What, you think I have nothing to do???

OK, so according to the "countdown" to the left, it's been 12 days since our wedding. Does that mean that I should take the counter down? Does that mean it's time for a new post?

Well, people, we're busy. We're napping, and having massages and honeymooner dinners and sleeping in the sun.

Ah yes, the stressed out life of newlyweds, especially newlywed teachers with the summer off. :)

So a short update... we're in Mauritius. We've been here since Saturday, and it's nice. Unfortunately weather wise, and hotel package wise, it's not quite as good as Mexico was. The weather is hardly bad enough to complain about, but, I am wearing a very light sweater as I write this. I have been able to lounge in the sun by the pool every day, and it does get hot then, but once I'm out of the sun, it's pretty normal (not so hot). And the resort here is lovely- the deco and all is very Indian with pinks and yellows and oranges- it's lovely. But they haven't really figured out the whole "all inclusive" thing like the place in Mexico had. We have the all inclusive package, but, we only get to choose certain stuff of the menus to be included in the all inclusive- and it doesn't include room service of any sort! Bummer. Also, no swim up pool. Double bummer. But that might be because they have the single coldest pool I have EVER been in. In fact, I tried to get in one day, got in as far as my knees and gave up. But, like I said, it's not really hot enough to necessitate getting in the pool, so it's ok.

The beach is lovely, except it has beautiful white, but ouchy sand- walking on it for a while leaves you feet feeling like they've been pumiced to within an inch of their lives. We walked along it one morning, and have pretty much stayed away since. Lame huh?

Last night we were invited to enjoy a special "honeymooner's dinner" on the resort. It was very nice, except that I had suddenly come down with a low fever and was feeling pretty awful. IN fact, I had lost my appetite! Anyone who knows me, knows that this is well, pretty much unheard of, I can usually eat through anything! But there I was, at my honeymooner's dinner, barely able to eat at all. The chef must have thought I hated all the food. I didn't- it was really quite lovely, but I just couldn't get anything down. Ah well.

Being somewhat sick helped up sleep in later (6:45) today than we have since we got here- we've been waking up every morning right around a quarter to 6. And of course, then passing out as though we've been drugged somewhere around 3pm. Jet lag is a bitch.

So yeah... honeymoon... that is pretty much all I can report on here, because let's face it, this is mostly a pretty not X-rated blog, so I won't go into what else we've been doing most of the time. Though, let me extend a grand thank you again to all the ladies who gifted so generously at my bridal shower. ;)

Of course, lest I seem the constant complainer, the upside of being here in Mauritius vs Mexico is that we're married. I love waking up next to my husband every morning. The new weight of the wedding ring is a lovely feeling. And, even as we enjoy every moment of what we're doing right now, it's also fun to dream about what might be coming next... ;)

More updates, possibly including pictures might come soon- first I would have to take some of this place. :) I'll try to get on that today. Tomorrow we're supposed to go see, if not swim with, dolphins. Then we transfer to another resort where we will engage in such activities as snorkeling (I'm really looking forward to that) and going in a submarine. Should be good! We'll be back to Angola somewhere around the 8th I believe. We have to head through FREEZING cold Joburg on the way (literally, 1C/32F)- SO COLD- especially when you are not anywhere near being appropriatly dressed. Anyway... we've already decided we'll do lots of room service and movies while we're there. :) Ok, so, yeah, there you go... see you on the flip side!

7 days...

7 days!!!!

WHAT???

Big party tomorrow... will try to post pics on Sunday. Busy...trying to get things done... details still to take care of... going to get there (or so I'm told...).

Pretties

It's been raining a fair bit in Michigan since we got here. It's not all that nice, especially since it's cold, but, at least it makes for GREEN, GREEN, GREEN surroundings and lots of pretty flowers to look at!

My step mom planted these around the mailbox. I think they are really lovely. :)

More cuteness...

I wanted to post these pictures the other day as well, but didn't have access to them on the non-usb camera card. So, we bought a card reader today, and I can show off my the cutest little girl in the world some more. :)

Brenna has a thing about hair. Apparently, she likes it. She holds and plays with her mom's hair all the time, and although I didn't see it, I heard she does the same with her dad's hair (even though it's short). So imagine my surprise and delight when on my first day there, she happily grabbed hold of my hair in the car. :)

(and, yeah, that is how we rode for well, the whole car trip- she just sucked her thumb and held my hair! My neck had a little crick by the end!)

