him join us at the table for meals if he was awake. It was funny to watch him stare at the food we were eating as though he wanted it himself. It was nice to be at the table together as a family of four.... with each of us having our own seats. :)