May 27 2011
Walking Tour
This morning started off great! I got up – 7 solid hours of sleep – and made coffee. I got ready and then cooked eggs! It felt so good to be able to cook breakfast and start to know where things are, even if it is only in our apartment.
Then we met some friends. They made us a traditional couscous lunch with chicken, zucchini, pumpkin, carrots, potatoes and green peppers. Again, very tasty.
Our friends took us on a walking tour of the city. It is considerably larger than Orlando. We spent almost 5 hours walking and in taxis and I am sure we only saw a bare fraction. The idea was that we would understand the city enough to direct a taxi. Um, nope. I do however have a list of places I could tell one to take me and it would be safe and appropriate for women.
Taxis. This was the one thing I was most afraid of before coming. We will get around mostly by taxi. They do not have seat belts, much less car seats. And the traffic rules are… loose. There are no lanes. At one intersection today we saw a police officer holding the light controls and using a whistle to clear blockages. Cars drive literally inches from each other and everyone uses the streets: people walking, donkey carts, mopeds…
As we got ready to come here I couldn’t shake the feeling CPS was going to come find me for letting my child ride in my lap in a car. The picture of Brittney Spears pulling out of her house with a baby in her lap kept coming to mind.
But when the time actually came, the craziness of hailing a cab, trying to remember to give the right greeting/blessing, making sure I had the right amount of money and saying the right words for directions meant the ride was half over before I realized what was happening. Annada was quick. “Momma! I am a big girl now! I always want to ride with you.”
Of course, Annada was the only one who gave the correct greeting when we got in the cab. And when someone joined us in the cab she did it again. She didn’t seem to be paying attention during our language lesson this morning, but she is clearly learning faster than Marc or I.
Did I mention both of our cab drivers spoke 3 languages!! One even spoke English. Seriously, I need to get Annada in a language school.
During our tour, we stopped to feed the pigeons.
Annada is doing better today. She is still pretty far from adjusted to the time zone though. I am really hoping she goes to sleep soon. How does such a small person do so well on almost a week of little sleep? If she would sleep at normal times and eat the local food, we would be set. Most of the time she is dancing and singing and generally being her happy self.
Tomorrow we are going to have a low key family day. I’m looking forward to it.