Thursday

It's been a pretty mellow day and half around here since our friends left the house. Naptimes and bedtimes are going pretty smoothly, which is helping us all out in the sanity department. Last night, after we turned off the lights, Mark went outside to make some phone calls for work.  I stayed in our room, listening to Robert talk to himself in the dark for about 30 minutes before he finally nodded off. The funny thing was, as much as I could tell, he was only speaking in English. So, I laid in bed in the dark, hearing whispers of "Be gentle … be careful … tickle, tickle…" coming across the room, as if he was going through his database of English phrases.

This morning we went back to the IOM for the little guy’s medical exam and everything went well. Not too much waiting and, as opposed to our visit earlier in the week, the doctor was very kid-friendly. Next we went to the lawyer's office to get some help filling out visa application forms and then went out to a restaurant for lunch with our driver and a social worker. We were completely inept at ordering and every attempt of theirs to explain the situation to us led to more confusion. Hamza finally ordered a plate of things for us to try (most of which we already eat here on a fairly regular basis), and we figured out (I think) that if you just say you want "local food", you will get a plate of matooke (steamed and mashed green bananas), posha (kind of like very fine, bland grits), yam, sweet potato, Irish potato, pumpkin, greens and mashed groundnut sauce, which is all pretty good with us. I was not loving, on the other hand, the goat dish that Hamza ordered. The boys liked the meat taste pretty well, but there were a few pieces in there that I cannot even guess what body part they would be. (Or maybe I can guess and that is the problem.) Anyway, I would post a picture, but honestly I can't even bear to look at it.

The other big news at lunch was that Mountain Dew has come to Uganda! Stella asked us if we had heard of it. We told her yes, but we don’t drink it. Mark said that he used to drink it some when he was a kid and she was shocked. She said it had just come to Uganda in the past few months. Good things come to those who wait??

We wrapped up the day with a good dinner of spaghetti and meatballs, made by Mark, and now it's time for us to turn in for the night. We hope you have all had a good week.