Monday 28 April 2008

neighbors

Sunday we went to the gospel service again. It isn't perfect, but it's at least as good as the other we've been to, which seems to be about as good as it gets. I feel bad for staying on base so much, but it seems like that's what the locals expect. Our own village isn't bad as far as welcoming, but the churches here are quite lacking, theologically. So anyway.

We had lunch before church, as it starts at 12:30, so after church we walked over to the BX. Someone said the school supplies were on clearance, and we thought we might stock up. But they weren't, so we didn't. Bob tried to look at the digital video cameras, but that isle was very busy, and it was HOT in there, so we didn't stay long.

Home for a bit of relax, then it stopped raining so I wanted to go out and plant the potatoes. The boys were bored, so I took them with me, and the girls decided to go, too, so we just all went out. I took the trash can (rubbish bin) and a shovel out to the compost pile and Taryn and Riah helped me fill it about 2/5 full of leaves and grass clippings. Then we buried the potatoes in it and gave the speech about not messing with it and we'll have potatoes to harvest.

Then the children played ball with Bob, and I trimmed the hedge (I guess this is an ongoing job with manual clippers). The neighbor girl was in her garden, and the children wanted her to come play. So Bob told Taryn to go ask, and she did. A few minutes later the girl and her father came around to the gate, and came in. She played shy for about a minute, then went to run and play with the others. She's almost 4, and quite tall. Considering how our children are tall for their age, I'd figured the neighbor girl to be 5. The father talked to Bob and I continued trimming. Then after a few minutes the mother and baby boy came over, too, and Bob got out a few chairs and I came over and we all sat down together to visit.

I didn't catch her name, and I wonder if I should publish the others' on a public blog. But anyway, they are "our age" - between 25 and 45 - and have some similar interests (using 'they' very loosely here - the men talk and the women sit and smile and add a few details). We are planning to have a BBQ sometime.

They finally had to go, and we also came in for dinner.

So that was a nice day.

2 comments:

S.A.M. said...

Well at least now you're finally meeting some neighbors. Maybe with time you'll find you have more in common with the women. Good luck!

Oh and what kind of potatoes are you growing? New potatoes, I hope. They are my favorite.

MamaOlive said...

It's nice to get to know people; it just takes me a long time. "They" say women talk more than men, but I've never seen that happen.

The potatoes are white, not red, but those can be harvested early for new potatoes, too. I'm just gonna wait and see how long before they get dumped out or pulled up. All I can do is try.