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a few mid-february thoughts.
Probably each of these thoughts is a blog post in itself, but I’ll just clump them all together in one eternal post-of-the-week. – Changes, changes for us (or, as Mom Gentino says, “You guys always have some sort of drama.”). But good changes. David and I started language study on Monday! You think it took us long enough to begin!? Well, this is really the perfect scenario. We went in with our friends to hire a tutor for five days a week. David and John meet with her from 11-12, and Alison and I from 12-1. We all love Neetu. She is fun, a fantastic teacher, and makes the hour fly…
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thursday.
Our sweet neighbor/friend/babysitter, Ammara. Amie bossing Lilly around. Which I’m okay with since Lilly bosses me around! They love each other Helping Lilly clean Stealing kisses
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lilly.
We have now been a month in our new flat, which means we’ve been a month with our house helper, Lilly. There are really no words to adequately describe Lilly. She burst into my home and into my life mid-November with the announcement that she wanted to work for me, and now she appears to be a permanent fixture here. One who brings mingled joy and exasperation, but who is rarely far from my thoughts. Lilly’s husband died a year ago from kidney failure, leaving behind a wife, seven children and five thousand dollars in hospital bills. Lilly works two part-time jobs as a maid–for us and for our next-door…
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moving day.
The movers showed up at 7:45 a.m. and were fast, careful and professional. I dropped Judah off for the last day at his preschool, then Amie went to our friends’ so I could go check on the packing-up process . . . . . . and take David a cup of coffee. Meanwhile, Ams, Joshua and Caleb had craft time. Alison said, “Can you tell which painting was done by the girl?” David headed to the new flat mid-morning to do some cleaning, and I hung around to oversee the packing up. Alison took the kiddos down to the playground. By 11:30 the place was empty and the movers on…
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we’re moving!, part four.
“What about Anju?” I went to Colleen’s house this week, and together we sat down to tell Anju that the Gentino’s are “shifting.” Colleen speaks one of Anju’s languages, so she helped translate for me. At first Anju was silent, then . . . she started crying. I was shocked. Then I started crying. Then Colleen started crying. It was so awful. So all that to say, no, we can’t take Anju with us. She also works for our friends and wouldn’t be able to commute downtown and back in time for her other jobs. This is one of the very sad things about our move. She said it is…
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visiting anju.
Anju is our house helper, whom I first wrote about here, if you’re interested. On Saturday she asked us to come visit and take pictures of the Lakshmi (the goddess of wealth and prosperity) shrine she built in her home. I was very disappointed to miss it because I’m sick, but David took the kids. Anju lives just around the block from us with her husband and nineteen-year-old son; we can see their temple from our balcony.