The next day while mom was in the shower, we watched some tv together. And I made Joel take some pics. :)

She's just so darn cute. :)

And of course, she took to Joel quickly as well- as most children do. :)
Here they surfed the net a bit. :)

A day at Garezers

On Sunday, the day after my shower, we headed out to "Little Latvia" right here in southwest Michigan- Garezers. This is where I grew up- spent my summers, ALL OF THEM, from age 6-20 there. Good times. Joel is really in love with the place, and jealous that Australian Dutchies haven't created such a place for themselves.

My dad and stepmom have a trailer there. My uncle and aunt have one too. On Sunday we went down to visit with them. I actually started by going for a run around the lake- 4 miles! I did it in 50 minutes, with a lot of walking. Let me tell you- running on the road in the midday sun is way different than inside, in air conditioning on a treadmill! But the dog came with me, and she loved it. In fact, she's been sidling up to me every day clearly asking for more.

By the time I got back from my run, Joel, my step-mom and my aunt and uncle had already finished one go out on the boat. Joel had his first-in-five-years go at wakeboarding. After hanging out at my uncles and aunt's trailer and having lunch and a few drinks, we went out on the boat again, and I got to snap a few pics and videos of Joel doing his thang.

Here we are on the deck of my uncle's trailer. In the background you see a swamp. Yeah, it's actually really nice though. :)

Joel's got his life-vest on (it's the law in Michigan!) and is getting ready to go!

In the water ready for one of a few tries at getting up...

Up!

Showing off his skills...

He got a couple really good runs in

It almost looks easy no? Almost...

It was nearly sunset...my camera would have gotten some great shots, but as it was, even Joel's point and shoot got some good ones.

And finally, here is a video of Joel wakeboarding. He really did a great job. And never mind that he can barely move today. :)

My Bridal Shower in South Haven

Yesterday I had a truly, truly lovely day! Goodness knows, I love being the center of attention, and I got it yesterday. Between my wonderful friend Ang, my mom and our friend Mary, a fabulous event came together. A review in pictures....

We set a beautiful spread- we all ate way too much!

Cake- from a bakery whose motto is, "Butter makes it better!" It was good. :)

The beautiful flowers that Mary brought for me.

Because I had the nicest handwriting, I wrote my own sign! But Ang gave everyone chocolate goody bags! :)

Ang and me- she's my matron of honor and the best friend a girl could ask for!

Mom and Mary

Doing my best to break some ribbons!

Mary and Clare having a great time...

Kat and Malda listening to one of the great stories told that day...

It was a lingerie shower... so all the presents were...you guessed it!

In this picture I have just found out that my friend Clare is going to be Kat's
"plus one" in Mexico. Yay! Another single girl at the wedding...

Here we all are then... a small group, but, as my step-dad said, "If an event can be judged by the amount of laughter it generates, then, this party was tops!" (He did not attend the party, but was banished to his bedroom upstairs!)

My step-sister's baby Christian- the only boy who was allowed at the party. :)

Finale!

It really was a great day, and ended wonderfully just hanging out with the girls. The next two weeks will hopefully be fairly low key as we simply finish up gathering bits and pieces for the wedding and just relaxing. Before the wedding, we still have the big pre-party here.

Quick update

I know it's been forever since I wrote a post... but we've been busy. Our week in NYC was lovely. Althouh it rained a lot. And we got caught in it. That part was not nice. But seeing sights and meeting some of Joel's friends and spending time with them was lovely. Meeting one of my friends was great too!

Now we're back in Michigan for nearly a week already. The highlight so far for me is definitely what we're doing right now- hanging out with my best friend Ang and her family. Last time I saw her daughter she was 6 weeks old- and now she's 16 mos! Big changes. Luckily, she's taken to me very well- she clearly knows I'm good people and good friends with her mom. :) And maybe she can pick up on the fact that I might like little people like her. Also, she likes Joel too. :)

Anyway, so here are a few pics... unfortunately neither of us are in any of them- those pics were taken with Joel's camera which we don't have a cord/card reader for, so we can't GET to the pictures. But these ones I took with my camera. So enjoy. :)

Angel face

They like to dance together- this was a slow dance

Here she is sporting the shirt I gifted her (brought from Africa) with a monkey on it (her nickname is monkey face and she has all kinds of moneky stuff) which she loved. She is also getting all dressed up to go out in this pic as you can see, she's got all her bags and everything...

