Bits and Bites....

As I sit here bundled in long pants and a sweatshirt in my a/c'ed bedroom with a controlled temperature of 24 C, I shiver at the thought of our imminent arrival in just over one week at Vancouver International Airport. Brrrr....
We have been getting things ready to leave. Basically that means making lists of the things we need to buy and throwing out all the things too broken to use anymore or so worn out that we would turn up our noses should we take them out of the cupboard after a six month hiatus... And people, that's a lot of stuff...
Hugo just threw out his work shoes, totally finished. This morning I dried myself, or at least attempted to dry myself, with a towel sporting a huge hole in the middle (I had no choice, they all have huge holes). Mikah's long pants are looking more like capris everyday. She's now taller than me... Brynne owns only two pairs of shorts that don't have holes in them... Buy some here you say? Ummm, girls clothes here are terrible. They're mostly made of plastic materials and are limited to short skirty-type ensembles and blousy-type tops. Simple shorts and t-shirts, especially those without garish pictures or sayings, very hard to come by.
In the meantime, life here just keeps going on. Awi's biological mother was supposed to arrive today to take Awi back with her. She wants Ritha and Rode to come too. But Ritha does not want to go. She sees no point in "celebrating" Christmas there under the circumstances and then being forced to see Awi call another woman mother. Awi does not want to call this woman "mom" but she may be forced to. So Ritha was considering allowing Rode to go alone and I strongly suggested she not allow this to happen. I fear that if she were to allow Rode to go, she'd never get her back. I feel really bad for leaving at a time like this.
Yokben is doing better. I checked up on him the other night and he proudly showed me that he had only two doses of his meds left, exactly the right amount. He was also in awe of how well the tylenol from Canada helped his head feel better.... Thanks again for that big bottle Jane! The local stuff is just not as good! However, now Yokben's dad is quite sick so his older sister, whose house he lives in (Nelfika's mom) went to Wamena along with Nelfika.