April 2014 – Page 2 – robinchartier

berries, part 2

We’ve had these “Bahraini berries” several times, but never knew what they were. They look like blackberries, but the darkest ones are low acidity (more of a flat, sweet taste) and the red ones are tart and sour. The farmer’s market was promoting this weekend as a “berry festival” and as the boys were in the petting zoo, Josh and I noticed these trees.

These are the berries. I didn’t know berries ever grew on trees.

the farmer’s market is held on the grounds of the botanical garden — we had wandered into the fruit tree section. They weren’t labeled, but we began to suspect they were mulberries, even though the only ones we had had before were white and dried (in Turkey). A google search on the way home confirmed that they are mulberries.

berries and palms . . . not commonly seen together

The market was slammed today. There were people everywhere and no berries in sight (except for the ones the kids ate off of the trees).

We had made our way past all the vendors when I saw a guy with a wheelbarrow of these styrofoam flats of berries — we pushed through the mob of people and grabbed one of the last ones for around $10. Success!

Yum!

That was a sour one!

Caleb and Camille sat and ate berries while we waited in line for our favorite farmer’s market food: the fried dough balls covered in date syrup. Caleb had to fend off people who wanted to buy his berries: “They aren’t for sale.”

My blondes with berry stained faces captured quite a crowd of attention and photographers. Everyone is really nice and I don’t mind them taking photographs.

Like this adorable little girl in an abaya and hijab with her camera.

The line was long for our doughnuts — Caleb started weaving palm frond crosses (learned in Friday School this past week) to kill time in between bites of berries.

This cute girl told Caleb “don’t forget me when you go to America. I will come with you.” And she asked him to hold up the peace sign like she was doing while her friend snapped photos of them.

Josh finally at the front of the line

Yum!

As one Bahraini man asked: “Were they worth the wait?” Yes, they were.

Calvin update

I’ll let it speak for itself. Josh had the day off today so we spent the day at an island off the coast of Bahrain, soaking up the sun at the beach. I’m thankful that Calvin seems to be feeling better, though I hate that he is plagued by the cough that won’t quit (he’s not exaggerating when he says it’s been a month).

I’ll be back tomorrow with more from the farmer’a market, photos from our island getaway, and other fun spring break happenings. I’m most excited about being able to sleep in tomorrow — if only every day could start at 10 am.

Bahraini Berries

First an update on Calvin. He was pretty sick today (we texted back and forth a few times — thank God for modern technology), but based on his symptoms, I’m pretty sure it’s a reaction to his malaria medication (nausea, vomiting and dizziness). Poor kid. He was feeling useless and discouraged because he wasn’t able to do the work that he was there to do (help build a wall and play with the kids). After being concerned about him all day I was happy to see this update from him tonight on Facebook:

Yesterday went great. We were able to meet the kids that we sponsor at the Hoffman home, and we got to play with them, as well as help them build a brick wall. Today… Not so well. I woke up and threw up 3 times, and took a Motrin, and was able to go to the Hoffman home, where I slept in one of the 2 guest rooms. At lunch, I felt well enough to go and eat just a little food. By about 4 O’clock, I was able to go outside and play around with them a little. We were able to teach them how to play baseball, and football. Even though none if them knew how to play either sport, they picked up really fast. Now I’m about to go eat dinner, and I feel almost normal. (Except for my enormous cough that I’ve had for about a month.) — feeling better.

I’m happy that he seems to be improving, but I think I’m going to recommend he take his malaria medicine with dinner tomorrow so if makes him feel nauseous, at least he can sleep it off.

In between text messages, we were on a berry hunt at the farmer’s market today.

but we were sidetracked by the petting zoo.

For 200 fils/kid (about 50 cents) they could go inside the enclosure with a fistful of weeds and feed the chickens, goats, ducks and other small birds.

I have more great photos to share from the market (and our berries!), but it’s getting late and the internet is running slow tonight. I’ll try again tomorrow. Hopefully by then, I’ll have another good update from Calvin!

Prayer Request

Calvin messaged me tonight from Uganda:

Please pray that he feels better in the morning and that his sickness doesn’t interfere with his ability to work with the team and help out. Thank you!!

Spring Break

Today is the first day of Spring Break — happy day. I slept until 9, stocked up on groceries with Carter and Camille and had nothing else on the schedule. Very nice. Way better than 5:30 drives to soccer practice and a to-do list a mile long.

Yes, I picked this photo with his underwear hanging out on purpose. The boy loves his skinny jeans.

Yesterday we took Calvin to the airport for his spring break trip to Uganda. I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned it here before (between this blog, Facebook, email, iMessage and What’s App? I’m bound to be repeating myself somewhere), but Calvin was invited to go on a mission trip with our friends from Oman. The group is going to go visit and work at several orphanages, including the one that was started in memory of our friends, Michelle and Julia Hoffman, who were killed in 2012.

This link talks about the 3 children’s homes they will be visiting (though the Michelle and Julia home info should be updated to include that the home is finished, and children have moved in as of November 2013) children’s homes

And this link (middle of the page) lists the team members for Calvin’s trip and describes why this is a significant visit for them. April team trip

We’ve had several sandstorms lately (which isn’t helping to get rid of my cough) and makes the skies gray and hazy for days at a time.

I’m so proud of his excitement, enthusiasm, and sense of adventure. He’s come a long way from the boy who was afraid that I would forget to pick him up from Sunday School class.

Funny enough, him leaving highlights the odd schism in my brain. I had not a moment of fear, nervousness, butterflies, anxiety, whatever you want to call it about my baby flying off to a foreign country on his own. I realized this morning that I didn’t even look at a map to see where Uganda is or how far away it is or read up on any potential travel dangers or any of the things that I would feel compelled to do if it were me traveling there. I have every confidence in other people’s abilities and only doubt my own, I guess. That topic would make for several interesting hours with a therapist . . .

I’m sure it helps that he’s traveling with friends who are like family and I know he’s in good company, but it made me feel like a bad mom when so many people said things like “good for you for letting him go” and “this must be so hard for you” when it actually wasn’t. (I know I’m not a bad mom and I don’t need reassurances to the contrary, but their perceived reality and my actual one caused me to stop for a second and say, “How should I be feeling? Oh well, this is me. Carry on.”)

Since he left, he’s been texting me various updates like his arrival in Oman (yay for navigating Passport Control and getting his visa on his own), departure from their layover in Doha (he said they were exhausted from their middle of the night flight) and arrival in Uganda (about to board a bus for a 3+ hour drive to their first destination. Fabulous mother that I am, I’m not sure where the email is that lists his itinerary so I’m not exactly sure where he’s going today. Good grief).

Later in the day we were invited to swim at a going away get-together with some of the kids’ friends. Tis the season for goodbyes as people start leaving for their next duty stations.

After a very hazy day, that got progressively darker and darker, the sky opened up and huge drops started falling. We were pretty well soaked in less than 30 seconds. (I was not swimming. It’s still way too cold for me).

Since rain is wet and pool water is wet, it didn’t interfere with swimming and fun until the thunder and lightening started. This is the craziest spring weather we’ve ever had — it’s raining in April!?

I still love rain. Not sick of it yet.

Camille put herself to bed with the dog. It worked great until the dog got up in the middle of the night to stretch his legs and then she started yelling for him to come back.

The video from the boys’ weekend camp. You can spot Calvin and Carter in there a few times, but it’s not easy. The one place where Calvin is most prominent is when he’s lying down with his underwear on full display, just like in the top picture. (I don’t really care, but we joke about it.)