Wednesday, June 19, 2013

John B Dykes, Hand Shaking Monkeys and Lock that woman up!

Internet here has been a little sketchy the last couple days, so we haven't posted anything in a while.  The week is flying by and our court date is fast approaching - next Wednesday with the adoption board and Thursday with the actual courts.  In the mean time we have adjusted quite well to living here.  I have gotten used to the heat, and Val is really mastering Guyanese cooking.  Last night we had provisions - root vegetables and plantains boiled in coconut milk with hot sauce and cane sugar.  Tonight was curry chicken, rice and roti.  Val didn't make the roti, but the curry she made was fantastic.
The three boys are eating her food up like crazy but my daughters prefer peanut butter sandwiches
Keem had two pb sandwiches dipped in curry sauce for dinner tonight!
Sunday was a nice day.  We want to a different church and it was also two and a half hours long!  Must be the norm down here.  All of our Free Reformed readers would appreciate that we started the service with a hearty rendition of a John Baccus Dykes psalter, number 293, I believe.  (Rebels who have dared to show)  It was sung by a male choir, accompanied by a keyboard doing a loud drum beat, a bass guitar and a flute!  All organ loving purists out there( Uncle Gary ) would have been having anxiety attacks.  Also a woman was removed from church after speaking in tongues or something, not sure what, and then went on screaming prophecies at the congregation from outside the window.  Several times the pastor stayed calm and the elders left the church to escort the woman down the street. After the fifth episode he had lost his patience and yelled " somebody call the police and get that woman locked up!"  We talked to a lot of friendly people after the service, and several people recognized us.  We caught up with a friendly cab driver who had shuttled us around the day before, a woman who worked at Keem's orphanage, and even his paediatrician worships there.  Great sermon about the biblical description of fatherhood.
We spent the aft at the sea wall, which is a concrete wall that holds back the tide.  (Georgetown is six feet below sea level at high tide)  We were there at low tide and the beach is about four hundred feet to the water.  The water looks like chocolate milk from all the silt flowing from the Demarrara river.  The kids were pretty excited to see thousands of crazy fish with eyes on top of their heads sitting in an inch of mud. When approached they took off skipping on the surface of the water, like flying fish.
We also went to the zoo this week, which was pretty awesome.  The kids loved it.  They have the most beautiful macaws, a very playful giant otter, a sleepy jaguar and lots of turtles (Jacks favourite).  There was a cage full of anacondas that could be touched by poking your fingers through the cage.  There also was a cage full of black caimans (alligators, one about ten feet long) behind a flimsy chain link fence.  We didn't let our kids touch those!  The high light of the trip was this very friendly monkey who  extended his arm out of the cage and shook hands with all of the kids.  Keem was a little hesitant at first, but he eventually reached out and touched the monkey too.
Keem is fitting in with us really well.  We have noticed he has two modes, one where he is calm and very content to sit with either Val or me and just suck his thumb.  The other mode is when he is crazy hyper and becomes a real wild man.  We often have to pull him down from climbing the steel bars that cover our windows, as he is able to get six feet up, and then falls backwards onto the couch!  He runs around like a maniac and we have to sit him down before he smashes into things.  Hopefully he mellows out when the novelty of his new family wears off.  He is doing very well in the pool especially since its only been a few days of swimming.  He floats around in his life jacket and loves jumping off the side into our arms.
Fortunately he has gotten rid of his fever, only to be replaced by some painful looking cold sores.  Staff at the home said this was normal for him because he is a huge thumb sucker and the cream we had been using should clear it up, but when we noticed them inside his mouth this morn, we decided to take him in to doctor to get checked out.  Val got some pills and better cream and some good advice on how to care for it so hopefully it heals up quickly.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi, just some mommy advice: fever and then sores in and around his mouth could be a virus called "hand foot mouth disease" check to see if he has any sores or spots on his hands and feet, for this would confirm this "diagnosis" Also if that is what it is, your younger children may get it. Very common in groups with many children! So happy things are going well for you all. Take care
Connie (love the updates)

Elizabeth said...

So good to read your update. Can't believe court is already next week! Hope ou got my email.

Wilma Pennings said...

I am laughing almost to tears! Psalters with drums and guitars! People would faint! And the crazy lady! I look forward to hearing these stories from you Derek! Miss you all. Stay safe. Love you!