Mother and daughter- doing the hair. :)

It is absolutely fabulous to spend time with people you love so much. :) Warms my heart.

Home is where the...

kitchen is?

I didn't give it much thought last time we moved (that would have been packing up our stuff in Riga, selling off/giving away lots, and taking only two suitcases of stuff each)- but this time, this move, I've been made to think about it, because, well, everything we have, we're taking with us! 

We've only been in Luanda 10 months, not even a full year, and yet, tonight I packed up 5 boxes and 1 bag of kitchen stuff.  Yes, some of it was food, but largely, it was bowls, pans, measuring utensils, mugs, bread pans, other baking supplies and lots and lots of spices.  Luckily, we get to keep it all this time (I still haven't fully gotten over leaving a huge bag of nutritional yeast behind in Latvia, which most likely didn't get used by anyone).  Oh, and wait- I still have a sink full of dishes, two cupboards full of teas/coffees and oils and vinegars and some dry goods (crackers, cereals, etc).  So, basically, it'll be another box or two of kitchen stuff going over tomorrow. 

So, I guess, for me, home is where the kitchen is. I gotta have a stocked kitchen (both utensil and food wise) to feel at home.  Of course, home is also where Joel is, duh, but, after that... it's all about the kitchen. 

That said, I do wish our lounge room and our bedroom felt a bit more homey, had some more personal touches- but, it seems I can live without all that stuff.  Our new apartment though, is definitely a new chance for decorating and putting together a nice look.  Now that Joel will have his own office to decorate with all of his football scarves, we can have the rest of our house looking a bit more grown up.  :) I gotta admit, I'm looking forward to it.

So yeah, tomorrow, on my 29th birthday, I'll spend the day just finishing up a little bit at school, and then moving the rest of our stuff over to the new place. Now, we took some stuff over tonight, and stuck it in one of the bedrooms.  But, I have to say, the people (also teachers at our school) that are moving out of our apartment and into the one next door did not appear to be anywhere near even having begun packing.  So, that does mean for us that tomorrow, even when we get all of our stuff over there, we'll just be throwing it all into the bedroom, which means we'll leaving the unpacking and real "moving in" until August.  Which I actually think is kind of nice, because we'll be moving into a new place to start our "new life" as a married couple.  We won't exactly be able to paint the walls whatever color we want, or be able to go out and buy our own furniture or even knick knacks to make it really our own- but, it will be a clean new start, in a nice new apartment, with lots of space for growth...if you catch my drift. :)

So yeah, one more time...home is where the kitchen is... but, I am excited to say that next week, home is where I come from- and we'll be back there again!  We hit Michigan on June 21!  Can't wait! :)            

 

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It's been an emotional few days...

This week a dear, old friend of mine lost her fiance to his battle with cancer. She is 12 days younger than me, he was a year younger. We all worked together in Shanghai, so I knew him as well. I haven't seen either of them since I left China, and yet, because of the unique circumstances that compromise international school teaching, we'd kept in touch, and as I said, having been one of my best friends in China, she is certainly still a friend today.

Kristin and Andrew were engaged, and had set two wedding dates, neither of which they reached together. Being a bride-to-be myself, my heart absolutely breaks for them, that they were not able to reach this milestone. It brings tears to my eyes every time I think about it. I cannot, for anything, imagine losing Joel, and I cannot fathom what Kristin is going through.

