So, the girls have really been watching the World Cup games as much as I do. And, unlike in the US, the commercials are very few and far between. Thank goodness. Really, the only two commericals are Coca Cola and cell phone companies. And the Coca cola ad showcases the song "Wave your flag" by K'Naan that the girls just LOVE. So, the ad catches their attention. Because of this, I heard this evening...."Sofia....Coca Cola will make us strong...we need to ask mom to buy us some". Sofia- "No, Sienna, I don't like Coca Cola. I only like milk and grape Fanta, I don't have to be strong". They are a mess! It was such a cute conversation. They see the ad being played over and over about Coca Cola supposedly making you strong if you drink it...
The girls were out of school this week. I am glad they go back on Monday. Their normal school still hasn't started back. It will start back after the World Cup. It is still holiday care but still better than having them at home and trying to organize care. They went with me 2 days to work and were too loud, they fought and just didn't understand the concept of being quiet.
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Friday, June 25, 2010
Woza Moya visit
Yesterday, I spent the day in the field visiting some of the families we are helping through our Woza Moya Project. We were in the Ufafa village near Ixopo. I visited families from our Imbumba project. We exited this project last year. The families still seem to be moving forward and doing well. And I visited some of the families who just received chickens through a passing on the gift ceremony, which I attended, in April.
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Daily routine
Not much happening in these days. The girls are out of school this week. Yesterday, I took them to work with me and they terrorized everyone- not really, they were pretty good. They colored pictures for everyone, watched a movie, played in my office and played outside.
Today, tomorrow and Thursday, Penny is watching them. She has watched them before. She is a teacher at their school. Very sweet girl. She's Tai's aunt. Tai is in their class. Today she took them to the movies. Tomorrow, she is taking them on to their friend, Izabella's house for a play date. Then they are going on a picnic with Tai and Quinn in the afternoon.
This afternoon, South Africa beat France! Sofia sat by me the whole time mesmerized by the game. She asked hundreds of questions. She knows that the soccer players aren't supposed to handle the ball and she couldn't quite understand why they would go on the sidelines and throw the ball back in. She kept getting mad at them. She wanted to know what a referee does, what a coach does, why this, why that. They were very excited throughout the game- and they had on their little Bafana Bafana shirts. They keep asking me to take them to the stadium so they can see a live match! I don't think I want to brave that with them. In order to get to any of the world cup matches here in Durban, you have to park at the mall and take a shuttle. Because of the traffic, a 30 minute ride in the shuttle ends up being over 2 hours. THEN the shuttle drops you off 1 1/2 miles before the stadium and you have to walk...don't think I want to go through that with the girls!
Sofia told me today that my hair felt like soft hay. Hmmm. I don't know if that is good or bad.
This morning she asked me if I was ever going to get fat. I don't know why she asked that.
Yesterday she told me that Penny's hair is turning black and it's because she is getting old. Penny had darkened her hair to a dark brown....
All the while, Sienna tells nonstop Froggy stories. I can't even keep up with the stories anymore. I try but she tells so many of them. It is always about froggy doing something "naughty". He breaks things, he doesn't listen and it makes her back or head hurt, he causes trouble at the doctor's office, he is constantly up to something. I can always tell when a froggy story is coming on- she starts every one with a "you know....froggy".
Cookie, the hamster, escaped over the weekend. We didn't know he had escaped. On Saturday afternoon I was in the kitchen and I heard something rattling under the refrigerator. I was sure it was a rat or other creature. It just kept on and on. Finally, I moved the refrigerator out of its little space. And then I see Cookie pop his little head out. He ran right up into my hand and I put him back in his cage. He is so cute. He was so happy to get back in his cage. He ate and ate and drank lots of water. I am not sure how long he was out. It was probably a day because I remember seeing him on Saturday. I guess one of the girls left his cage door open. He waits patiently every night for me to give him a piece of broccoli or lettuce. And he really is good with the girls handling him. The other day, Sienna was playing with him and he pooed on her. She got really mad and said she would never hold him again.
The kittens are fine. We all have scratches on us from them. Sofia has decided hers is named Sarafina. Sienna still calls hers Bella. The kittens run everytime they see the girls coming. We still keep them at night in the spare bedroom. They have latched onto one of the girls' big stuffed Nemos. They think it is their mamma. They sit for hours licking the Nemo and kneading it with their little paws. It's so funny. We laugh and laugh at them!
