Day 15-His New Groupa

Maria's View-

Yesterday, before I handed him off to his nanny from his old groupa a final time, I held him so tightly and prayed over him.  And I've been praying ever since, that God will make this transition a good one!  We arrived this morning and rang the buzzer on the door.  The nanny opened the door pretty quickly and invited us into the office area right inside the door, motioned for us to sit down.  We gave her our passports and away she went.  I peeked down the hallway and there were 3 little blonde headed boys sitting on potty chairs.  The nanny scooted the potty chairs out of the way, boys still on them, so that she could get through.  I also noticed that the hallway wasn't just a hallway, it's kind of like a bathroom of sorts, complete with a bathtub.  I noticed cubby holes on the wall numbered 1-10 and a potty chair in each cubby.  So I believe every child must be assigned a number.  I wonder if they will start potty training our little boy?

They brought our little dude out to us, all dressed in the new groupa clothes and shoes.  He seemed content, not happy, not excited, just pleasant.  I gave him the biggest hug ever and headed outside with him.  We did our normal stuff and he seemed fine, not his normal happy and smiley though.  He fell asleep again in the swing.  I really think he may have allergies and the nanny didn't wash his eyes and nose this morning so he was a little icky.  I'll bring wipes every day to clean him up myself!  So honestly, if he has allergies, that may explain the sleepiness that he's having.  It may be draining him.  This place has THE most pollen I have ever seen.  It beats MS to pieces!   You are constantly walking through a haze of yellowness as you walk outside and I am thanking God that I got a bottle of Zyrtec before coming here!  I would be in bad shape. 

He had an incredibly soggy diaper on.  The nannies from the last groupa, at first, didn't change him a lot...but they started changing him before we got there so his diaper was always dry.  I hope these nannies start changing him more, too!  He's such a skinny boy and when his diapers are so wet, it just weighs him down and hangs on him!  I would bring some and change him myself but I don't want to overstep any boundaries... There are absolutely no hiding places to where I can slap a clean one on him really quick!  And then, I don't have a place to throw it away and I really don't want to smuggle out a dirty diaper in my purse. :-)  Soon, sweet boy, you will have all the clean diapers you want!

So the evening visit went well too!  We got there right at 4 and they asked us to sit and wait just inside the door.  There was the little boy sitting on the potty again, but this time, the nanny was feeding him, too!  okay, whatever.  The nanny came back and motioned that she needed to feed "Finn" so we sat and waited and it was VERY noisy, lots of crying, fussing, and then we could faintly hear our little dude croaking away.  Instead of crying or screaming, he growls and croaks.  It's stinkin' cute.  I think it's pretty awesome that we can already pick out his little voice out of 10 little ones from the next room.  So meal time is generally loud because they feel like they have to compete for food (or at least this is what I have heard).  We will probably move our visits to 4:30 so that he's not rushed while eating, but I'm pretty curious to hear him again tomorrow so I think we will get there at 4:00 again.

So she handed him off to us and he latched on to my neck until we got outside.  I put him down so that he could practice his walking and he toddled right over to a hedge and started shaking and pulling off the leaves.  I know I mentioned that he may have allergies, but I couldn't resist letting him do it because I really just don't think he's ever had the opportunity to explore like this!  So I let him play a bit and I'll probably regret it tomorrow!

We had a great visit with him.  I noticed that if I don't get him down on the floor of the play shed and tickle, rub, scratch his back, etc. he is just content... if I do all of these things, it peps him up to where he's in a happier mood. 

But anyway, tonight will be his first night in this new room.  I'm looking forward to seeing how he does in the morning!  Please continue to pray for him!  THANK YOU!!!



Chris's View:

Hey ya'll.  Have you ever been walking around and see a sign that says "Post No Bills"?  I know they used to be big back when I was growing up.  I would see these signs on light poles around the campus at Southern Miss and various spots around Hattiesburg.  I used to think, "Do we really need to tell people not to hang stuff on the light poles?"  Well, I guess they really did need to tell some folks!

This is what you get if you don't tell folks not to hang advertisements on your light poles!  We have like maybe a dozen large light poles between the Karavan and our apartment.  EVERY single one of them is like this.  It's almost as if an advertising machine came along and puked up commercialism all over the place!

It's not limited to light poles either.  On the street side we have the light poles, on the other side of us we have a fence, and it is plastered with advertisements as well.  It's like they think you might miss the 4000 they placed on the light poles, so the better put another 4000 on the fence.  Your senses are overwhelmed with the abundance of fliers and phone numbers.  Our saving grace is we cannot read the writing!  LOL!  I guess that and the fact that it isn't Las Vegas and they aren't advertising prostitutes!  That would make like here dreadful if you were surrounded by that type of filth all day where you are kind of forced to walk.

These places are pretty obvious advertising locations though.  They get creative with it too!  On our walk home, we usually cut down a dirt path... I guess it's a road now, but they even post on fence posts.  This fence is around a power substation type place.  I guess it does get a good deal of foot traffic, as this road dumps out by a little grocery store, but seriously?  They posted on every fence post... yes, 6 feet apart.  I guess they think you might forget during your 2 second walk between fence post one and fence post two... then they repeat another 8-12 times, just to hammer their advertisement home!  I mean, somethings got to give.  This isn't the richest of countries we are in... they like to give off the appearance like they are rich, but that is all a facade.  This cannot be cheap to buy this many fliers, the glue to stick them up, and to pay the person who has to go put them up.  The labor alone must be astronomical, but then again, I guess if you need to feed your family, you'll do whatever you have to do, at whatever wage someone is willing to pay you.

The worst has to be this though.  This is the door to our apartment building.  The problem here is that, as you can see, just to the left of the door is a board for posting things!  LOL!  I guess this billboard just wasn't big enough.  I didn't take a picture of it, but the end of the apartment building is literally covered with advertisements.  It honestly looks like a snake that is shedding it's skin!  There must be an additional 500-1000 pounds of paper covering the end of the building.  I would not be surprised to hear one day that the wall collapsed from a build up of so much paper & glue, that the building became structurally unsound!  Aside from the end of the building though, I would be furious if someone came to my house and posted advertisements all around my front door.  I guess the residents could really care less.  At least these advertisements are way less offensive or nasty than the used condoms in street in front of the apartment!

See ya'll tomorrow!