village huts on way to Oodi Sunset from kids bedroom
In the afternoon, Jacob and I went to a soccer match: Botswana v. Serbia. We kicked butt 3-0 . It was great. For the sum of 10 dollars, Jacob and I sat at midfield and saw Botswana roll over the Eastern Europeans. We had cold french fries and coke while we took in the game. A little boy sat next to me as I ate, obviously hungry, so we shared our chips with him.
Last night we were invited to an American couple's home, they have 6 children. It was a great dinner which included "kool-Aid" and A-1 sauce, something that Jacob has been dying for. Because US government employees have a 1000 lb/year "consumable goods" shipping allowance, they had a huge pantry stocked with every dry good they knew they would want. Our parting gifts were our own bottle of A-1, Pace picante sauce, and Trader Joe's maple syrup. The kids had a blast and we really had a great time with the family. After dinner, a few of the docs Michelle works with came over and we attempted to play Trivial Pursuit.( unfortunately, I kept falling asleep). Today we went to another home out in the village of Notwane and lived it up. The mom was from the US and the dad from Kenya, and their home was on the same level as the place we visited earlier in the weekend. The older kids played all morning and afternoon while we had lunch with the other parents. The group included families from Zambia, South Africa, Italy, US (Hawaii - a marine's wife and kids) and Australia. Of course when they asked where we were from we said "Northern Kentucky - Edgewood and Cold Spring - ever heard of 'em? " While we had lunch served by the house help, the kids rode bikes all over the dirt roads, climbed on the jungle gym, and Kate and Maura played with the hamsters, guinea pigs and rabbits. Jude was a big hit, partaking in both the child and adult lunch, as well as mawing on the popcorn (we found him halfway into a large flower-pot type bowl stuffing his face). After lunch the whole crew of us took a walk down to then end of the road to the Notwane River. We went onto the grounds of an old Lutheran seminary on the riverbank and looked for crocs. Just a few days ago, before the first rain, the river bed was dry. Today it was flowing pretty well with muddy water. The river was only about 50 ft wide, and on the other side was....South Africa. Even we didn't realize how close to the border we were. Jacob and the gaggle of other 8-12 year old boys he was with were hurling rocks across the river, trying to get them to South Africa. Apparently, as our host was telling us, the spot has some historical significance as it was an escape route for members of the ANC trying to get out of South Africa during apartheid. We have to read on that...... For today, though, no crocs sighted, and no snakes or scorpions either (to Jacob's disappointment). Apparently this family has awakened before to a spitting cobra outside their front door. Finding out that information on the way HOME made for a much more relaxing visit.
It's been a good weekend. We've gotten a chance to see some lifestyle choices (i.e. living in really nice houses in the bush in near isolation) that we never would have seen before. Its clear to us after this weekend that when there's no zoo, no children's museum, and no parks, your social circle IS your recreation. We're feeling very fortunate to be included in others' circles already. And now we'll cap off the weekend with...Monday Night Football (at 2 pm on Tuesday). We're going to be hosting the viewing for the other docs tomorrow, so we'll sign off for tonight and let you know how the Bengals fared tomorrow.
