Home!

D and I moved into our new place and it, so far, is more fabulous than I anticipated. We have what I think is a beautiful lounge with 3 coffee colored walls and one red, the one with the window facing out to our backyard which is yet to be developed into a beauty of its own. Our kitchen was nothing to be excited about, except that it has a fabulous window looking out onto our neighbors and the courtyard that our kids roll around in, but it now is super cool since Darren "decorated it" by putting pretty beans, lentils, and spices into jars. I'd say it pretty much expresses us and it's so great to smell curry wafting through the air every day. I think of our neighbors who will be fasting from sun-up to sun-down during Ramaddan and wonder how I am assessed through my kitchen window as I reach for a cookie when I please throughout my days. Should I be fasting too?

J and I had a discussion about how the women dress here, many of whom are totally covered, with the exception of their eyes. I decided to bring it up at the playground with a covered woman, who was the topic of our conversation, in the distance. (I had heard that some children could be scared of the appearance of covered women, reasonable I think.) So we talked briefly about how it was part of what they believe and that some women wear different colors of fabric and some only cover their heads, not their faces. About five minutes later Jesse was yelling 'Hey mom, I see a woman with a red thing on her head but her face ISN'T covered!" He was so proud on his applied education. Then we hung out with a totally covered woman who was pushing her niece on the roundabout (merry-go-round) and talked about the school situation here. We talked about the large Muslim home-schooling community and not having to put J in kindergarten (reception here) even though most people already have their 4 year-olds in it. It was great to have a lot in common with her, learn a lot, and watch my kids laugh with her neice Tayyibah.

I have a grocery store, vegetable markets, a hole-in-the-wall (atm), Starbucks, bargain theatre, big green park, and farm all within 5 to 10 minute walks from our house and am finding it a joy to get out and about here. So glad we don't have to cross town for our basics. In a minute, I will head to Curry's to look at prices on electric tea-kettles. Seems like a must have here.

Our internet and phone access is limited now as we search for a service and become qualified (with a debit account here) so you may not hear form me much in the next couple weeks and that explains my absence but my friends and family are on my heart and we shall be in touch when modernity comes to my home. I have a toilet with a chain that has a tank at the top and sometimes modernity evades us but I have to say I am a modern woman in the way that I love my internet connection and having the world at my fingertips so to speak. And absence definitely makes the heart grow fonder.