Five Alive

Elio turned 5- FIVE is so much more than four. More than just one more year. It seems monumental, and for me, he is my last one, so it is the last chance I get to have five in my house, to be the mom of five.

So much seems to change at 5. They are open to the world and the world is open to them. One blogger compared it to a roller coaster. But when I imagine five in my head, it's a revolving door. They don't have much of a filter- whatever's in their heads comes straight out their mouths. Mostly they are confident and self-assured. The world hasn't beaten them down yet. At 25, I wish I'd been astute and introspective enough realize the value of the unbridled confidence and peace I'd had when I was five, that slowly got lost along the way. Lost and then regained again at 38 when you start to say, "I want to be a respectful person and endeavor to make the world a better place, but I am who I am and I'm not going to apologize for it anymore."

So the revolving door means the door is open to the whole world- and they are giving us their very own interpretations back out at an amazing rate. The door is spinning. At the same time, five is absorbing the world like crazy, eager to be independent and learn anything. Sure, they are stubborn little folks, and their search for independence and self is at odds with this almost innate drive to take the world in. "I will learn, but I make the rules, and I will have opinions about what I learn and do it myself because I am no longer part of you."

That is where Elio and I sometimes have problems.
Because as a mom, you feel so elated when they start sounding out letters, tying their shoes, getting their own food (sometimes without asking), but I have to say, even though I was one of those who considered infants a bit clingy and parasitic, it does make my heart sink a little lower to know he doesn't need his mommy as much anymore.

But even though he insisted on three birthday cakes, says he'll never cut his hair, is adamant that B and b are different letters, he still says he wants to live with me forever and wants only me to put a Band Aid on when he falls down. That is the beautiful contradiction of five.

Flood in Southern Mozambique-- at least 70,000 people displaced

Gaza province, one of the 2 provinces, where our project works with community health workers, has been hit by horrible flooding.  The whereabouts of three of our staff were unknown yesterday, but I just found out that 2 have made it back to Xai-Xai (pronounced Shy-Shy) today by helicopter.  Now only one person, the Save the Children driver, is unacccounted for. Unfortunately, yesterday the Limpopo River, which passes right next to Xai-Xai, topped its banks, flooding the entire city, where almost all our Save the Children staff in Gaza province live.  Luckily most had evacuated prior to the flooding.  The BBC article (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-21206347)  estimates that 70,000 people have been displaced, but this was before Xai-Xai flooded yesterday.  Another development is that the road connecting the capital, Maputo, with the rest of the country has been completely cut off.  The UN is looking for additional funds as most of the displaced people have no shelter and many are still on rooftops or living in the middle of roads. Below are some photos of a World Food Programme/Save the Children aerial assessment mission to the areas yesterday.  They tell the story the best. 
Save the Children has not yet set up a specific mechanism to donate to the flood victims, but if you're interested in helping, check www.savethechildren.org.  I'll also update on the situation here.

People stranded on rooftops, Guija district

Rescue in process, Guija

Limpopo River, near Xai Xai-  normally the water is about as wide as if your your index finger

Trip to NZ

We were fortunate to take a trip to one of the most beautiful places on Earth for Christmas and New Years..NewZealand. Even more fortunate because we got to visit friends and family there. We spent one week with my friend Michelle and her family in Auckland and another on the South Island with my cousin, her family and my aunt and uncle. My mom and dad also flew in from Seattle and met us on the South Island- what a treat.
I've given up on New Years resolutions to be a better blogger because with work and family, it's just a goal I cannot meet, but I do vow to keep it alive and put more photos on- we got an iPad for Christmas...mostly me caving into Nalia asking me for one at least twice a day, but I do admit I love it and the camera and video are great. Below are a few...

Nightmare on Mom Street

Nightmare on Mom Street.... this is how a blogger dubbed Halloween, presumably because of the candy?  Getting together a costume?  But for me, the candy is no nightmare.  Each year, the American Embassy hosts a Hallowmen party at the USAID compound- and because the people at the compound are all privileged diplomats, they can order AMERICAN candy on the internet and hand it out to all the kiddies. 
Reeses, Smarties, Tootsie Rolls abound.  This is a dream, no nightmare, for a deprived sweet tooth like me. 

This year, however, there were two potential nightmares: The first was forced socializing/competition with too many type-A Americans-  at all these little gatherings, I get this deja vu feeling of the lunchroom cliques at Chaska High School...  and it just makes me want to barf all over again.  So, rather than pretending to like and mingle in the cliques that everyone else is pretending don't exist, all I wanted to do was sit under a tree reading Tina Fey's Bossypants, and chow down on Reeses peanut butter cups all by myself.  I didn't get the first part of this wish, but I did get the second part- the Reeses.  Yes, I shamelessly and pathetically went up to the American Ambassador, who was dressed as a hippie, and asked for a Reeses. 

The seond potential nightmare was getting Nalia's friend into the party.  American style, the event was well-planned, and you were supposed to sign kids up at least 5 days in advance.  While that may work in someplace like America, it doesn't work so well here.  As my Mozambican colleague says, 'in Mozambique, you can only get people to think about what to eat for dinner after lunch is over.'  So, while Nalia had promised her friend Francisca that she could go, Francisca was not on THE list.  Francisca is Portuguese and was uber-excited about the Halloween party... so I didn't have the heart to tell her we couldn't take her because she wasn't on some stupid list. 

