Babies, Bike rides & Baboons….

6-6-10

I have such a hard time keeping up with this because so much happens here everyday. Even though we’re just really sitting around doing not a lot of anything….stuff just happens. TIA.

So to start with babies…my goodness they are EVERYWHERE. I mean every woman here seems to have a baby strapped to her back unless she’s too young (even then most of them are carrying their brothers and sisters) or too old (then they might be carrying their grandchild). Obviously, you all know me and well I love children. I love babies! So naturally I gravitate to the children. Well Friday in the market, our house girl Charlotte, was carrying her friends child. My counterpart decided that I should experience something I’ve never experienced before so he had her strap in this 4 week old infant to my back. It was the coolest thing ever! I swear they wrap those babies in so tight that they couldn’t go anywhere if they tried. He started kicking once she got him strapped in and I swear it has to be the closest thing you can feel to being pregnant besides being pregnant. They say they do it because it confirms the mother/child bond that is established during pregnancy so until they are up to 3 years they are strapped onto the moms back. So she literally carries her child for almost 4 years. It’s so beautiful! I loved it. I love babies….

Also, on Friday we were at the market and there was this crazy lady. Seriously crazy. She was singing this song over and over and over and doing the same dance across the whole market while everyone just stared at her. Our counterpart said she wasn’t from our village but had come from another village…ok whatever we just watched until it was dark. It started raining and we all gathered under the roofs while she alone stood in the middle of the market dancing for at least two hours. The next morning we got up pretty early and left for our bike ride which I’ll tell you more about in a few sentences. We started our trip at 8:15 am and rode about 2 to 2 ½ hours away and as we were coming up on this town…there was crazy dancing lady! Doing the same dance and singing the same song. Our counterpart said she had walked all that distance in the dark (at least probably 10 miles). He said she never sleeps! Freaky. She had just as much exuberance as the night before. Insane.

On to the bike ride. Jarod. Oh Jarod. Jarod really wanted to ride our bikes to Lake Kivu. “It’s only 15 km away and we could do it every weekend and relax” he said. So, ok. I’ll go. Although it has been 2 years since I really exercised regularly and probably 10 or more since I’ve ridden a bike…”let’s do it” I say! So off we go. Now a little back info on this country. It is known as the “Land of 1000 hills.” That my friends, is true. Except maybe an understatement. I think we “biked” and by biked I mean pushed our bikes up probably all 1000 of them. All the while, my husband keeps saying “sweetie I think Kivu is probably just around this corner or at least it will go downhill.” Umm…wrong and wrong. It never went downhill. Just uphill. The whole time….until the last leg of our journey when we FLEW downhill for about 20 minutes just to learn that the lake was at least 15 more km. So we turned around and pushed our bikes up this mountain…not hill…mountain for over an hour. SEVEN hours later, that’s right people, SEVEN hours later….we arrived home. 2 raw “uh huhs” and 4 broken wrists later. Oddly enough today….Jarod claims he isn’t that sore. I’m thinking…the next bike ride will be scouted by me before I agree to go.

On to the mouse. So you remember my recent story about the mouse?? Ok, well we bought poison. Last night, Jarod was about to pick up a “log” lying in front of our fire (it was pretty dark) and realized that it was a mouse. That’s right! A mouse. He had eaten the poison and died right there in the middle of our kitchen. He was probably 7 inches long from nose to tail. It was crazy! I was so excited. Then, this morning I am lying in bed and I heard Jarod scream “dang you mouse”. There’s another one. Oh boy. (OK…so big update. This is about 2 hours after writing this blog. Jarod and I are in the kitchen cooking and we’re talking and I hear something sound like it dropped behind me so I turned around and there is a GIANT mouse sitting on the table where we had just cut up the veggies for our minestrone. It jumped down from the ceiling, where it apparently lives and was just sitting there! So I screamed, naturally and forced Jarod to look for it. After we’ve given up, I walk into our living room and THERE IT IS sitting in our fruit bowl! It got scared and ran into our bathroom…all the while I am screaming “JAROD!!!” So then it realizes there’s no where to go in our bathroom and it runs out and almost runs over my foot….I jump into the air screaming like a sissy school girl while Jarod is finally showing up saying “what? where??” It then runs down the hall and Jarod grabs a light…as it runs into our ‘luggage’ room, realizes there’s no where to go in there so comes back into the hall and wablaam! Jarod brings on the heat with a giant piece of wood that we were about to put into the fire and seriously with one AMAZING swing….knocks the thing out in mid run! It was amazing. We couldn’t have done that again if we tried. Oh and by-the-way, it isn’t a mouse. It is a rat. See pictures. The lovely mouse here posing with the hubs’ foot. Oh and that is Sunday adding that to the next sentence….)

That’s all I have for today. A pretty eventful Friday and Saturday. Oh and the baboons…Jarod really wanted to tell that one. So…you’ll have to wait and read his. Miss you all. Thinking of you daily. Love you so much.