Christmas

We decorated our Christmas tree last week. Elena and Fiona and me all have our own trees, too. Mama says that she'll put photos of the trees when Papa gets home with the camera. (Sorry about the poor quality of the tree photo here, we'll get another later. ~mama).

When it's Christmas, it's gonna be my birthday. I'll be 6 (typed by Syd) years old. I can't wait.

I can read some books. I know my numbers.

We'll have a ton of guests on Christmas. Too bad we can't build a snowman. It's really hot here.

love,

~Sydney

Movies.

Some weeks ago I watched The Lord Of The Rings. It was great, but just a little disgusting. I had to read the books before watching the movies. And yesterday the whole family watched Miss Congeniality and the Pirates Of The Caribbean - The Curse Of The Black Pearl. Its a wonder that the little once slept, well Sydney said that she prayed. So, I suppose she slept. I thought it was "No fair" that Sydney got to watch it at the age of 5 (I watched it before the rest of the sisters watched it),but I was 10 not 5. But Miss Congeniality was good, too. By the way, CU stands for See You.

C U,
Elena

happy b-day fifi

On Sunday I had a party ['cause it was my birthday and I turned 9!] and my friends were there. Yesterday a friend from England came and his daughter came as well. They gave us the movie Ice Age one and two. The man came to help papa. They are leaving on Friday. Today we are going to the beach.
~Fiona

I don't have any photos yet.

Papa is so not prepared.

Today we went to an Eye doctor, Mama said that she and Papa needed to have their eyes checked. So we all went. Papa, Mama, Elena, Fiona and Sydney. We finally got there, and Mama went first. While we (the rest of us) stayed in the waiting room. We must have waited about half an hour. Now, I didn't know what the problem was today but obviously our patients must have been very low. Anyway where was I? Oh yes, I remember. Okay, now Mama Just came back, the result, no problem at all! Papa you're next. So we're waiting and Papa comes out of the office with a worried look on his face. He tells us that the doctor said he needs to wear glasses PERMANENTLY. Well as you know you get to choose the type you want. So now we are all helping Papa choose a pear. Papa has found a pair that are very thin and small.
Mama tells him that in order to look good in any pear he needs to shave that beard of his. Well I'm going to skip all those little parts that would take forever to tell. We are moving on to the next part of this errrrr, well story. Papa gets a sheet of paper that tells him that the glasses are $400. That is not affordable he says. So we leave our story at an end, well almost an end.

New Story:
I Elena Stoll The Grand Chicken of all times.
The chickening out part is when it comes to pulling teeth. It used to take weeks until it finally came out. This is the second tooth in a row that came out. I told Mama that I didn't want to pull it out because the tooth Fairy just visited me! Oh well, I must be a lucky kid.

Poor Pip

This is E (-lena). I have a sad piece of news. Well, Pip our dog died this morning and we think that she had canine cancer. Papa and Sydney went and buried her. Actually, the vet had some guys dig a hole in somebody's garden. Papa said, it cost him 17.000 CFA (around $40) to have her buried.
I asked Mama & Papa if Pip went to heaven. So Mama said, well animals neither go to heaven nor to hell, they just become part of the ground. Papa looked on the internet. We found some pages. I understand that the Bible dosen't say whether they go to heaven, or not. So, since God doesn't say anything about this, we have to decide what to think. I hope that I might see her there.

My first trip alone

On Friday I went to Vogan, a small town north of Lome. My family stayed at home while I went with Mrs. Mariza (who is helping in a medical clinic). I visited Nancy, a girl I had gotten to know a few weeks ago. She speaks English and is 17 years old. But she doesn't look it. She has a sister, named is Joycelin. She's 10 years old.
On our way we saw a taxi, which had two live cows as passengers. At one point the cows went mad in the vehicle and the people tried to hold them down. Take a look at the taxi. Noticing anything unusual?

Nancy and her sister took me to the weekly market. We saw lots of gross stuff like dead snakes, chameleons, hyena and monkey heads, which people use for their religion. I learned that the voodoo religion started in Togo and Benin, before it traveled to America.

At the market I had to greet everybody, cause I stood out. I learned to say "yes" in Ewe, the local language. As I was greeting a woman with her little boy (no older than Sydney) everybody started to laugh. Then, I just had to ask "what was so funny?" Nancy told me, that I had just agreed to marry the little guy. Oh dear!

I forgot to take a picture of my friends (how awful is that)? But I did get one of two pigs on a bicycle.

While we were at the market the sun was really hot and I had forgotten to put on sunscreen. So, no sunscreen + African sun = sunburn!
I'm pretty miserable right now. I hope I can sleep tonight.
Elena

School starts

School has begun! This is an extra special school year. We have our new classroom in our new house. It has a new name: Kingfisher Elementary (in honor of the blue-breasted Kingfisher who lived in our garden for a while) AND... Sydney has started kindergarten!! She has been so excited about it and the first day was no exception. She got a Schultüte, something every child gets in Germany when they start school for the first time. We also documented it well, in photos. Enjoy!