My Friend, My Driver

Every afternoon I have a driver take me home after school. My driver speaks very little English, but the English he does know, well, he likes to say it to me. And then gets excited about the words he knows and ends every sentence with loud cackling laughter. I can't help but join him.

He points. "Butterfly! Flower!" Cackle. 

He opens the car door for me. "Please?" 

One day he wants to try out a conversation. "America,  lots of Mexicans?"

Yes, yes we have many from Mexico who come to our country, I reply. 

"Mexican, crim-i-nal?" 

Um not everyone, but I'm sure some. 

Cackle. 

Every Friday I have talked him into stopping to get me a slushie. He says, "slushieee? America?"

Yes, slushie. Yes, I love America. Let's pretend we are in America and eat slushies. 

Cackle.  

Today he says, "See yooo leeeter."

So today I decide to enhance his life a little and teach him English with a southern accent. 

It's see you layder. LAY-DER. LAYDER. 

Not only do I have the joy of teaching him southern style English, but I also get to ride a roller coaster...  Every. Single. Day. And think nice thoughts so I don't vomit all over his backseat. We go fast then bam. Screeeeech. Break. Swerve to miss a pedestrian.  Repeat for 40 more minutes. 

Meanwhile I slightly crack open the window to allow fresh air to calm my ever rising stomach. Breeeeathe. Never mind. That's worse. Exhaust, gas, and other pollutants in the air. So I do what any normal person would do. I bury my senses in skittles and m&ms. 

Or a slushie on Friday. Glory. Tomorrow is Friday. 

We have this unspoken deal. He helps me with "hello" in Russian (every day, and I still can't get it) and I teach him southern style English. He doesn't really know that I'm helping him, but I'm here to serve so I don't mind.

                                                     MY CARSICK MEDICINE:

MY FRIEND, MY DRIVER. (Just give us a little more time together, and I'll take one with him when he is actually aware that I'm taking his picture) 

A Normal Fiasco

The other night. Oh man.

We have been told that someone might knock on our door, aggressively, until we open it to show our "papers." So, the other night around 1:30 AM, someone knocked.

And rang the doorbell. 

And knocked again. And Again.

I decided I wasn't going to answer it, but just wanted to peek through the hole to see who was out there. As I stepped out of our bedroom, my feet were immediately covered in water. Water was everywhere, an inch deep. 

 I swim through the water to see who was at the door and there was a lady in her robe. She begins speaking gibberish, and I speak back English. 

Water. WaaaaTer. WATERRRR. She understands.

"Yes, eeez eet yu?" 

No, not me!

"May I see?"

She proceeds to walk into our flat to see from where the water was flowing and then sprints out our door and up the stairs. We don't see her again.

I go and wake Eric up. 

ERIC!!! Water! Water everywhere!! We have a flood in our house!!

It takes a minute for Eric to fully wake up (as usual), and naturally, his reaction was very startled. 

"Huh? What?! Water, where?! Where is it coming from??"

I call our logistics guy here to tell him our situation, and he said he will send a guy over in the morning to have a look. We then proceed for the next HOUR to soak up all the water in towels and squeeze it into buckets. Finally, when all the water was up, we crawled back into bed...around 2:30 AM.

3:00 AM- Doorbell. Knock. Doorbell AND knocks.

People here are do not have much patience when ringing the bell and knocking. They don't give the person much time to get to the door before deciding to ring the bell hundreds of times.

I tell Eric to go to the door, so he answers it. And then comes back to our room.

Who was it? I ask.

"Two homeless men, I don't know what they wanted, they spoke Russian."

Oh, okay.

We finally doze back off to sleep.

3:45AM- My phone rings. SERIOUSLY? It was our maintenance guy telling us he was sending a couple of guys over to check out the flooding. "They are there," he says, "So let them in."

You send them over NOW? Can this not wait until the morning? I think.

