Happy mother's day , quirky kids and a bike ride through the desert

We are enjoying our morning here in botswana as we try in some way to celebrate Mother's day with the kids.. Michelle's plan for the day is to cook a nice meal this evening and knit with Celeste.. No she hasn't turned 85 but that's what she wants to do.. The kids made her a few things to hang up, Kate woke up at 7 to put the finishing touches on her gift....

all the young kids are outside now enjoying the weather and acting like dogs. maura is in underpants of course... One other note of the kids,, franny is like no other child we have had.

When she gets upset she does one of 2 things.... she falls on the floor, stares at the ground, huffs and puffs and then rolls around... you can't pick her up or in any way console her, she refuses.. The other thing she does, which for some reason reminds me of Alfred Hitchcock movies, is if she gets upset,, she slowly walks backward, usually against the wall, and hides herself behind the curtains... it's very dramatic, quite skillfull and sadly strange.

What's funny is Jude tries the same tactic sometimes when he gets upset, and can't pull it off.. like a football player doing yoga.

Maura has reached another strange stage in her fear of something.... She had a bad dream a few weeks ago and is now scared of giants.... all the time... she needs us to watch her go to the bathroom(somtimes just to see the bowel movement she just had), she won't lay down in her bed without someone with her and worries about them when she goes outside. It's been very convenient.

Right now the kids are playing a great game.... Let's pretend we're sleeping... it's great....

Last night we went out to celebrate a fellow doctor's major accomplishment.. In an effort to raise money for the Botswana/Baylor Clinic, our friend Jonathan biked from Windhoek, Namibia to Gaborone. He did this also to coincide with his 40th birthday. Basically it's 1600+ kms across the Kalahari Desert...

He arrived yesterday at noon and is a national superstar...It was cool to see and he about 240,000 pula/ 40,000usd. for the HIV clinic.

attached are photos from the celebration(maura and kate eating cake in the conference room) , a group photo of michelle and her co-workers as well as one of Michelle.. obviously..

All for now.