Monday's day cont'd...

The kids trickled into the orphanage a few at a time and immediately interrupted my French lesson to say hi. They were very quiet as I finished up the last of my French lesson and went outside to eat. After eating, all the little ones gathered together to sing various songs together. It wasn't too long until they had an audience outside the orphanage walls. After they finished singing, I observed them take turns in a pretend dance competetition where a small piece of carpet served as the stage. It was fun to watch the kids carry on and "get down" with absolutely zero music. The bystanders (kids not in the competition) stood behind the wall, clapping and cheering the dancers on and then were asked to vote by raising their hand for the best dancer. Let me tell you though, little Melanie (5 years) loves to get down and dance like there's no tomorrow-lol. She is adorable when she gets caught up dancing. I hope that one day I can catch the kids on my camera and video them.

Everyday, I usually have to take 2 taxis to the orphanage and 2 back to the apartment. Sometimes it's only one because the taxi driver wants to chat with me. There is an option of riding on the back of a motorbike, but I won't dare get on one of those here-period. The drivers don't wear or have helmets for passengers, they're quite careless from what I have oberved-they never look when pulling onto a road, and I've been told that they have been known to take people to a desolate area and rob them. No thanks, I'll pass on being robbed. I think that people are crazy riding the motorbikes with one or even 2 kids on them; I'm talking toddlers too.

 

In the taxi I took back to the apartment Monday, we were stopped by a cop. Apparently, the driver was driving too fast and the cop asked him to slow down. Of course the cop didn't have a radar or anything; he just happened to be standing at the bottom of the hill and waved the driver down. After we parted from the cop, the driver said he wasn't ticketed because of me being in the car. Go figure.

 

Later on Monday night, Akobe and I went to where Deanne lived. Her living quarters are just above a downstairs bar. She lives in a tiny, one room apartment with a bathroom to the side. She is very proud of where she lives, and I was sure to be complimentary of her living quarters: Her bed was in the middle of the room, up against the wall. She and Enzo share it, of course. She had a little mini fridge to the right of her bed, and on the connecting wall there was what looked like a dresser, but without a mirror. On it was a small gas range with 2 burners. No overhead fan-nothing. Deanne struck a match to light the gas, and all I could do was pray that the place didn't blow up in flames. Trust me, with the sloppy wiring I've seen here, you just never know with gas...

 

Deanne had the windows open and a fan running, and we could hear the live music coming from downstairs. It made me think of how it must feel to live in an apartment on Bourbon St. I helped her cut up onions and tomatoes, and she asked me to cook the potato fries. She made rice and a really delicious mushroom topping to go over the rice, and also fried 2 fish. She asked me what I drink other than water, so she had her brother Brian run downstairs to buy some Sprite. After dinner, she served orange slices and then chocolate and vanilla ice cream for dessert, and then she pulled out her photo album and shared her family photos with me. We went through the entire album; she has 4 sisters and 4 brothers. Needless to say, I had no choice but to eat a huge meal so I wouldn't hurt her feelings. I thought I was going to have to be carried out of her apartment and back to my place...