Hannah makes Easter "seeds" and eats all of the icing as fast as I give it to her.

Joshua makes a man on a cross and decorates it beautifully. Sprinkles fly, sugar high, it is cookie time with kids!
This was how our Easter Sunday began, though. On our roof, remembering, retelling, and reflecting at sunrise.

TCK stands for Third Culture Kid. This means that a child has experiences in both a home culture and a host culture, but is at home somewhere in the middle. Hannah speaks English, has American family, and looks American. However, she was potty trained on squatty potties and sits on the lap of any grandma or grandpa on the bus who offers it (as long as mommy is nearby).

Joshua cracked himself up the day he wanted to eat spaghetti with chopsticks. "I am a third culture kid!" he offered as an explanation. This is a perfect analogy of being neither exclusively of one culture or the other, but a combination of the two: third culture.

Cities can look the most beautiful from a distance.
You are getting a view through the gondola path that used to run down the mountain.

We had to make this spontaneous trip to the mountains when our furniture was made too large to fit through our front door. Here we are struggling to get it in! The next day we hustled out to the mountains to where a friend had a woodworking shop and could bring his tools down to help us out.

I have the privelege of teaching two English classes a week at a nearby Deaf school. The students are beautifully behaved, respectful, eager to learn, and patient with me! I baked cookies, boiled eggs, and taught them about an important American holiday: Easter! In response, they performed a dance with sign.

We enjoyed the view around town from the top of the bus.
Only $.15 per adult to ride, kids are free.
It is a beautiful way to see the city at night.

Our windows look out upon the green courtyard.

Children play out in the courtyard until 9 and 10 at night.
Swords, guns, firecrackers, handheld viedo games, bikes, yo-yos cris-cross the garden paths.
I took Joshua to the bike market last Saturday to buy bikes for the kids to ride in the courtyard. This process involves haggling, bluffing, calling managers, introducing middlemen, and leaving in disgust hoping to be called back.
When we began the bargaining Joshua was aghast. He became so upset that his face was red with our exchanges. I gently explained to him that this was all a "game" and that we would smile when it was all over and they would probably help us hail a taxi and get the bikes out to the street. Like when he plays soccer and he plays against the other team until the game is over and they are all friends on the playground. "THIS is a game?" he was incredulous.

Snow should not be falling on banana trees, but it did this day.

Joshua, who was told his sister would be born "when it snowed" (in January), has many memories of eating snow with his pregnant mommy. I craved it, okay? But this snow we didn't let him eat. Just not enough to dig past the top layer!

The view from our apartment into our beautiful courtyard.

And they didn't even cancel school!

Here is a typical dinner at home. We want to learn how to cook with the resources available to us.
This meal consists of lotus root, a delicious starch that can be stir fried with green onions.

Pork and lima beans (double yum) cooked in a wok.

A squash dish, stir fried, is excellent.

and, of course...rice! NOT like in the states.
You can actually eat this rice with chopsticks because it sticks together (not like Uncle Ben's!)
At school, Joshua's teachers habitually push his head down to his bowl.
This is another great way to make sure the rice makes it into your mouth.
Either pick up your bowl, or (in Joshua's case) go to your bowl!

One Saturday I took the kids to Bird Lake. Joshua bought a bow and suction arrows, Hannah bought a big red ball, and I bought bird food to throw at the thousands of sea gulls that migrate through. It was a BEAUTIFUL day and we had a great time walking around. We did have a man who persisted in taking our photos. Three different times I saw him doing so and put the big red ball in front of my face. But the third time I had had enough. Pushing subtlety aside, I used the words I knew: "Don't want!" I spoke like a child in preschool. He walked off repeating my phrase to his wife, amazed that I would not want to be photographed. It seemed to him as amazing as if a sea gull or a flower had reacted with distain.

And then, as if the day could not get any more perfect, Joshua got to walk on water (now that IS perfect!). See the video under Joshua's Corner.

I saw a funeral today, all were dressed in white. My friend explained that the surviving family members line up in order of birth/importance. Brothers outrank sisters, even if they are younger brothers. Then the coffin is passed over their heads symbolizing the headship of the family passing on to the next in line. The mountains are dotted with grave stones. Massive and ornately carved. Also, bodies may be cremated. But one does not often talk of death, and to use the number four is very unlucky; it sounds like the word for death.

I told my friend that in our country, white is worn to weddings. She nodded, she had worn a white dress to her wedding, too. And a red one later. And a going away dress after that. I told her about rehearsals for weddings in the states. She said they didn't do that, but the night before her wedding she took her husband aside and explained the intricate custom of the groom coming to the bride's house so the next day he would know what to do. He had to bring flowers, and a pocket of candy and sweet talk his way into the house where the bride and all of the girlfriends were. I marveled. Where did she learn how to do this complicated custom? Oh, I saw it on t.v. she replied!

I took a trip this week on a train through some beautiful countryside. I thought I would give you an idea of what the area around us looks like this time of year! As we rode, I felt like I was in a movie, everything was so beautiful and different!

I learned that the swirling colors of different plots of land belong to different people, separated by mounds of earth. Beautiful! When the landscape became mountainous, crops were planted in the sheltered hollers, about 20 feet wide running downhill.

We had our furniture custom made. Beautiful, all of it.
But all of it but two pieces fit into our house.
Two of them had to be sawn up to get into the house!
No matter, drama over and pieces intact.
Only a few of the pieces are shown here while David and Joshua play Mille Borne.