I should preface my writing by saying my purpose in writing this in the first place. The whole concept of blogs seems rather egotistical to me. But I want to remember these things for posterity and to share with Langston someday. So if someone enjoys reading it I'll be glad but if it's boring remember it's to help jog my memory of the experience. ;-)
On Sunday, Dec. 21 I went to the immigration screening place (as I'll call it for lack of the proper name.) This was to get my required x-ray and bloodwork done. The plan was to have Danna go with me since she had been through it before but there was already a lady from QF along with another young woman and driver so we had a full car. Both women in head coverings sat in the back and spoke Arabic. We rode for twenty minutes across town as we listened to Arabic music. I never was introduced to them but in the course of the morning I learned the young woman was a newlywed from Jordan. Her husband now worked at QF so she was along to get her processing done as well.
I never had to speak to anyone or present paperwork. The QF lady took care of that. We walked into an old concrete building with many small rooms. There was a men's side and a women's side. The QF lady knew where to go and led the way. The first office area had several women in abayas set up with typewriters. They typed info concerning our passports. I tried to figure out where the other women waiting were from. I could only figure out one since she had blond hair and an English accent. She was dressed in a black jacket and pants with some really high-heeled boots. We all had the same lost look in our eyes. There was an elderly woman dressed in Arabic fashion. I wondered why she was there. Noone seemed particularly nice to her. She looked rather poor. Next we went to have bloodwork done then on to the x-ray. That was quite an experience. We went through double doors where there was a changing area of sorts, white medical gowns and three curtained stalls. Nothing seemed particularly clean. I opted to leave on my dress. Some of the ladies had left their clothes in the stalls while they waited to be x-rayed. Next we lined up for x-rays. Several didn't speak Arabic so everyone was trying to figure out what to do, making noises to one another like "psst" and other sounds to get their friends' attention. One Indian looking woman in front of me thought she should put her head covering back on. She did this only to have a lady in charge come and pull it off her head again. One pretty young Indian woman with a toddler asked me for instructions. She finally had to take her unhappy little girl out to her husband. The x-ray wasn't a big deal, I had to disrobe since I didn't have the thin gown on. They didn't get mad at me or anything. I'm glad I had my dress though.
As we waited for the young woman to finish the QF lady said she thought the place was pretty well marked with signs giving directions. Yea, right!! I was extremely thankful she was there to lead me around. I would have been totally lost and much more frustrated. It's difficult enough to try to understand their English. It gave fresh meaning to Jesus, our High Priest, ushering us into the throne room before God. And He does it because he loves us, not because it's a job. Hebrews 4:15, 16; 7:25
On the 23rd Riviera hosted a Christmas party. We weren't going to go at first since it cost around $10 a person! but figured why not. I'm glad we went. Every kid got to make a gingerbread house. Sen and Langston got the last two. They had facepainting which we didn't do and they had made another snowman craft before we got there. We arrived 45 minutes late. Moms who were helping had Santa hats on, a couple of young girls were dressed as elves. It felt like being home with all the commercialism and loud Christmas music. Then in came a very thin, dark Santa Claus. Turns out he is Filipino. Kids took pictures with him and then received a gift. We finallly stood in line though Langston only wanted the gift, not a picture with Santa. All the boys got a battery-operated toy motorcycle that played Fur Elise. Girls got a clear plastic purse. All in all Langston enjoyed himself and was very proud of his toy motorcycle.
Christmas Eve we attended the Grace Fellowship service. It lasted one and a half hours but ended well with a nice flute solo by Amy and Melissa Mitchell doing a presentation of "Twas the Night Jesus Came". Mannheim Steamroller's Silent Night was playing in the background. Afterwards I learned she is mom to Nate, whom Langston had befriended earlier. They're both 5 and she homeschools. She said "half the church" homeschools. It was a great gift of encouragement since I didn't know if there were many homeschoolers or not. Hopefully we can get together.
Christmas morning Langston opened his "lego" train we bought at Carrefour. He and Jon worked on it all morning. In the afternoon we went to some friends' house and had a traditional Christmas dinner with turkey, stuffing and the works. Langston played well with Angela, 3, while Pablo, 16 months, did his own thing. We had a white elephant gift exchange which was funny. We ended up with a glass fox and a Mickey and Minnie plaque with Claudia and Kendall's wedding anniversary on it. It was nice to get to know their houseguests better as well.
Friday was church day again and in the afternoon there was another trip to the dunes. We didn't go in as far so we were able to park our car at the bottom of a dune, a very large dune. There were about 20 four-wheelers zooming around like little bees. Fortunately they took off after awhile. Langston enjoyed the dunes, but didn't go up and down like before because this one was really big and hard to climb. Once on top you could see miles of more dunes and the sunset was beautiful. We cooked out and sang Christmas and other songs. Jon and Zach led the music. The evening got a little long for our little boy but he seemed to enjoy himself in the sand.
Somewhere in the last two weeks we got a little black and white rabbit. Langston named him Spot, Hun Bun, "whatever we wanted to call him". Trying to do a kind deed I gave him some carrot sticks and even an apple core one day. It seemed to give him diarrhea from which he never recovered. I don't think he lasted a week with us. I found him one afternoon after we'd returned from the playground. Langston was at Sen's. I called Jon to rush home so we could break the news to Langston together. I envisioned him crying himself to sleep because of our lost bunny. Jon obliged and came home shortly. When Jon broke the news to him, Langston said, "He died? Can we go to the pet store to buy another one?" So much for my tenderhearted son. Under the circumstances I was glad there wasn't more of an attachment there. He was sad afterward and said it was too bad the bunny had died. We made a special trip to buy a shovel and buried Bunny behind our back wall. We have no plans to buy another one right away. Maybe we'll try a goldfish!