Helping With The Little Things

Posted on October 5, 2023

10/5/98: Ruth and I wandered around the open market near John & Ivette’s apartment and took some photos… This evening we babysat the kiddos so John and Ivette go out on a date… Helping with the “little things” actually goes a long way when one is visiting friends in far-away places… They were quite well behaved, and I think it was because I had joked with them that if they misbehaved, I would sit on them, because that is what “baby SITters” do, after all, right?… When I was a kid, my teenaged cousins who often babysat us would make us lay on our backs, with our arms and legs up in the air, and repeat the phrase: “I am a dying cockroach…” So, at least I didn’t get torture John’s and Ivette’s kiddos THAT badly…

NOTE: The photo above shows Ivette shopping for veggies in the open air market of Lanzhuo.

 

Ivette working on homeschooling with one of her kiddos.
John was well over 6 feet tall, making it very difficult to fit into using the available furniture which was made for much shorter locals.
I’m with the guy in the upper left corner, who looks like he’s not so sure buying animal intestines for dinner is a good idea.
I had fun babysitting, but the kids look like they would rather be anywhere else.
A view of the religious diversity in central China, with a Buddhist temple hight on the hill and a Islamic mosque in the foreground.