On Saturday we went to the "Art" exhibit at Grace's nursery school. The teachers went to a lot of trouble to show the work the children do. Each room had a different theme. Grace couldn't believe we were in her own classroom - it was decorated so differently. Late in the afternoon we drove to the Elephant Orphanage. We adopted an elephant for a year for Christine, she loves elephants. It was so interesting. We were there when there were no crowds and when they fed the elephants in their cages and stalls. They ranged in age from 5 months to 2 1/2 years. We adoped the 5 month old. The head trainer told us she had a 50/50 chance of survival. We asked about the baby rhino we had seen two years ago. He was so cute, but he has since died. He also told us about an 8 year old rhino that they finally released in the wild three weeks ago - he was killed by the wild rhinos because they are very territorial and knew he was different. There are keepers who stay with these elephants for a long time, and help them transition into the wild when they are around 2 1/2 - 3 years old. They have beds right in the stalls and sleep there and feed them every 4 hours or so, just like regular babies. If anyone is interested in this orphanage - at the IMAX theaters in April you will be able to see quite a film about them. I kept asking the trainers if they were in the film!!!
Kristoffer is looking for another job - probably out of Africia. When they leave here, they will miss Rose. Rose is their housekeeper/nanny. She is the third lady that Lisa has had - and the third time was the winner. She is wonderful. She is a great housekeeper and is amazing with Grace. Grace loves her and she seems to love Grace. She is waiting for permission from the Canadian goverment to come and work there. There is a family trying to sponsor her. If she would go, she would leave her daughter with family. Her daughter goes to a private school, which Rose works to pay for. Kristoffer says if she gets into Canada (not sure that will happen), she would probably find someone to marry there and stay. She keeps asking about the cold weather.
It has started raining here, and is a little cooler. Of course Mike and I are just in short sleeves, but a lot of people have winter gear on.
We went to the US Embassy to file Noah's papers. You have to go through several layers of security. When we started at the entrance, Lisa told the female guard that she could not use her security wand on her because of her pacemaker. Well the woman went right ahead and tried to do it! Then we proceeded to the next security stop. There was a building where we had to turn in our cell phones, no pictures are allowed at anywhere near the property. Kristoffer said if I tried to take a picture of the front, guards would come after me. Then we went into the building where visas and passports were processed. I was very surprised to see so many Muslim women with children and others with them. They were either looking for visas to get into the country or trying to get visas for family members. Lisa said a lot of them had American Passports and that they were from Somalia. Many may have gone into the country and got married, then tried to bring family there also. I am not too happy about our visa process! It is too easy!!!
I try to keep my camera handy to take different pictures. I missed a good one yesterday. We were close to Lisa's street, when I saw a women along side the road. She had a basket, which hung by some kind of cloth from the her head down her back. Well inside the basked were live chickens. Last time we were here, we saw a bus with live chickens tied to the roof.
We went to the butchers on St. Patrick's Day to try and get some corned beef. They knew what I wanted and said on March 16 and 17 they got requests for it. They use to make it themselves, but didn't have enough interest - so no corned beef and cabbage!!!!! We settled for beef stew!! While I was there, I browsed a little and thought they had good looking meat - then I saw chicken toes!!! Wonder what they use it for!!
Noah on St. Patrick's Day
CHICKEN FEET!
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