Cultural enlightenment: Yesterday something happened that left me scratching my head... which isn't altogether unexpected when you're living in a foreign country. What do you make of this one?We buy our water from a company that sells you a certain number of bottles, then you pay each time you refil them. New bottles cost about $6, and refils are a $1. With the new water cooler, we have two different types of bottles, so I told Bel that maybe we should buy another bottle. "No, they are expensive," she answered. A long discussion followed, at the end of which she told me she would just "borrow" the bottle from the delivery man. That was fine with me, though I never dreamed it would work. But sure enough, I came home to an extra bottle-- a borrowed one!

When I asked how that works, since they sell those bottles to you to refil, she looked at me like I was crazy-- "I just borrowed this one until Monday, then we can refil it! You know, we buy water from them all the time!"

Yesterday we had another neat experience-- while we were walking at the track Kevin got invited to play soccer with some local kids! Not a huge deal when you live in a community all your life, a bigger deal when you're still new, and an unexpected blessing when you are very new, have no "connecting point", and don't speak the language! They invited him to come back and play again today, so we'll see what happens.