Coming up to breath!
So, I have been under, trying to get my bearings. I figure if I don’t come up now, I will be out longer than I would like.
We got here in one piece and I can confidently say Amani is my daughter - a chip off the old block. 5 years ago I hopped on a 17 hour plane ride with my 2 year old son who literally run riot. I was this close to disowning the toddler. I kept asking myself, “who is this kid?, where did he come from?” - he couldn’t sit still and he yelled his lungs out, I reached my wits end and in the same breath concluded those were not my genes.
For this plane ride I was bracing myself, keeping my fingers crossed and stuff. Amani sung, clapped her hands and promptly fell asleep. There were a few moments of discomfort but on the whole she was great! In my haste to make it to the airport and all the other issues that were crowding my mind, I forgot to pack her milk and snacks. Which mother does such crazy things? I’m guilty. But you know, she made it through on the funny meals on the plane, Bless God!
At some point I got into a panic thinking, “oh my gosh! She is going to wake up and scream the plane to the ground, then what will I do?’ But no! she was curious about the clouds and the plane wings. After 17 hours we were still good!
She literally stole the hearts of all the guys that met her, they smiled, carried her and she busked in it, she even attempted to follow one of them. What’s with baby girls and grown men? Her Dad is melting butter around her, it’s amazing. Mich, now 7 years old, was a fantastic big brother, he made sure Amani was entertained, he sat still, put on his seat belt and was glued to the movie screen.
We arrived at Dulles (read dallas) airport in Washington D.C.
It felt special to join the queue of US citizens and permanent residents. Castilo was about to finish his shift and we were the last in line. I presented our sealed envelops and passports to him, he verified the information, took our finger prints and showed us which door to walk through to pick our luggage.
Coming from Africa, it was only natural that we were directed to the queue with those whose luggage needed to be checked (Indians, Mexicans, Asians - get the drift?)- just incase we had brought in grasshoppers or something just as weird.
The mexican lady before us was asked 4 times if she had carried dried meat and 4 times she denied, her facial expressions implied that a) she had no idea what the officer was talking about and b) what ever it was, she didn't have it. Three officers surrounded her case and begun to ransack it and all they came up with was what looked like tamarind (sour berries/apedur) - they let her go.
Knowing that I hadn't carried any weird stuff, I said I didn't have anything to declare except my spices - Royco, curry, bla bla. The machine spotted something in my suitcase and the officer was all over me.
'Mom, what do you have in this suit case?"
" urr clothes, shoes ...",
"Mom, I'm going to have to check this case", meanwhile I couldn't for the life of me recall putting in anything out of the ordinary. He finally finds the "things" and asked, what are these? and I said "Paper bead necklaces"
Eh eh! life can be complicated!
The weather is great! I can’t imagine facing obscene summer temperatures with 2 kids who are adjusting to a new environment.
Mich is into his second week of school, yes, we hit the ground running, but so far so good. He is super excited to be here, he thinks Burger King and Mc Donald’s dropped from heaven (we’ve got to eat healthy my boy, remember we are back to the land of big words like calories and stuff).
I’m now a pro on “outside countries”! - everything seems mundane already, maybe because I spend my days applying for jobs. There is no maalo, although Mich cracked me up the other day when I found him staring at a huge furry cat sitting at a neighbors front door. He was clearly calculating which part would be safest to hold, so he could carry it away. To check the situation, I asked him what he was doing, he was so glad to see me,
he said “mummy please help me carry this cat home”,
I said “Mich, this cat probably belongs to these neighbors and I don’t think they would be pleased to find it gone”
he said “It’s a free cat, I asked all the people here if it belonged to them and they said no, so I can take it”.
I was tempted to burst out laughing but with the serious look on his face, it was clearly no laughing matter. We had a brief talk about animals and he seemed satisfied but only temporarily. The boy is into pets big time.
That’s about all for now, I’m still scatter brained at the moment, settling in a new country is major. There is a lot of information to read and keep abreast with but I will get going soon.