So I told her she had to sneak in.  The problem was I couldn't figure out how to say 'sneak in' in Portuguese.  Luckily Nalia was able to explain what we had to do.  And since most of the Americans working in the Embassy here can't really speak Portuguese, we all agreed beforehand that we would use Portuguese as our secret language while the actual sneaking in was taking place.  When we got there, the community liaison officer checking the list was super-frazzled and stressed out, so Nalia and Francisa just walked in. 

The kids got good booty.  The morning after, while everyone was sleeping, I did what lots of moms do but never talk about.  I went into their loot bags. I used to feel bad about this, but don't anymore.  Maybe it's a combination of getting older and not caring what others think as much, along with realizing that some things aren't such a big deal.  I minimized hurt feelings and harm to my children by taking Whoppers from Nalia's bag (she doesn't like chocolate), and Bit-o-Honeys from Elios... what kid actually eats Bit-o-Honeys?  And they still haven't noticed.  To assuage my own guilt, I also let them eat 2 pieces of candy for breakfast. 

Nalia was a zebra wearing a black tutu. 

Elio in his homemade Batman costume...Darth Vader is Elio's friend, the one who climbed the roof with him

On the roof

Elio has a will of steel.  And until yesterday, I didn't totally realize that his stubborn head mixed with being a mischievous 4-year old can be quite dangerous.  Elio had a friend over, and they decided to play outside.  I was tired, so I thought it'd be ok to lie on the couch for 15 minutes or so before going outside to check on them. 
When I opened the door, there they were, front and center, on the ROOF of our porch.  Elio, seeing absolutely nothing wrong with what he had done, waved at me.  I implored them that they needed to get down right away... not realizing how they got up! It turned out they had opened the gate to the front yard, and climbed on a pile of rocks to get on top of the fence that goes around our house.  Then, they shimmied down the fence, and climbed the bars to the top of the roof. 
I demanded they both get down, and told Elio I would help them, but he rebuffed my offer, so I just stood behind him with my hands cradles, ready to catch any falling bodies. 
Afterwards, when I was telling his friend's dad what happened, the friend's dad asked his son, "Why did you go on the roof?"
"Because Elio told me to."
Great... I'm thinking, the authoritarian, tyrannical friend. 
Then the dad went on, "So weren't you scared on the roof?"
"Elio said he would protect me."
"And how was Elio going to protect you?"
"He told me not to jump."
I turned and looked at Elio... He nodded very seriously, affirming that he had been earnestly trying to protect his friend by telling him to not jump off the roof. 

Dubai Ninjas

We flew through Dubai on our way home from the US. There were four of us:  Nilda, my Brazilian friend, Nalia, Elio, and me.  None of us had ever been to Dubai or the Middle East, so we were eager to get to know a new place.  Our layover there was from 7pm to 5am the following morning... Emirates Airlines, presumably due to all its oil wealth, is very generous about taking care of passengers during these long layovers, so we received free hotel, free transport, and a free dinner.  Nilda needed a visa, so they also gave her a free one of those.  After the 14 hour flight from Seattle, we were all ready to move around... and the kids were very curious about being in a new part of the world.

While Nilda was picking up her visa, the call to prayer came on the loudspeaker at the airport.  Elio started a sing-a-long session, belting out along with the 'music' like it was Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.  I quickly informed him this was NOT music, and PLEASE STOP.  Next, it was on to the way people were dressed.  Elio is 4, so he's not embarrassed about much of anything.  He also really likes Lego Ninjago right now.  After watching all the women gliding around the airport in their black hijab, with only their eyes showing, Elio asked very innocently, 'Hey Nalia, are those people in black with only their eyes showing Ninjas?' 

Since were weren't tired that night due to he time difference between Seattle and Dubai (11hrs!), we decided to go on a night tour of the city... this worked out perfectly because it was still 39 deg C at 9pm... imagine what it wouldn've been like during the day?  We saw the Burj Khalifa, tallest building in the world and went to one of the manmade islands, AND we got our last hit of McDonalds right next to a beach on the Persian Gulf. 

With Grandma and Grandpa on the ferry leaving Bainbridge Island

On the biggest Ferris wheel in the world

Ferris Wheel

In front of a mosque in Dubai

Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world

We went hiking last week with a friend of mine from college, Jen, her son Jasper, who is in the midst of potty training, and my friend Nilda, who is from Brazil and visiting the US for the first time.  We drove and drove to the top of Blue Mountain in Olympic National Park.  When you're at the top, and it's clear, you can see all the way to Vancouver, BC, the Straits Juan de Fuca, Vancouver Island.  Unfortunately our day was not clear.  We could see about 10 feet in front of us, and we ended up temporarily losing Nilda, who as a Brazilian from near the equator, had never experienced such cold temperatures in her life.  The trail is a loop, but Nilda is learning English, and had not understood when we talked about it being a loop-she had thought we would turn around and go back.  So she sat down about half way through and waited for us.  Now she knows what a loops is. 

Jen's son, Jasper, takes a potty break, and gets a visit from a very friendly deer.