Cassette Tape Glory

He made fun of my cassette tapes as soon as we moved in together. Every time we moved, he continued to mock the cassette tapes, cursing their existence as we moved the "bulky" tapes. 

I always said, "Buy me all the CDs or download all the music and I will gladly get rid of the cassettes." Of course, I would never get rid of the nostalgic mixed tapes from friends, live music recorded from radio programs, or my signed tape from 10,000 Maniacs...but the majority would be gone.

Now, we own a 1995 Toyota Rav-4 with a steering wheel on the right-hand side. And guess what? It has a cassette player and no CD player!!!!!

So, who's now glad that I have some cassettes??? 

Na na, na na, boo boo...

Little pleasures.

Obligations

I need to blog.

I know it.

I see Pittsburgh, PA and Woodstock, GA checking daily (these are the "rents" locations, so I know the grandparents want new info on the boy),

but...

there's been a resume and cover letter to submit,

roving toddler to say "No" to,

Olympics to watch,

free tickets to stand in line for for Carifesta, which starts tomorrow (more on this later!),

no internet,

shoddy internet that doesn't allow me to post photos that must accompany my planned posts,

not to mention cooking, laundry, organizing stuff...

excuses, excuses!!

I feel panic, anxiety...blogging shouldn't be an obligation.

I decided when I started this blog that I would try to write at least once a week. I'm already falling behind.

Now I see three BIG weekends with many events planned (Carifesta you see, and Richard's BD).  

When to blog??

Don't worry, my thoughts are here, and there.

They just might not get written down for all of you just yet.

Yeah - Our stuff is here! Do we need it?

Our household effects arrived yesterday! Now we're in the process of organizing and cleaning, while trying to keep Aidan's little sticky fingers at bay. It's very nice to have our own plates, food processor, cookbooks, wine, peanut butter, CDs, the rest of Aidan's stack of books, etc.  --after over two and a half months. We found out from the shipper that the crates were vacationing in the Bahamas for about a month (since June 23). So far, most things appear to be okay and undamaged, which is a relief.

However, Richard is now thoroughly convinced that we have too much "crap"...things that he didn't remember that we had and could have lived without. I suppose there's some of that, and this experience will help us to streamline more than we might if we were living in the same house for 10 years. And I won't mention (okay, I guess I'm mentioning) all the "toys" Richard bought before we left....and when I say toys, I do mean toys: basketball, boche ball set, whiffle balls and bat, tennis racket...luckily he received golf clubs from his sister and brother in-law....and he had to have a grill and grilling tools. And I'm sure I'm forgetting something.

Even with all this "stuff", there are still some things I would like to add -- like an ice cream/sorbet maker. You see, although they have cows and wonderful fruit, it doesn't seem that anyone has figured out how to process the milk to make all of the wonderful dairy products that I love, or make tasty nectars that I so enjoyed in Bulgaria. 

So, that's next on my list of "wants" from the "materialistic/need to consume" side of me. Do I need it?  Of course not, but mango sorbet sure sounds good right now...or nice creamy ice cream, even if it's made with boxed milk. 

I suppose we'll try to get rid of some of the stuff here, but more will ultimately be added....toys are a given I'm sure. 

Stuff, stuff, stuff everywhere....

Standing!!

The boy is getting into the standing position all by himself! He starts on all fours (the first photo) to a squat, and then to a stand, and he's even taken a few steps from the stand position!! Usually he gets too excited and falls down. In the last one he's laughing because he did it!

A Slice of Guyana beyond Georgetown

Hello, all.

I recently had my first chance to make it outside of Georgetown and see some more of this fascinating little country!  Here are a few random observations and photos ...

Driving east from Georgetown, you encounter the interminable village.  It just goes on and on -- sure, there are a few breaks here and there for a cane or rice field, but pretty much the entire distance between the capital city and the border with Suriname is populated.  The one caveat, drive more than a mile south of the main road (if you can find a passage) and you have just left civilization for a thin strip of cultivated land, and beyond that -- the green heart of Guyana! Largely untouched tropical wilds.  More on those later.

For most of the time since its independence from Great Britain - which is to say from 1966 until sometime after the end of the Cold War - Guyana was nominally socialist.  I guess somewhere along the way there was some warm and fuzzy cultural exchange between Guyana and North Korea ... and somehow a street in a town in Berbice province was named in honor of ... 

Maybe it's time for a re-christening!

