Sunny November

November 9, 2006

Thursday night. We forgot to drink our papaya leaf tea last night. Oops. Instead of taking pills for malaria prophylaxis the fam and I drink papaya leaf tea twice a week. Kathleen dries the leaf, then pounds it in a mortar into a powder. It is very bitter, but we add lots of sugar. It sure beats taking a pill. So far, I have not gotten malaria, so, so far so good. I told Kathleen we should market it in Canada. Perhaps it is good for some other disease:)
This evening, before dinner Heather and I took the kids to the beach for a nice dip in the ocean. We stayed almost long enough to watch the sun set. Me be the super cautious aunty wanted to be sure we got home before dark. The water was great, the ocean is always warm here, and the waves weren’t too big, so we could swim around quite well. Then the children attempted to dam the lagoon, unfortunately for them the water was washing away the sand as fast as they could pile it up. I guess it never hurts to try though.
Tomorrow morning we will have kids club. A few weeks ago I got Heather to teach every one how to make paper airplanes. There are 50 children regularly now. It was chaos. Fun, but chaos. It is shocking to me, that children have to be, number one, taught to make a paper airplane, and number two, have difficulty folding a piece of paper in a straight line, and number three, follow fairly basic instructions, like fold the left corner into the middle. It is really hard to imagine, but these kids don’t have the opportunities to do things like make paper airplanes, or use sissors, or colour, and paint. For me it is such a small thing, to go up there, and spend a few hours on my Friday, but I do hope, that they don’t just remember the crazy white lady, singing silly songs, or the colouring, but that they can see love and care of our Heavenly Father through me. Last week there was one small boy, must not be older than 2 years old. “Teacher, Teacher,” he calls me, “I want a pencil”. He sees all the other kids have gotten pencils, now he wants one. This tiny child, in amongs the 5 year olds, and 8 and 10 year olds. Every time I go, I am surprised. At how much fun I have, at how much fun they have, and how, we never have enough time for them to colour.
Last week I had a couple firsts. Got pulled over by the police, for a registration check. That was fine, till the man looks in then tells me it is against the law to drive in flip flops. Oops. How was I to know?? I claimed complete ignorance. He told me, I am going to have to charge you. I say, really?? He tells me I have to go the the station, I tell him I have 3 other children at home who I need to go back to. We were at a bit of an impass when my nephew Josh came to my rescue. He says. She’s sorry, she won’t do it again. He let me go. I tell Josh. “Boy I am glad you came and not Heather, can you imagine how it would have gone if there had been two of us foreigners in the vehical?” Okay, I actually said white women. We like to think colour doesn’t make a difference, but it does. It generally makes the price go up.
I also watched James gut a chicken for the first time. I am pretty sure I could do it in a pinch. I’m ready for survivor:) Well I hope everyone is enjoying November thus far. Here, it is hot, and humid, nothing like November that I know.