That's all for now.....
Today, tomorrow and Thursday, Penny is watching them. She has watched them before. She is a teacher at their school. Very sweet girl. She's Tai's aunt. Tai is in their class. Today she took them to the movies. Tomorrow, she is taking them on to their friend, Izabella's house for a play date. Then they are going on a picnic with Tai and Quinn in the afternoon.
This afternoon, South Africa beat France! Sofia sat by me the whole time mesmerized by the game. She asked hundreds of questions. She knows that the soccer players aren't supposed to handle the ball and she couldn't quite understand why they would go on the sidelines and throw the ball back in. She kept getting mad at them. She wanted to know what a referee does, what a coach does, why this, why that. They were very excited throughout the game- and they had on their little Bafana Bafana shirts. They keep asking me to take them to the stadium so they can see a live match! I don't think I want to brave that with them. In order to get to any of the world cup matches here in Durban, you have to park at the mall and take a shuttle. Because of the traffic, a 30 minute ride in the shuttle ends up being over 2 hours. THEN the shuttle drops you off 1 1/2 miles before the stadium and you have to walk...don't think I want to go through that with the girls!
Sofia told me today that my hair felt like soft hay. Hmmm. I don't know if that is good or bad.
This morning she asked me if I was ever going to get fat. I don't know why she asked that.
Yesterday she told me that Penny's hair is turning black and it's because she is getting old. Penny had darkened her hair to a dark brown....
All the while, Sienna tells nonstop Froggy stories. I can't even keep up with the stories anymore. I try but she tells so many of them. It is always about froggy doing something "naughty". He breaks things, he doesn't listen and it makes her back or head hurt, he causes trouble at the doctor's office, he is constantly up to something. I can always tell when a froggy story is coming on- she starts every one with a "you know....froggy".
Cookie, the hamster, escaped over the weekend. We didn't know he had escaped. On Saturday afternoon I was in the kitchen and I heard something rattling under the refrigerator. I was sure it was a rat or other creature. It just kept on and on. Finally, I moved the refrigerator out of its little space. And then I see Cookie pop his little head out. He ran right up into my hand and I put him back in his cage. He is so cute. He was so happy to get back in his cage. He ate and ate and drank lots of water. I am not sure how long he was out. It was probably a day because I remember seeing him on Saturday. I guess one of the girls left his cage door open. He waits patiently every night for me to give him a piece of broccoli or lettuce. And he really is good with the girls handling him. The other day, Sienna was playing with him and he pooed on her. She got really mad and said she would never hold him again.
The kittens are fine. We all have scratches on us from them. Sofia has decided hers is named Sarafina. Sienna still calls hers Bella. The kittens run everytime they see the girls coming. We still keep them at night in the spare bedroom. They have latched onto one of the girls' big stuffed Nemos. They think it is their mamma. They sit for hours licking the Nemo and kneading it with their little paws. It's so funny. We laugh and laugh at them!
That's all for now.....
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Tala Game Reserve
Today, we spent the day at Tala Game Reserve. A game park that is about 45 minutes from the house. There are many different animals there and you can drive for hours looking. The girls enjoyed it. It is the second time they have been there. The first time I took them was back in December. We saw a lot of different animals- hippos, zebra, warthog, wildebeest, springbok, ostriches. We couldn't find the rhino and giraffe. Everything is very dry. It is very different from when we were there last in December when everything was green! The girls got out of the truck often so I could take their pictures. Sofia wasn't too sure about getting out when there were wildebeest around. It was a very, very warm day. The weather right now is so hard to predict- the days can be either hot or pretty cool. Most nights are always cold. We don't have a heater in the house so we stayed bundled up in the evenings. Getting back to the game park- we went off the main roads a lot in the hopes of finding the rhino and giraffe. We didn't see either. But we did see quite a bit of fresh rhino poo so I know we were close. But Sofia didn't like it too much that we were off the beaten path- she kept asking for me to turn on the GPS so it could help us find our way back. They call the GPS, JoAnn because of the woman's voice that talks.
Today is Father's Day. The girls talked briefly to Sal but they were pretty preoccupied with their legos they were playing with. We miss Gary today- the first father's day without him. I know he is sitting up in heaven eating a big bowl of chocolate in rememberance of all the times we gave him candy on Father's Day.
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