Saturday

Today felt like it wasn't going at 60 miles an hour, and it was wonderful and well needed.  I got 8 hours of sleep last night for the first time in weeks.  We had a slower paced breakfast followed by picking up and then (looking at the time) fast paced lunch packing and suncreen to be ready to go to the pool (I know that's like blasphemy to everyone back home).  It was a cool day for swimming but the last week has been so hot (sweating in the shade hot) I didn't care.  The kids love the water.  Liv is making great progress and is swimming short distances above and below water on her own.  Tate kicks like the wind and can actually make forward progress.  It was wonderful to watch their smiling, laughing faces and be present in the fun with them.  We shivered and ate peanut butter and honey sandwiches.  There were naps for the mom and 3 year old followed by chicken and veggies and baked sweet potatoes for supper and a yummy experiment for desert (paleo chocolate chip cake sortof thing that has no flour and not much sugar but still has a melty dark chocolate chip thing happening - and the kids love it).  Now we're sitting in the quiet cool doing our own thing with rugby on tv.  Another reminder that we're not in America.

It's quite surreal at times to know we really are on the other side of the globe from home.  Sometimes I'm very aware of it, and other times I just can't believe it.  Liv's school is outdoors, the classroom built up on stilts, palm trees and sand boxes scattered between with benches and hopscotch painted on the cement underneath.  It's not unusual to see people out and about without shoes - signs of the more laid back culture.  Instead of "you're welcome" following a thank-you, it's "no worries".  Tomorrow at church, "morning tea" will follow outside in the front.  We now have a table and chairs found on the craigslist-type site here purchased from a Chinese cardiologist who's been here 10 years.  Different things that are making up our day-to-day life here.  We're slowly finding our way.