Today we went with S and R, plus a friend we hadn’t met, to the morse beach park. Soccer seems to be the favorite nice weather activity so the older boys played that while we watched and played a little with R. He is so goofy, i’m guessing very typical 6 year old boy. My partner and I had some trouble reining in the babysitter mode. He is a bit of a trouble maker, bouncing off the walls, and the communication barrier makes gentle instructions difficult to convey.
We spent about 2 hours at the beach, it got a little cold, even with the sunshine, so we were glad to get back inside. Once there we helped R and O with some of their homework. We were served pineapple soda and coconut cookies-how tropical- very tasty. Mrs D was in and out so we only spent a few minutes with her. The daughter-in-law is there often (R’s mom) and its fun to play with their new(er) baby P. She is very cute.
The phrase “it takes a village” definitely applies to this family. There are several generations represented and they all help eachother with everything. Not a thought is given when R’s mom needs to go to the store, of course she can leave the baby here. I think that familial dependability is wonderful to witness, something that I think American families should have more of. On the other hand, however, I don’t think I could spend THAT much time with my immediate family. We have been brought up in a culture that highly values privacy and personal space and there is almost none of that in the D home. I think some aspects of both family habits can be a great balance of togetherness and privacy.

Since Kesha couldn’t join us at the Spring event on Saturday, we visited our family again this past Monday. It was a beautiful day outside, so we decided to take them to the park. We brought a blanket and a Frisbee with us. It was their first time playing Frisbee, and still they were really good! It is amazing how fast they learn things! Even the mom of the family (who is well over 50—I think) played with us. After some Frisbee, they wanted to show us a game they were good at. It was a Nepali game called “gotti.” It’s a game you play with 9 rocks. There are all sorts of rules, and basically you try to catch the rocks in really fancy and complicated ways, and if you pass through the first stage, the levels get harder so it’s harder to catch the rocks. They were so good at the game. I was terrible! They would try to make the levels easier for me because I was so far behind from their levels! It was still a lot of fun though. I remember playing gotti back in Nepal too, but I was in fifth grade back then! I have definitely lost some of those rock catching skills!

As we were playing gotti, we had some friendly people join us with their dogs. When our family saw the dog, they freaked out! They were so scared and started running! Sarah and I pet the puppy, and we told them that the dog was harmless. They were still pretty hesitant, but by the end of the day, we got K to finally pet the puppy! She said it was the first time she ever touched a dog. I think they’ve learned this fear because they have a lot of stray dogs back in Nepal, and the concept of having friendly pets is somewhat strange to them. I don’t think they’re in love with dogs just yet, but at least they’re no longer deathly afraid of them! Overall, it was another very exciting visit! And it was awesome that I got to see them twice this week! And can’t wait to see them again!

On Saturday, I ran into our family and their neighbors on campus! They were actually coming to the Spring Festival hosted by APO with two other students from our class. Surprised and excited to see them, I called Sarah right away to see if she wanted to come with me to join our family at the Spring event. The festival was a lot of fun. The kids were very excited for the easter egg hunt, and they were really fast in gathering up the eggs. I think they got the most amount of eggs out of all of the kids. They were a little confused as to why they were finding eggs, but they didn’t really care—they just saw it as a fun competition. They were even more excited when they found out that there are actually prizes and candy in the eggs! “Look what I found! There’s candy in here!! This will last me the whole month! But I’m gonna make sure to hide it or else my brother will steal it!,” P said. We all laughed when she said this. The kids are so adorable, and it made me so happy to see them so excited. We then went inside Coffey Hall again for games, arts and crafts. They made paper flowers, and butterflies and played all kinds of easter games—cupcake walk, easter egg toss, etc. By the end of the event, they had won so many pieces of candy and cupcakes, and they were super energized from all of the sugar. Overall, I had a lot of fun at the event, and I think they did too! And that was really awesome of the girls to bring them to the event! The family didn’t know what Easter was, and they still probably don’t, but at least they have been exposed to it, and that’s really important in itself.