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Friday, April 27, 2007

Meet our newest Friend


Our language teacher had her baby three weeks ago and last weekend we finally got to meet the little one we had been torturing through our horrible attempt at this language. I am sure he is very glad that he doesn't have to listen to us speak during our lessons anymore. He is such a happy little guy, and our teacher said he is such a peaceful child. She is doing great and both she and her husband are proud of this new little guy. This is a picture of him in his first outfit. She dressed him for the first time when we came to visit, and already one of his outfits was too short. It was such a relaxed time with her family, of course the fed us a huge meal and we enjoyed talking with her husband and her sister while she was busy with the baby. We are thankful for the friendship we have with our teachers, it makes learning this language a little easier.

Concert


One of my friends is a talented you lady and comes from a family of musicians. Her father is a composer and her mother is a singer that has traveled all over our country singing. So when she told me that they were going to have concert in honor of her Father's birthday I was excited to finally be able to see her and her mother perform. It was a great evening, and we couldn't believe it when it started on time!!! I am sure this will be the last time this will happen. The show opened with an orchestra playing a few songs that my friend's father wrote. They were accompanied by beautiful opera singing. Then the second half of the show was a mix between beautiful singing and people ballroom dancing, and then my friend sang a couple songs. She is such a laid back person, but she came alive on stage. We are thankful for these opportunities to get to do something out of the ordinary once in a while. My friend is the one in the front row standing on the far right.

Thursday, April 12, 2007

A Great Easter


We had a great time this Easter and the weather was so much different than last year. The sun was shining the entire morning, which made our trek to Marvin’s hill fun and enjoyable. We had a good time singing and reading over the village and it was neat to hear the sounds of cows and chickens in the background. We are glad we have these fun opportunities and great colleagues who get excited about doing things like this too.

Going to the Doctor

My first trip to the Doctor

Well you wouldn’t think going to the doctor would be exciting, but well when you don’t know the language very well, it sure can be exciting.

So I was able to explain everything I wanted to, but I didn’t understand some of her questions.

My favorite question was “How’s your Liver?”
What I wanted to say was, “it’s still there”, but what I really said was, it’s good.

She was asking me about morning sickness and I told her how often I was getting sick, and then she asked me another question that I didn’t really understand, and she repeated it. I have no idea what she was talking about, but that she wanted me to get some more tests done, and she needed to have an ultra sound done of my liver and kidneys, not of the baby apparently, because we went there and I asked the lady what kind of ultra sounds they needed to do and she told me that my doctor didn’t say anything about the baby, so we asked her to do an ultra sound to show us the baby, and she happily agreed.

Marvin got to see our growing little pumpkin for a while, I only got a quick glance as she only turn the monitor and showed me for few seconds. The good news was we heard a good heartbeat, and pumpkin has two legs, two arms and looks like everything is developing alright. It is nice to know I am not imagining this whole being pregnant thing, as I haven’t gained any weight.

Here are a few of fun suggestions my doctor had for me:
Eat lots and lots of cabbage!
Eat a lot of vegetables and white things but not together because this isn’t good for your liver.
Don’t drink water that is too cold or too hot.
If I eat meat don’t eat it with any bread products.

Second Trip to the Doctor

I had to go back to the doctor so that she could interpret the results. The funny thing is that she spent most of the time telling me about how to keep my liver and kidneys healthy, and didn’t say anything about the ultrasound I had of the baby. I just don’t get it.

Anyway the great advice continues! Today she told me that I should only eat white bread, not dark bread and I need to light incense 3-4 times a day and drink this ½ liter of this special tea while the incense was burning. About the only good advice I got today as don’t drink any alcohol. I brought a translator this time and even my translator thought that the whole burning incense was a little weird.