Here is what I remember of Andrew:

He was the kind of guy that made you laugh. He always had some witty thing to say, some silly joke. He was tall, and frankly, good-looking. The boy was a Harvard graduate, who taught PE and Technology in the years that I knew him. My favorite memory of him is him telling me and some other teachers about how much he loved teaching the 3 year old preschoolers. He raved about the girl who was a genius, because she could skip. :) He once told us about how a PE class with preschoolers is just a free for all- getting them all to do the same thing at once a success in and of itself. He once told a story that I possibly dare not believe about using a preschooler as a back scratcher- it went something like, "Let's pretend to be tigers! Show me your claws!" And then, he says he grabbed one by the ankles, and raised the kid above his head upside down, and well, used the "tiger claws" as a back scratcher! Lord, I would pay to see it. :)

From what I remember, Andrew was always up for a night out. Andrew ate cheap Chinese food. Andrew loved Kristin. When Andrew and Kristin were together the first time around, there was a time when he first stayed the night at her place, and telling us about his weekend, he mentioned that he had pancakes with Kristin out in Pudong on Sunday morning. We were in the staff room at lunch time, and I replied, "Gee, you must have gotten up early on Sunday to have breakfast in Pudong!" Oh how we laughed. It was real even then, it just needed the right time.

I never actually saw Kristin and Andrew as a couple in person because they only got together again after I left China. I only ever saw it in pictures. But even from their pictures, I saw a connection that I knew I wanted. You could see that they had "it".

I can't imagine that Andrew is gone. I can't imagine that he and Kristin won't get to live out their dreams together. I have no idea how to support Kristin, especially from a million miles away. It all seems way too much to handle, not right at this young age, impossible to believe that this bright, energetic, vibrant young man has taken his leave of this world.

So, it's been an emotional few days. Memorial services are planned for the 10th, which means there is no chance of attending, since we'll still be here. If you believe in such a thing, and are willing to do so, please keep my friend Kristin in your prayers, as she naviagtes this, surely one of the toughest times of her life.

Rest in peace, Andrew.

Goal!

Back in October I started the most basic behavior management with myself. I started a sticker chart to keep track of and reward my exercise efforts. That seems like long ago- very long ago- but, a couple weeks ago (right around the time the internet started being a biatch again) I filled my chart right up. I finally counted all the way up to 100 workouts. And that doesn't count any workouts that I had away from Luanda- I only put on stickers for the workouts I had here. So... felt pretty good to put that last sticker on there. And, if you figure that it took me October- April to fill in the chart, that seems like a long time, but, that is 100 workouts in 210 days- which means, I was working out an average of every two days! For a person who didn't really exercise before, I'd say that's pretty good!

The thing is, I've become a "person who exercises." I was just telling some friends the other day- the question no longer is, "Am I going to the gym today?" but rather, "What am I doing at the gym today?" I can remember back in October and November that I would come home from work, and I would be tired, and worn out and, well, without motivation to head to the gym. I would think about my sticker chart and the current reward, and it was a motivation for me- as was the ever present, "I'm getting married in (insert relevant number)- and it's going to be a week on the beach!" Eventually, the reward was no longer necessary- as you can see in the picture- about half way I stopped giving myself rewards, though I kept adding stickers. So, I became a person who exercises, and started seeing results!

The really nice thing is that after 7 months of exercising regularly (and paying attention to what's going in my mouth as well), I'm finally seeing some changes in my body. Besides the 19lbs/8.5kg that have come off since October,a lot of my clothes are falling off these days and there have been a few changes in my measurements as well (expected, I guess)- and the part that really feels good, is that random people keep noticing, and I get comments like, "WOW! You've lost a lot of weight!" weekly.

I'm not sure if I can say that increased athletic ability feels better than looking good, but I have to say, that this morning when I ran 11k for the first time without too much problem I realized that I have come a ways. Ok, some people train for a marathon in three months, and I have no idea how they do that (start from zero to marathon, surely not?). What I do know is that in December I ran a total of 33.5km. In January I ran 60km, in Feb 67km and in March 64km. That all would have been ok- except that I didn't follow the main rule of running, and I increased my distances too quickly (doubling them in a month!)- and then, I ran with pain. I kept running when my feet were hurting, and when I would spend a day or two hobbling after a long run. Finally in April I only ran 18km because I was in that much pain. I couldn't run. I got new running shoes, I spent time doing other exercise and slowly started again. May is almost over, and I have run 61km this month (eek, trippling my distances in a month, I just realized, but, it feels different this time). I am more careful about my running these days- I slow when I need to, run less often if need be, do only one long run a week.