Eric goes to the door, lets the men in, they walk around til 4AM then leaves.

Eric comes back to bed.

So, were they the "homeless men?" I ask.

"Yep." 

We end our night...well, morning at this point, in laughter and finally doze off until our alarm clock went off an hour later. 

Apparently, these types of situations are very "normal" for our part of the world. And sometimes, all you can do is laugh.

One Year Update

This update is a few weeks late. With the move across the world, yes WORLD, I have been a little preoccupied.

Addie Grace had 4 birthday parties. I believe (maybe, ehh not sure actually), that I already posted about these. One party was at the beach with Eric's family, another at the beach with mine, my friend Marty threw her one the week we left, and then we had a little party with some team members over here.

Even though she turned 1 the Sunday after we arrived, she was still celebrated a lot!

We have not yet had her 1 year check up, but there is a clinic here with Western trained doctors that we will see for her appointment. So, no stats right now but as soon as we go, I'll update!

Eating: Whatever we eat! YAY!! So glad to be done with bottles, baby food, etc. I still don't feed her candy, chips/junk food, and red meat. She LOVES fruit.  LOVES. I am her hero if I give her a handful of grapes. After we arrived, we allowed her a night time bottle to stick with some normalcy, but this week we took it away, and she has adjusted wonderfully. Loves drinking her whole milk in a sippy cup. When she is finished with her food, she throws it off her high chair and on to the floor...this drives me nuts. She does the same with her sippy cup.

Talking: She is a talker. mama, dada, papa, dog and other noises that I don't know. We say, "what sound does a doggie make?" She says, "ruff ruff." We have a nanny that speaks Russian to her, so maybe a few Russian words soon??

Personality: She loves to smile and laugh. When she is tired she whines, but don't we all? She is really silly and loves to play with stuffed animals and her baby. She has learned to kiss, so she loves kissing on the lips. She'll put her forehead to mine and smile (melt my heart). Loves to clap her hands. Gets so excited when daddy walks into the room. She has so many expressions . She loves to smile with her nose scrunched. Loves peek-a-boo, thinks it's hilarious. She has started hitting, and hitting in the face I might add. She gets in trouble for this!

Mobility: Crawls and climbs everywhere. She is cruising but not walking by herself. She gets braves and stands up by herself, then she'll give herself a round of applause.

Sleeping: She's a champ. Sleeps from 7am-7pm. She has dropped her morning nap since we have been here. We would let her take an hour morning nap, but then wouldn't take an afternoon nap so we figured it was time! She takes an afternoon nap from 1-3:30/4. If she wakes up earlier, we leave her in her crib and she usually falls back asleep.

Schedule: I liberally follow this...definitely can change based on what we have going on for the day
7:00- Wakes up
7:30- Breakfast
10:30- Snack
12:00/12:30- Lunch
1:00-4:00- Nap/Quiet time
4:30- Snack
6:00- Dinner
6:45-Bath
7:00- Bed

Fall!

Its fall here and baby girl is ready! Custom here is to let moms know their babies aren't dressed properly. They dress according to the calendar, not the weather...so babies here have toboggans on in 70 degree weather! Not my baby :). 

                                         

He is good, I promise.

I write this following post to boast about G-d's kindness, once again. Over and over He has proved Himself faithful and good, yet over and over I question it. Someone so unworthy to receive any of His grace, I constantly find myself covered in it. He is good, I promise. 

Today was a harder one. When our nanny arrived this morning, I found myself a little more reluctant to hand over my most prized worldly possession, and teared up as I left for school. Discouraged that I no longer get to spend all my day with this sweet little one, I began to cry a little as we waited on our ride to school.

Then I dropped my breakfast in a puddle. 

