I've often wondered...

if I shot the first rooster that starts the insane crowing at 3:30 in the morning, how many more roosters would I have to shoot before the crowing stopped. Cuz there must be a thousand roosters crowing in that little village I slept in last night, and I can honestly say I wouldn't feel one bit bad about shooting those freakin' birds. Between the roosters outside and the rats in the walls inside (and the small child who likes to cuddle up next to the mid-sized child who does NOT like to be cuddled) I am pretty sure I'm like in the negatives for sleep. Which means that instead of typing this blog post, I should be putting the crazies to sleep and then crawling into my own bed and sleeping till daylight. Yet here I am. Do you love my commitment to doing the easy thing instead of the right thing?

Okay just did the right thing but only because the easy way stopped being easy. Having to stop typing every other minute to fuss at the kids for fussing gets to be a pain. So now they are sleeping, and soon I will be joining them, just wanted to tell you about my trip.


See that girl? When I first started going to her village she was 12 and followed me everywhere. I love her. She taught me about culture, traditions, ghosts, languange and somewhere along the way, we kind of became a part of her family. In fact her mother told me yesterday that I was one of the only people in the world to whom she can open up her heart. I love her too.

Lisa is now 16, and she has been working in a local coffee shop so she hasn't been able to attend the make-shift school that is set up in her village. I used to unofficially teach the kids there, and after just a couple of months of studying 2-3 times a week, she picked up a Dr. Suess book and read it through. She is so pretty and smart and did I mention that I love her?

Anyway, apparently she had a boyfriend, and her older brother caught her sitting too close to this boyfriend and beat her pretty badly for it. I dont know the brother very well, but clearly he's not a nice guy. :( Lisa then took shelter in the chief's house (I will tell you more about this crazy tradition on another occassion, but for now you should know that once someone is in the chief's house, he/she is under his protection and cannot be harmed) and declared that she wants to marry her boyfriend. Because he was the one who had caused her to "shame" her family and then she took refuge and asked for him to marry her, HE HAD TO, or else bring shame on his entire family.

So his family had to come and do a small ceremony to marry this young couple, even though HER MOM WASNT THERE! The brother accepted this arrangement on behalf of her family and THEN called the mom to let her know what was going on. Can you imagine the grief she experienced to find out that her youngest daughter was already married?! It had just happend three days ago, and you could tell how heartbroken she was over the situation. The worst part (well, the SECOND worst part after the fact that they are 16&17 and he is unemployed) is that his family is from the other side of our island, 6 hours away, and they don't know when they will get to see her again, whether his family is being good to her, whether he loves her whether she is happy...

I am still in shock. She is such a beautiful girl, and married life is hard especially when you are so young and poor.

SWITCHING TOPICS

Before we left, I did another layout with the new Shabby Princess kit (available here):

Click here for credits

I am not really that into extractions, but that photo was just begging to be extracted! I felt like I really captured the best of him being silly and laughing. LOVE that kid!

He decided he was done with diapers earlier this month but since we had a two hour drive in the car to the village, I put him in a diaper for the trip. HE STAYED DRY. For two hours. I mean hes still 6 weeks shy of his 2nd birthday, and I'm pretty sure this puts him in the running for MOST AMAZING CHILD EVER. ;) He did pretty good in the village; rolled in the mud...dumped that cold water over his head like a pro at bathtime...ate rice with gusto, and charmed his way into several candy stashes. He even started saying a few words in Malay.

Your kid has a lot of catching up to do, huh? ;)