So today I did 11k, and I feel proud of that. It's hard to remember how excited I was about running my first 5k in 38 minutes- 5k is not really anything now- done in a half hour, and not "enough" as far as a good workout goes these days. But I know that I still have a lot of room for progress. I want to be able to run much further than 11k someday. Maybe someday soon I can start making running progress like the people who train for a marathon in 3 months- maybe not. But, I guess, I'm just going to do my best to continue to be a "person who exercises!"

(By the way, I still can't get into blogger the right way, so I have no ability to load more than one picture into a post, or to control the placement- annoying, but at least I can post!)

At the School Fair

Last Saturday we had our School Fair. (Don't even get me started on the fete pronounced fate thing- just wrong on so many levels.) Anyway, basically a fundraiser for school, each class had a booth set up where they offered some purchasable fun- my class had a cupcake decorating table where you could buy a cupcake and frosting, and then choose from what seemed like hundreds of sprinkles to decorate it with. Joel's class... hmmm... I'm not sure what they did- but the other year 4 class had a sponge throw. Joel volunteered to have sponges thrown at him, easy going, helpful guy that he is. :) I love my new camera, and got some great pictures. :)

So, this blogger thing isn't working for me again... I don't know if it's a problem with our whole internet here, or if it's a blogger thing...but, I can't post pictures and I have pictures to post so that pisses me off! I don't even know if this is going to work properly... but anyway, if it does, then you know what's up... hopefully this whole thing will be up and working again soon. :)

Some more pictures

Birds come and clean up our eating area after every meal time at school. Good thing for these little birds, 4-year-olds are REALLY messy. :)

Our kids planted flowers and there were two that grew-
this one:

Oh, the moon was out today- but I went to look for it tonight, and couldn't find it. Weird?

A bush that grows by school...

And this one- the other flower that grew. This picture is my favorite.

Still figuring out how to use my camera...

The moon was big and full and heavy looking tonight. This is the best picture I could get. But, what's captured in the picture is very different from what I saw with my eyes. I messed with my settings as much as I could, but, alas, this is the best I could get. (Click on the picture and see it full screen for better effect.)

Time for a general update...

Ah, here we are...Sunday afternoon, hanging out on the couch, watching the boob tube. Just relaxing. Life is good.

The best news is that Joel is home, and recovering well. I was too happy for him to get home Friday night- it was really lovely to see him, and I couldn't stop hugging him. :) So far he's doing really well with keeping up with his exercises, and although the hand is still swollen, he's already recovered most of the movement he had lost before.

Joel's hand is actually good enough, that he's been told he can pretty much do his usual physical stuff- he didn't go surfing this weekend, but the doc said he could have. So today, we hit the tennis court together! Now, I haven't so much as picked up a tennis racket since my last middle school gym class, but, Joel enjoys a hit of tennis, and asked if I would play with him, if he picked me up a racket in South Africa. I said I would. So, today, we went out there for the first time and gave it a go. Well, Joel just did his thing- *I* tried my best. :) Actually I reckon I did quite well for not having picked up a racket in, what, like 17 years (WHAT? 17 years!!! It hardly seem possible I haven't done anything for that long!)? My arm though, feels like a noodle now. I don't think I will even be able to hold a pencil tomorrow. But that is ok. It was worth it, and I hope that we make a habit of getting out on the court.

There are 5 weeks of school left. FIVE! And, happily, only two of them are full weeks- we have two more public holidays (Africa Day-May 25 and Children's Day- June 1) and then we also have at least one more "early release" Friday. Of course, it is coming to the point now where teachers start saying to themselves, "Oh crap... ONLY 5 weeks left... can we get everything done in that time?" I'm not really worried about it though. The sooner THIS year is over, the better! Not least because there is so much to look forward to this summer!

