You know you live on a tropical island when….
-your 3-year-old girl sees a picture of herself as a baby at
church in Minnesota, points to her legs, and says, “Mommy, what are those?” She has no idea what tights are!
-you have biscuits & gravy for dinner, and your daughter
says, “More hibiscus please!”
-you splurge on two really tiny containers of blueberries
and one container of strawberries for your daughter’s birthday party--$27.
-driving 30 min seems like forever—after all, that’s clear
to the other side of the island! Some
people haven’t gone that far in years!
-your 2-year-old son doesn’t know what “coat” is. We read a short story called “the snowy day”
together. When it said, “Where is my hat?”
(etc) he quickly pointed to the hat in the picture. But when it said, “Where is my coat?” He
looked confused, didn’t answer, and then started pointing to random things like
the window! (He wore a “jacket” when we
visited the States last summer, but he hasn’t worn a coat since before he
turned one!)
-there is a live, huge crab as the object lesson for
children’s story at church
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| He said he saw it running across the road while he was driving! |
-your toddler’s first words included “gecko” (“gege”) and “coconut”
(“gogo”) along with “mama” and “dada.” (As
opposed to a 7-year-old friend visiting Guam, who said, “What’s a gecko?”)
-you honestly feel sorry for your poor freezing child when
you walk into their room and see that the thermometer says it’s gotten all the
way down to 74 degrees! Brrrrr…. It
usually doesn’t drop below 78 in our house.
-a very small portion of the weather report on the radio actually consists of information about the weather (because it is always the same); the rest of the report is details about the ocean: size of waves, strength of currents, which beach's water is too unclean to swim in, etc. ("swells on north facing reefs are 2-3 ft...")
-grocery stores are very dependent on the shipments that arrive. So I always do my grocery shopping on Thursdays, because the shipment is supposed to come on Wednesday -- unless it doesn't. Sometimes even on Friday, there is almost no fresh produce. Also, something that is "always" there for weeks might not be there when you really need it. This leads to an "I must stock up" attitude...causing me to buy 12 jars of applesauce at one time, and another case of 10 cans of mushroom soup, just in case they don't have it again for a long time...
-rice is sold in 50-pound bags. (like the size of dog food bags!)
-you google “what is the largest tropical fruit?” to find
out what your patient brought you.
Turns out it’s a jackfruit. Wow,
what a scent. Not a bad scent, like
durian supposedly has, but an intense fruity smell… Wish I could capture that in the pictures!
(We’ve also received many, many lumpia (eggrolls) from one
patient (yum!), a very nice shirt for Loren, a colorful grass skirt/wall
hanging, a beautiful woven magazine basket…)
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| Whoa! What is this huge pokey fruit?! |
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| After almost an hour's worth of work, we have conquered hopefully 2/3 of the jackfruit....but we still haven't tasted it yet... |
-when you choose a spot for a picnic, you actually check to
see if there are any coconuts in the tree that might fall on your head. (Not kidding!
I always do now… I’ve heard they’ve killed some people, broken holes in
people’s windshields, etc…)
-your daughter is quite familiar with making leis, even
before she turned 4. Here is a picture
from our recent neighborhood “quilting circle.” :)
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| Wishing you all a wonderful day, wherever you live! |
