Pieces of our Week

I actually wrote this a few weeks ago but never got the chance to post it online. This past week was spent getting tests and seeing doctors in another city after my symptoms reappeared. Baby girl Christ is doing fine and healthy, and the doctor said I am unlikely to deliver any time soon! She did find an infection that may have been the trouble maker all along, and we are still waiting on results from a few other tests to figure out what was going on.

Pieces of our week

We’ve met a new family. They own a dukkan (small store) two buildings down from us. Last Friday Mike stopped home for lunch and said we were invited over their house for dinner. I had a great time, and the kids did well too. We started out from with a very vague sense of where they lived and figuring it would be about a half hour walk. So we bundled the kids into our trusty Wal-mart umbrella strollers and went down to the dukkan to meet the gentleman. We visited over tea and yogurt (taken from the shelf and given to the kids so they wouldn’t cry—a very typical thing in this culture) for about a half hour there, while he settled accounts with what seemed to be quite a few men coming and going. Then our host informed us we could go to his house in his car. Turns out that was good, since it would have been impossibly far to walk. We got to his house around eight in the evening, and got back home around 11:30. I was surprised that we didn’t actually have a meal together, although our hosts served us and then left the room while we ate. Ladies and men visited separately, so I got to talk about all the fun topics like kids, pregnancy (the hostess was expecting too), housekeeping, family, life here and in the States, the haj (one lady had just returned from Mecca), food… The ladies were friendly and generally sweet the whole time. The family is part of a minority people group here, so they sympathized with my kids not quite being comfy in the foreign language. Their kids are learning and speaking two languages too! They got quite a kick out of the way we give nicknames and shorten long names.

We also got to spend an evening this week with our neighbors across the hall. Mike and “Mr Neighbor” worked on setting up their new internet and computer access. Their 3^rd grader needs to go online to get extra credit points for school. Meanwhile my kids played with the two little girls. Actually, Matthew cuddled on my lap for awhile, since he was feeling out of sorts. But he perked up when the 3^rd grader “abi” (big brother) came in and played growling games. I’ve gotten to visit several times with Gulista and her kids, but this is only the second time we’ve had tea as families.

Tuesday Mike gave me a mini-vacation. I walked over to a shopping center and had lunch by myself with my journal. Then I browsed a few stores without restless kids, and found oatmeal (yay!!!).

In the less adventurous category, we had some plumbing work done. Our neighbors under us had asked us not to use the eastern toilet since it was leaking or pouring water on them, or something like that (sometimes my understanding is a little on the vague and fuzzy side.) But eastern toilets are really convenient for recently potty-trained little boys, so we got a plumber to come look into it. Well, he took a few hours, dismantled the flusher, spilled white plaster-like stuff over most everything in both bathrooms, and left. So today I cleaned the house for the second time this week. I’m really kinda curious what the plaster-like stuff was supposed to do…but oh well.

Thursday the kids and I went to the store, and then I made stew. Then, just as it was almost done, Mike came in a remembered that Alton Brown says stew is always better the next day. So my very logical husband suggested saving the stew. Of course, since it was seven o’clock by that time, plan B was McDonalds. So we put the stew on the balcony to cool down (also Alton Brown’s idea—your fridge is meant to keep things cold, not cool hot things) and went to McD’s. It may have been logical, but it still felt odd eating out at the last minute after cooking all afternoon, especially since I didn’t burn it this time. The stew was good for dinner today :)