What else, what else... I ran another 10k on Saturday without any foot pain, and taking 2 minutes off my previous time. 10k is still the most I have done- next week I might have to shoot for more! :)

How small is this world (DB, this all comes from you!)... My good friend DB who lives in Latvia and whom I grew up with in the States has an old friend from high school who now lives in Chile and knows one of my blog readers (Eileen!) (who became a reader because she stumbled on my blog) quite well! Is that crazy?!? That's people knowing people involving 4 continents and all "by chance." This world is becoming small, very small. As DB said to me earlier this week, it's crazy to think that she lives in Latvia, I live in Angola, we're meeting this summer in Mexico where I will marry an Australian, and the wedding will be witnessed by people traveling from America, Australia, New Zealand, Europe and South East Asia. I WISH some of my friends from China could make it, because that would make it even more awesome, mostly because they would be there! :)

My step-sister had a baby the other day (on the 8th I think). Congrats go out to her and her new family. It was a girl (named Vasara- Latvian for summer), who arrived, as I understand after quite a long labor that ended in a c-section. But, everyone is healthy and happy now. So, that is exciting. They all, as far as I know, are planning on being at the wedding this summer, which is good because goodness knows how I like to play with babies. :)

So, on that note, Happy Mother's Day to all you moms out there. I hope you feel appreciated today. I know I'd like to give my mom a squeeze today!

Will write more when there is something to say...

Missing my boo

Joel left today for Joburg where he will have surgery tomorrow. The surgery will be on his recently funkified hand, which was funked by the great doctors of Angola. Basically, when the Angolan doctors set the break, they did it completely wrong, so he was left with a gimpy hand. Luckily, a fairly straight forward surgery should set it all straight.

That said, he is having anesthetic and all that, which worries me a bit, mostly because I'm not there, can't see him, can't help take care of him. Wish I was, definitely wish I was.

So, I'm kind of doing things like normal this week, trying not to miss him too much- today I went on our usual Tuesday grocery shop- which was highly unusual because I spent half of what we usually spend, and didn't buy any Coke. :) And then for dinner, I just made some soup. Weird because, it didn't include any meat, and there was no meat on the side either. Joel's not here.

Nearly 10 though, so, time to crawl into that, once alone, ridiculously huge bed, and try to sleep through another night.

BestFiancéEver.com

I love him. I do, I do. :) I did realize earlier this week that a noteworthy day was coming up this week, but this morning, it slipped my mind. Worse yet, I woke up stuffy and with a monster headache (maybe that is why it slipped my mind...).

Well, anyway, I was already at school, standing in the doorway welcoming children when I saw Joel walking up the way toward me. He was also holding his arm behind his back, obviously hiding something.

Well, he walked up and presented me with the above flowers. When I asked what they were for, he said, "Because a year ago today we got engaged!" He gave me a bit of a hard time for thinking that he wouldn't remember. I admitted that while I didn't necessarily think he wouldn't remember, I didn't think he would actually DO anything about it.

So, what a pleasant surprise. :) And while it's lovely to make note of being engaged for a year (!), I'm quite happy that it's only **checks countdown on the left...** 2 months, 2 weeks and 4 days until the wedding! I have the best fiance ever as far as I'm concerned, but I'll be happy to trade him in for a husband. :)

Days at the beach...

I've been taking my camera to the beach too. So, here are some pictures of our beach down at Cabo Ledo. Of course, we headed to the beach as soon as we'd gotten back from Zambia- at Joel's insistence much more than mine. On this one day, we were the only people on the beach. Just me and Joel.

I am in love with the picture clarity that this camera gives. It's 12 mega pixels- that's what gives the clarity right? :)

Angola has some beautiful clouds quite often.

Isn't he a hottie?

I've been experimenting with the different settings on the camera, seeing the different ways to capture moments. So, that is what a few of these pictures are...

Bunches of little shells stuck to this rock.

My foot, and the Chanel Blue Satin nail polish that I was disappointed with. In the bottle it looks very blue indeed- as you can see, on my foot, it looks very black. I don't really understand why/how it can look so blue in the bottle and so different on my foot. But, for an expensive bottle of nail polish (bought at duty free of course) I was disappointed.

There he is!

Doing his thang...

That's how you do it!

Our driver that day, relaxes reading a Portuguese- English dictionary. He actually stopped me as I was walking by and insisted that I photograph him. :) He's a nice guy.

This next set of pictures is from this past Saturday. Joel and another guy (we'll call him Mr. X for later reference) actually went down to the beach on Friday (we had a half day at school) and spent the night. Myself and another couple went down to meet them on Saturday.

Local fisherman pull away from the beach after having sold their catches (or at least tried to sell!). Actually the other couple that was at the beach with us once bought lobsters from some fishermen on this beach, and apparently they were good.