We got here in one piece and I can confidently say Amani is my daughter - a chip off the old block. 5 years ago I hopped on a 17 hour plane ride with my 2 year old son who literally run riot. I was this close to disowning the toddler. I kept asking myself, “who is this kid?, where did he come from?” - he couldn’t sit still and he yelled his lungs out, I reached my wits end and in the same breath concluded those were not my genes.
For this plane ride I was bracing myself, keeping my fingers crossed and stuff. Amani sung, clapped her hands and promptly fell asleep. There were a few moments of discomfort but on the whole she was great! In my haste to make it to the airport and all the other issues that were crowding my mind, I forgot to pack her milk and snacks. Which mother does such crazy things? I’m guilty. But you know, she made it through on the funny meals on the plane, Bless God!
At some point I got into a panic thinking, “oh my gosh! She is going to wake up and scream the plane to the ground, then what will I do?’ But no! she was curious about the clouds and the plane wings. After 17 hours we were still good!
She literally stole the hearts of all the guys that met her, they smiled, carried her and she busked in it, she even attempted to follow one of them. What’s with baby girls and grown men? Her Dad is melting butter around her, it’s amazing. Mich, now 7 years old, was a fantastic big brother, he made sure Amani was entertained, he sat still, put on his seat belt and was glued to the movie screen.
We arrived at Dulles (read dallas) airport in Washington D.C.
It felt special to join the queue of US citizens and permanent residents. Castilo was about to finish his shift and we were the last in line. I presented our sealed envelops and passports to him, he verified the information, took our finger prints and showed us which door to walk through to pick our luggage.
Coming from Africa, it was only natural that we were directed to the queue with those whose luggage needed to be checked (Indians, Mexicans, Asians - get the drift?)- just incase we had brought in grasshoppers or something just as weird.
The mexican lady before us was asked 4 times if she had carried dried meat and 4 times she denied, her facial expressions implied that a) she had no idea what the officer was talking about and b) what ever it was, she didn't have it. Three officers surrounded her case and begun to ransack it and all they came up with was what looked like tamarind (sour berries/apedur) - they let her go.
Knowing that I hadn't carried any weird stuff, I said I didn't have anything to declare except my spices - Royco, curry, bla bla. The machine spotted something in my suitcase and the officer was all over me.
'Mom, what do you have in this suit case?"
" urr clothes, shoes ...",
"Mom, I'm going to have to check this case", meanwhile I couldn't for the life of me recall putting in anything out of the ordinary. He finally finds the "things" and asked, what are these? and I said "Paper bead necklaces"
Eh eh! life can be complicated!
The weather is great! I can’t imagine facing obscene summer temperatures with 2 kids who are adjusting to a new environment.
Mich is into his second week of school, yes, we hit the ground running, but so far so good. He is super excited to be here, he thinks Burger King and Mc Donald’s dropped from heaven (we’ve got to eat healthy my boy, remember we are back to the land of big words like calories and stuff).
I’m now a pro on “outside countries”! - everything seems mundane already, maybe because I spend my days applying for jobs. There is no maalo, although Mich cracked me up the other day when I found him staring at a huge furry cat sitting at a neighbors front door. He was clearly calculating which part would be safest to hold, so he could carry it away. To check the situation, I asked him what he was doing, he was so glad to see me,
he said “mummy please help me carry this cat home”,
I said “Mich, this cat probably belongs to these neighbors and I don’t think they would be pleased to find it gone”
he said “It’s a free cat, I asked all the people here if it belonged to them and they said no, so I can take it”.
I was tempted to burst out laughing but with the serious look on his face, it was clearly no laughing matter. We had a brief talk about animals and he seemed satisfied but only temporarily. The boy is into pets big time.
That’s about all for now, I’m still scatter brained at the moment, settling in a new country is major. There is a lot of information to read and keep abreast with but I will get going soon.
Let the boy take the lost cat
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