January 23, 2006

Alive and well, though wet and windswept

We arrived safe and sound on Sunday the 15th, after two full days of travelling. The first surprise was learning that my parents, who had changed their arrival date several times already -- they had planned to arrive at their home before us for a proper welcome-- weren't going to arrive the next day but Wednesday (which changed to Friday, which changed to yesterday, but I couldn't blame them for not wanting to fly with colds, coughs, and the flu). The next surprise was the nearly complete absence of sunshine. Instead, lots of clouds, then buckets of rain, and wind. Great huge gusts of it. The winds are traditional over the holidays, and are in fact known as "the Christmas winds", but they've been coming about a month later for the past few years.

Otherwise, we're all doing well and getting acclimated to life in the tropics. The kids have decided that a little bit of rain isn't going to keep them from the pool ("It's wet anyway," explained Daniel to his silly mother), and only two of the kids have been attacked by fire ants. And, despite my best efforts to do some shopping for my parents, no real milk or Heinz ketchup for the table. So we're making do with powdered milk and Hunt's...

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