The local boys often ask to borrow a board from Joel and the other guys that surf. They always bring an older, crappier board which they let the boys use. Here is the boy on the board.

This hillside is the one we have to drive down to reach the beach. The water that you see is a pond that shows up when the water is high. Mostly it seems to be stagnant, and full of crap, but the local guys still catch fish in it, and the little boys were even swimming in it the other day. We don't even walk in it.

Here are the boys checking their nets. There are a lot of flying fish around these parts, or fish taht regularly jump out of the water anyway, and I've seen some jumping in there as well, but, even if I did eat fish, I wouldn't eat the ones caught in there.

The next two pictures are the exact same picture just with different focus (the first on the foreground, the sand, and the second on the background, the water).
I love this camera! The clarity!

The beach...

Sand

Joel on the beach- ready to go home actually.

We had an interesting thing happen on this day actually as we left. Now, remember I said Joel and Mr. X spent the night at the beach. So, at some point in the time before we arrived, nature called, and Mr. X had to go find a spot to relieve himself. He went to the edge of the beach, dug a hole, did his business, and then covered it up. He noticed something in the bushes while he was doing this though, and realized that the local boys who "take care" of the beach came to see what he was doing.

Well, whatever, he finished up, covered it up, and went about his business. So, when we were leaving the boys came to collect for the use of the shades. We paid them. As we always do, we also gave the boys any leftover food we had- this time, because Joel and Mr. X had overpacked food as you do for camping, plus the other couple had brought more than enough for a cookout that day- we had a lot to give them- they got several small steaks (already cooked), baked potatoes, two bags of bread, water and more.

These guys though, I guess they reckon they own the beach, which they don't of course. It's a totally public beach in the way that coastline simply is. But, these guys, you know, they build their little shades, sometimes (rarely) they pick up some garbage, if you need firewood they gather it and sell it to you. They work the beach, that is for sure. Of course, we understand that these kids don't have much, so they are trying to make a living here. And of course, we have much more than them, and the amount that they ask for the use of their shades, etc, is not really a problem for us.

But as we're getting ready to leave, this one guy, who everyone calls Bung Eye (he has one messd up eye), comes up and keeps saying something about poop and dirty and pointing over to the spot where Mr. X did his business. We didn't have any real Portuguese speakers with us that day, so, we couldn't really communicate with them, but basically, we understood that he didn't like what Mr. X had done- but we all also felt like, "What do you want us to do about it?" So, we kind of just ignored them (since we couldn't really communicate) and went about packing up and heading for the car.

Well, Bung Eye went ahead and followed Mr. X very closely to the car, and started laying into our driver! Of course, we were getting kind of pissed off, because, hey, we understand that these guys work this beach, but, what did they want Mr. X to do? Despite the work they have done on the beach, they haven't ever built a toilet there, so, what to do? It's also not like Mr. X took a crap right in the middle of one of their shades or something. But the guy just kept going on about how he had made it dirty, and that someone needs to clean it up (even though it was buried). At one point, he almost had our driver going to pick it up! We stopped the driver once we realized what he was about to do.

The thing is, Bung Eye was getting really loud and aggressive, and it was not nice. And he just kept going on about how Mr X made it dirty- really make it seem like those of us there were responsible for every piece of garbage on the beach. Finally, we just closed the doors, and pulled away. The driver let us know in the little English that he speaks, that the guy just wanted more money. And, as he walked away, Bung Eye dramatically smashed two beer bottles all over the parking area- thereby dangerously littering his own precious beach.

It's really very disappointing because, well for one, this is the closest, best place for the boys to surf, so we don't want to have trouble with the locals there. But also, there is that tough balance that you try to strike between respecting people that are trying to make a living, and even giving them your extras because you can, but also, not being taken advantage of. There was no reason for Mr. X to pay for his crap- the guys aren't going to clean it up anyway- especially not if the state of the rest of the beach is any indication of their inclination to clean up.

So, I guess it will be interesting to see what happens, if anything next weekend, when the guys inevitably head to the beach. Hopefully, all will be if not forgiven, then forgotten. OR, we'll take a proper Portuguese speaker with us, who isn't afraid to put those boys in their place. :)