We'll start off with a couple pics just because they are so cute! It was R's birthday recently and I bought the girls matching Barbie t-shirts. I had also baked a chocolate cake on her birthday so she and her mom and aunt ate some with us. R just had dengue fever right after getting over the chicken pox! Poor girl!

R's mom with baby Joy who's just the cutest patootie ever!

Today the kids started school again. I think they were ready for routine again.

I've taken on kindergaten PE in addition to Grades 1-2. Should be a hoot. There's only 6 kids in K and 22 in the gr1-2.

We're so thankful for the teachers who've just arrived to fill the vacant spots!

Hugo's back at work and things in the hangar are busy as usual.

A couple weeks ago I's husband punched her again. This time he asked for money because he wanted to have his friends over for a meal on New Years. I told him that she had no money (mostly true because she'd had a motorcycle accident while borrowing someone's bike so she had to pay) and he got mad and punched her. When Hugo and I married, we joined our bank accounts and our possessions etc... That's the way it should be no? Well, here I have difficulty with that view. I works for me. Her hubby has no job. He doesn't seem to spend much time looking for work either and is easily bored. You'd think that he would feel guilty or something and at least take care of the housework and cooking, but no, he doesn't do that either. The older people in the community have told I that she should work for her husband, just like her mom worked for her dad back when they were still married. Nice. Way back when, I's mom's employer, a Canadian woman, helped her build a house. Apparently the only part paid for by I's dad was the zinc roofing. When they divorced, he got the house. Nice. I asked me if in a marriage the woman was supposed to work to support the husband or vice versa.... I gave her the Biblical answer. I have to admit, I do not envy her her life. I just pray that things will improve as they grow up and grow older. But I'm not going to hold my breath. Women are considered inferior to men and not really worthy for anything but birthing offspring and cooking.