The Blahs...

I think I’ve hit the 2 year blahs… I love living here but there are some things which are beginning to get on my nerves. I think I would feel the same about the loooong rainy winters back home…
Every day we have probably 30+ people coming to our door to ask for water. On top of that there’s all the folks that are trying to sell things or borrow our bicycle pump. I do like it when people sell me vegetables, fruit, tortillas etc… at my door as it means I don’t have to go to the store or make them myself. But sometimes there are so many! Then there’s the kids who will ask to play with our bikes in the hopes that maybe this time I’ll say yes… and then proceed to steal some rocks from our front path… or write on the MAF car in our driveway with a rock…
Then there’s the fact that we aren’t just another family on the block. We stick out like a sore thumb. There are definitely times where I miss anonymity…
Then there’s the fact that we can’t close off our house to noise (except our bedroom which has glass windows and a/c). Our street can be very noisy with motorbikes and the guy who likes to practice doing pop-a-wheelies on his motorbike-right in front of our house… When we are reading the Bible at supper, all the kids crowd around me so they can actually hear what I’m reading all the time instead of just in-between motorbikes. When we watch a video, we need to use sub-titles or we just miss too much of what the characters are saying…
And man, I am totally craving a President’s Choice thick and juicy home bbq’ed hamburger topped with cheese and sautéed mushrooms and onions and slathered in Grill Slingers bbq sauce…. That sound you just heard, that was my stomach grumbling from down under….
The kids for the most part don’t miss much from Canada because they don’t remember much. Only Mikah really remembers some things.
Okay, now I’ve got all that off my chest….

*Last week one of the MAF employees here was in a motorcycle accident. He was riding his motorbike home from work when he was struck by another motorbike coming off a side road. Rumor has it that the other driver was drunk. The MAF employee was thankfully wearing a helmet and it stayed on, but he was knocked unconscious after the accident and it appears that he was beaten as well. He is at the moment recovering in hospital.
Drunk driving is a real problem here along with a lack of defensive driving. Many on motorbikes do not have mirrors so they really have no idea of whom or what is around them.