As we may already have mentioned, there is a sizable Chinese presence here in Guyana.  You judge their presence not so much as by seeing them out and about on the streets (which you don't), but by the ubiquity of their restaurants.  I thought this might just be a capital city phenomenon.  But I was wrong - by a mile.  Just about every little village in the interminable string of them from Georgetown to the Suriname border has one Chinese restaurant.  OK - so you want some interesting juxapositioning of cultures - imagine you're in a mixed Guyanese village (and grossly oversimplifying for simplicity) ... there are the Indo-Guyanese with their colorful temples and mosques, the Afro-Guyanese with their tidy little churches of just about every Protestant denomination imaginable, and then you see a little restaurant with sign bearing Chinese characters!  As for the cuisine - yeah, it's predictable (actually, all the menus are identical) and not very memorable.  And I hear that a typical Chinese restaurant will remain virtually unchanged for decades in Guyana, but the proprietors and hired help will turn over, and over, and over, remaining just long enough to pay off their debts and save a little money for the next leg of their journey, wherever that might (hint - north!) be.

More tidbits later -- remember, small country - two years!  -Richard

 

my little boy

Aidan is 13 months old today...and looking very much like a big boy. I wanted to show some recent photos, but am having trouble uploading. Hopefully you'll see them soon.

I know the most frequent requests I get regarding what to write here is "Tell us what Aidan is doing"....So here are a few tidbits....He stands on his own, then gets so excited that he's doing it that he then falls back on his rump and laughs. He takes standing dives from the coffee table to the couch or to mommy. I think walking is in the very near future. 

He's starting to fall asleep on his own, which I love! 

Words are still alluding us. He says "bye", and "ba" for ball, but most of his utterances are "mmm" while pointing to each different object. I think he'll probably start talking like my brother...he'll start with full sentences! 

He loves to tickle me after I showed him how. He lifts my shirt and puts his little finger in my belly button, and I laugh and laugh, and he laughs. He's a very sweet and loving little boy. I left the house yesterday while he was asleep in the care of our Nanny, Michelle. We didn't get home until after his bedtime. Michelle told me that he kept pointing and looking for me to come down the stairs (when Michelle is here with him, I'm often in our bedroom on the computer and they are playing downstairs). She said he missed me. And my meeting involved talking to the USAID Director about some potential work opportunities. So, the fact that Michelle told me that he missed me for those few short hours...does that tell me to work or not? We could probably save the bulk of whatever salary I make for a nice down payment on a house, and I think I do need the outlet, but it's also fun hanging out with that little man. We will see what opportunities arise - there may be some that are too difficult to pass up. And I do feel very good about our nanny. She is very loving and always telling me what new thing Aidan does each day. She is also very open to reading about child development, so I'm pleased.

So my boy is growing up. I know Richard's excited to take him running or on hikes, and to roughhouse...but I just love the hugs and how he already understands so much. How he loves to read books and really pays attention now. How he gets so excited to go outside or chase after Maggie. 

And soon he'll realize what else we see from the car. Besides my daily reminders to myself to "drive on the left side"...I also have to navigate the many people walking on the side of the road on the small streets (sidewalks are almost nonexistent), the potholes, the crazy minibus drivers, all drivers who seem to beep at you just to tell you they are there, and the animals....Today we encountered horses just meandering along...they are not wild, as they have branded numbers on them, but they were just standing in the middle of the road. We've also had to wait for cows, and little herds of goats (with babies too). The farm animals are not on the farm...there is no farm. They just graze wherever there happens to be grass....in contrast to the nice little farmhouse that Aidan currently plays with on a daily basis (a gift from Grammie and Pops).

We also see the stray dogs that are on the side of the road every few feet it seems. This is why we can't take Maggie for a walk except for in the park or on the sea wall. Seeing the stray dogs as well as owned animals that are not healthy is difficult to see, but also a true indicator of a country without many resources. 

The boy is growing up and will learn about these things...and he'll always be my baby.

our stuff

We just found out that our Household Effects...yes, all of our "stuff", is sitting on a ship at the dock in the Bahamas....taking a vacation and probably getting moldy.  UGGH!!  They don't know when it might set sail, and when it does, it will stop first in Jamaica before coming here. And when will it set sail?....No one seems to know. They told us it would be here two weeks ago.

Most of it doesn't matter, but I would really like to use that next bag of dog food instead of buying a new, and those baby wipes, and my cookbooks and food processor, and all of my belts that I neglected to pack, and....

Alas, one of the "fun" things about life in the foreign service.