We arrived at school and all was great just like it usually is, I even went on a run.  But today I just longed to be home. North Carolina, home. I left school early so I could go spend the rest of my time with Addie. Before our nanny left, I walked to the market and bank...to find the ATM wasn't working with my card. The man that worked at the bank tried to explain something to me...maybe why it wasn't working, but of course, we didn't understand each other. I use to think it was kinda funny. Not today. I just want my money, man. I finally gave up on any sort of communication and charades and walked tearfully back towards home. 

After our nanny left, I am home for a few hours by myself until Eric's gets off work. But remember, today just wasn't a good day. Which means, today I just need someone who speaks English to be my friend. 

Addie and I went outside for a bit and I found myself once again, tearing up. Trying to hold it together. I really just want to be home. So I began talking with Him. L-rd, please reveal more kindness to me. I just really need an English speaking friend. Or something. I felt so selfish in my prayers. He has given me so much and is always kind, I don't deserve anything more than what He has already shown. He has even provided a wonderful team for us, but I have to take a bus to get there houses and I have no idea how to do that. 

So Eric arrives and I am so thankful to not be alone any longer. He then proceeds to ask if I care if he goes on a run. I guess that's fine. He could sense my hesitation, so he suggests that we all go on a walk. 

A few minutes into our walk, we hear, "You must not be a local, you have a BOB." (A BOB is the name of our fancy jogging stroller that I so adamantly begged for while I was preggers. Actually, I knew I wanted this thing before I was preggers.). We stopped where we were and found this couple with grocery bags in hand. I immediately thought, english. ENGLISH. They speak ENGLISH!! We began talking and found out they were from Boston. They immediately invited us over to their flat, where we hung out for the next hour.

He is good, I promise. He used something as silly as my materialistic drive to own a BOB for His glory. And it isn't because this couple heard us speaking English, that they stopped us. In fact, they were in a taxi on their way home, saw our BOB, and asked the driver to drop them off right in front of us. I pr-yed for Him to reveal more kindness. And He did. HE DID. After all He has shown, I asked for more, and He so patiently and gently provided it. How often do we ask Him to do more than what he has already done? Really, all we need is to know that we have J-sus, and that should be enough to satisfy our longings for the rest of eternity. He knows our fickle hearts, our worries, and doubts. I am so thankful we have a patient G-d who grafts us into eternity with Him, through J-sus. Even through all our imperfections, He still wants us.

Success...in the Eye of the Beholder

Yesterday was a successful day. Let me just say that my standard for the word "success" has diminished greatly. 

First off, I had a conversation in Russian. Okay, okay. I wasn't the one speaking in Russian.  I actually had no idea what she was saying. A woman just started speaking to me as we were out and about... I just nodded and smiled and kept trying to say "English. Eeeeeng-lish. EN-GA-LISH." She just kept on talking, that woman. Chatty lady. 

30 minutes later....

Secondly, as I was waiting outside for Eric and Will to pick up Addie and myself for dinner, another lady with a baby spoke to me in Russian. I'm thinking I look super approachable today or something. "Oh sorry, I speak English." To my great delight, she started speaking English! 

In a mild accent she says, "I'm looking for a house, what number is this building." 

"Oh I'm not sure, I just moved here from the States on Friday," I say, thinking this was definitely a good excuse . 

"Oh. You don't know your address?" She patronizingly states. Okay so it probably wasn't that patronizing but I'm super sensitive, vulnerable, and insecure about my survival abilities right now. 

"No. No, I don't."

Fail. Fail. Fail all over the place. 

So how was this last interaction successful you ask? 

Because I got to speak English with a local. 

And because at the end of our conversation, she finds the building number and tells me where I live. I KNOW WHERE I LIVE Y'ALL!! Okay, maybe I don't know the street name, but I know the building number! Halfway there. Baby steps. 

And lastly, I ate local food. We went out to dinner with Abby, the Gilberts, and Will to a local restaurant not too far from our flat. The menu was in a different language, so we had the Gilberts order for us and trust that they were ordering to our liking. And they did. 

