A Day in the City

It's naptime for the Littles, and I have bread in the oven, making it simply too unbearably hot to be in the kitchen (don't worry; I set a timer and have it here with me), so here I sit in the A/C. =) Since moving to a third-world country, I've been slowly learning to deviate from my deeply-ingrained teaching of "work first, then play." Our motto now is "electronics first." The reason? You never know when the power is going to go off and how long it will stay off, so if you have a chance to use electronics, DO IT. I can wash my dishes later, electricity or no electricity. =)

We went to the capital city yesterday for an appointment at immigration. Since we had to hire a car and driver, we made a day of it. We shopped at the new and very impressive supermarket, ate a quick snack/lunch at KFC, went to our appointment (which went smoothly except for the official being, um, rather late for our appointment and Abbie refusing to stand on the chair to have her picture taken), and enjoyed an amazing meal of grilled fish at a restaurant on the bay. It was a long, exhausting, fun, rewarding day.

Toby and Abbie behaved very well, especially considering that we totally ignored their naptime. Abbie loves riding in the car and snuggled down happily with her blanket and puppy for most of the morning drive. Toby sometimes gets carsick, so he sat up front with Papa. At one point Jonathan told him to keep his eyes on the road to keep from getting sick "unless you see something interesting." 2 seconds later, Toby exclaimed, "Look, Papa! A red car! I saw something interesting." He kept leaning back to look at me, saying, "I want to see Mama. Mama, what is Abbie doing?" He seemed really concerned that we were doing OK. =) And he made it the whole day without getting sick. Yay!

We were really excited about some of our 'finds' yesterday. Some of these things are treats rarely found here; others are items we've been looking for ever since we moved here. Here are the top 5:

• a stepladder
• a bathroom mirror (it's amazing how excited one can feel over a bathroom mirror when one has been without such a luxury for 2 years)
• ricotta cheese
• Starbucks frappaccino
• good quality dark chocolate

One of Jonathan's priorities for the day was getting some good 'ikan bakar' (grilled fish). He'd had some before on an outing with his co-workers, but I wasn't along that time. Guided by suggestions from people who knew the area, we found a little place on the bay. Upon entering the restaurant, we were guided to the grilling area where they showed us fresh fish packed in a cooler with ice. We chose the fish we wanted, and they grilled it to order. It was so good! They served it with 3 different hot sauces, napkins, bowls of water for hand-washing, some vegetable sides, and fruit juice. We were delighted with the meal and definitely plan to make it a regular stop on immigration days.

Jonathan and Abbie, waiting for our food

Toby loved his mango juice.

View from the restaurant

One of the people who made the day a success was our driver. We've hired him for this trip before, and he does an excellent job. He's really friendly and enjoys the kids. Toby warmed up to him throughout the day and enjoyed looking at the ships with him at the restaurant. Also, our friend Rachel joined us for the day. Our kids really like her, and it was fun to have her along.

Ready for the feast. =)