Meet baby Candy - this precious little one as sweet as her name! We were so thrilled to visit her and her parents on day 3 of our "vacation."
After her tragic miscarriage two years ago, Candy’s mommy was on bed rest a lot while pregnant with Candy. Although there were some serious warning signs throughout this pregnancy, there is little that can be done for mom or baby in this small town. S joined us in begging for Candy’s life to be spared so it was extra special for her to see baby Candy happy and healthy.
S was so excited! She waited so patiently for her turn to hold baby Candy.
After our visit with them, we crashed at the hotel for afternoon naps. Not bad for $15/night as long as you don’t mind providing your own toilet paper, drinking water, and soap. I checked for bedbugs before we paid as we got eaten alive the last time we stayed in a local hotel and so far, so good.
That evening we met up with S’s best friend Hope and her family. Her dad was our language teacher when we were here and her mom is one of my dear friends, more dear every time we see them! We took them out to eat at the one decent western restaurant in this city for their first ever hamburger. And it was hit! Although not especially amazing by our standards (we’re from cattle country after all), he said it was one of the best things he’d ever eaten. We also ordered pizza for the girls and what were supposed to be Italian noodles as well as the worst enchilada I've ever tasted. I also ordered fried rice for the table in case everyone hated the weird “foreign food.”
Taking out local friends is a bit daunting here. Since we’re living out of a hotel room I couldn’t exactly cook for anyone which didn’t leave a lot of options. The trickiest part when hosting people is ordering which usually falls to me as the wife of the host. You don’t really order a dish for each person individually but you order at least one dish for every person present usually rounding up to an even number and then all the dishes are shared “family style.” You have to order a lot in order to communicate generosity and love for the people you’re hosting, but not so much that you might appear wasteful. I recently heard a foreigner whose been here for five years say, “My goal this term is to get really good at ordering food when eating out.” It was nice to hear that I am not alone in my difficulties in this area but also depressing to think that this could still be a stressful thing 3.5 years from now. Thankfully there’s grace for all that! And this meal was a hit, nonetheless. After dinner we went to the park and the kids played and the grown-ups talked. We are so blessed to have such special friends.
