Random Thursday thoughts

Miriam with electronics – Miriam is already a whiz at electronics.  We brought our Ipad loaded with movies (that don’t work outside the US) and a few games for her.    She has only seen one for 4 days and she can maneuver the screens as well as I can.  She can open and close pages, scroll pictures, and can save pictures she likes and delete pictures she doesn’t like.  She has also figured out the camera.  She likes to take pictures of her and Momma and then look at the pictures on the view screen.  I love the one of their toes (with their matching painted toe nails).

 

Hello Kitty – This girl loves Hello Kitty.  When we arrived, our room already had Hello Kitty stickers on the door.  Miriam has now added to the collection.  She has put Hello Kitty stickers on paper, on herself, on us, on her sunglasses, and on the bed (until Momma stopped her).  She also has a Hello Kitty play set with Hello Kitty plastic figurines.  These she has named with people in our family and kids from the orphanage.  She loves setting them up and then taking a photo of them.  We do this at least once or twice per hour.  And when she is not doing that, she is kicking a ball.

 

Out to eat -  Miriam did not have a nap today and we ate lunch in the room so we went out to a restaurant for an early dinner.  We wish we had a picture of the restaurant but we are not allowed to take pictures in public in the DRC so we will do our best to describe it.  Let me start out by telling you the name – The Cosmopolitan Restaurant.  The Cosmo (Cosmopolitan) is located inside a shopping mall like you have never seen before.   The bottom level is as one dad here described like a bankrupt Sears…. a little bit of anything you could think of… in no particular order – some new, some used - it is a grocery store, toy store, electronics store, sports store, hardware store, jewelry store, and deli – all rolled into one.  The upstairs, which you can get to via an all glass elevator (that Miriam loves) has a pharmacy, beauty salon, money exchange, clothing store, and foosball and plastic playhouses placed randomly around the perimeter.  As you get this picture in mind, this is the view from the Cosmo.  We could watch shoppers below us peruse the aisles of bottled water.  A brilliant white baby grand piano with dead flowers on it provided extra ambiance.  The food was really good.  Kerry and I had a baguette with curry sauce and Miriam had a huge plate of chicken and rice.  Her plate had a fried egg underneath the rice and she dug through the rice with her fingers to pull out the egg.  I am sure over the next week we will find another time to experience the Cosmo.

Mama, Papa, and Miriam in her sleep hat.