Yesterday, we were expecting to be able to sleep in little bit as the other family was going to be going to court for their adoption and we didn’t have anything until around noon. We got to bed late the night before but then got woken up at dawn to go for a walk. The manager of the hotel here had talked to me about the dam that was just down the hill from us and that he would take us there sometime. Apparently that time had come so we got ready quickly and went for the walk. At the time I wasn’t so excited about being woken from a deep sleep, but I’m really glad that we were because it was still “cool” (if it’s possible for cool temperatures here) because it was early in the morning. It was maybe a 3/4 mile walk down to the dam and reservoir. The dam is not too big. For those of you back home it’s probably a little bigger than the Clyde Dam. There were many fishing boats out on the lake. The boats that they use here are more like canoes. They don’t fish with rod and reels like we would; they use nets. We couldn’t actually walk out on the dam because they have it gated off, but we could be right up there next to it. The walk back up the hill was very warm as we were walking back toward the sun and the temperature was rising. Another cool thing about the walk was that we were able to walk through a typical hillside neighborhood. People were out working in their gardens or working on other things around their property. Many women were down by the water washing clothes and collecting washing water.
We then went to lunch later…which is always a good thing! The food here has been very good so far. I enjoy lunch every day trying a little bit more of the cultural foods. Once we finished lunch we didn’t really have time to go visit our daughter because she lives so far away. That was a little sad, but we were very happy for the family that had just been to court that day to adopt their boy! We then rode with them to bring him back to the orphanage. Still amazed that it takes about 3 hours round trip from the hotel to the orphanage and back, but I guess you’d expect that in any major US city during rush hour too! That was pretty much our Tuesday.
One thing that we forgot to mention about Monday was that our little girl apparently likes things very clean. When given a wet wipe to get some stickiness off her hands, she proceeded to wipe her hands and then her doll. It was funny that she held very tightly to the wet wipe even after being done washing. She didn’t want to let it go! We tucked that idea away as a possible plane ride distraction when the time comes to bring her home. We’re looking forward to spending another day with her today! Can’t wait!
Paul