If you know the relationship my taste buds have with food then, well, you know that I'm a bit skeptical, dramatic, and a bit of a snob. I don't mean to be, it's just that I struggle a little in the area of food tolerance. This is all another way of me simply saying I'm picky. I have been this way my entire life, although I have greatly improved and have broadened my food selections since childhood. We ate an amazing dish called....um well, I can say it but not spell it. But it's pronounced Lockmon. So I think. 

This dish is homemade, thick noodles with chicken or beef and veggies. A combination of everything I love! It's very similar to chicken and veggie Lo Mein. I will definitely be eating this again!

This pretty much sums up our day yesterday: We went to school, and I went home early. Eric stayed longer and played basketball with a bunch of guys. Meanwhile, I was making friends with the locals and being super successful at it. Then, he and Will came to pick us up for dinner, and we ate!

 Overall, yesterday was a good day. 

Small victories

It's the small victories that are celebrated over here. When you don't know the language nor the location of your flat (apartment), anything that is completed by yourself is a big deal. My big deal happened two days ago when I bought fruits and veggies all by myself.

I was told that at the fresh fruit/veggie stands, it is possible I would receive a "foreigner price." Which is a nice was of saying ripped off. There are a few stands close to our flat, so I decided to walk over and give it a shot. The interesting thing about this place is that there are all sorts of people here. Dark hair-dark skinned, blonde hair-blue eyes, etc. So I thought if I just kept my mouth shut, this could possibly be a success. 

And it was. The thing is, if you act like you know what you're doing, there is a good chance everyone else thinks you do too. I mean, what can be so hard about picking out fruits and veggies? I do it all the time in the States. So after I paid a good cheap price, I opened my mouth for the first time. "Thank you." The man at the stand brightened up his eyes, let out a surprised grin and looked at the man next to him. I walked off. Victory indeed. I paid the equivalent of $4.00 for:

Watermelon

Two onions

Three cucumbers

I think the L-rd allowed me to experience the joy of a small victory before allowing me to realize I need so much help. I leave early from school, so I can spend time with AG at home. I have a driver that will be taking me home everyday, so yesterday was his first day. Keep in mind his English is not good. The traffic here is the worst I have ever seen. Not to mention the driving. OH THE DRIVING. We almost hit a girl on the way to school. And playing chicken with other cars is normal, an everyday occurrence actually. And people drive on sidewalks and other areas not created to be a road. 

Anyways, after what seemed like forever on the road, my driver gets pretty close to my flat and says in broken english, "where to?" 

Um turn right?

He starts to turn. 

No no no, actually go straight.  

He swerves back on the road. "Keep going?" he says.

 I think? Um yes, keep going. 

He goes. 

Actually, I have no idea. 

Fail. 

He pulls over on the side of the road. And we just sit there. Think Kelly, think. 

Oh yes! I have a phone! 

G-ds providence that I was given a dumb phone by the logistic guy on our team. Surely his number is in here. So I scroll to the contacts and find his name. PTL!! I say in English to my nice driver man, "I'm going to call my friend, and he will tell you where to go," while of course pointing to the phone, his ear, and the road, all at the same time. I have a feeling charades is going to be my new favorite game.

My logistics guy speaks in one of the two languages that are spoken here (Yes. This is a BILINGUAL country...we are dumb, America) and explains to him where to go. So, 100 yards later, yes YARDS, I am home. Well, at least now he knows where to go for tomorrow?

On a side note: Usually on my first day of school, I like to try to get to know my students by asking them questions. One question I asked is, "what languages do you speak?". Most of my students are bilingual and trilingual.  Also these students been to more countries than they can count. Their worldview is not small, and I pr-y that He will continue to expand my worldview. I have so much to learn here. And so much to learn from kids 10 years younger than I. It's easy to get caught up in the idea that this is not home to me, but I pray that I will soak up this time in another culture. In another world. That I will not waste it, and that I will be changed to be more like Him. 

First day of school for the whole family