Wednesday, June 1

Today was what will probably be a typical day for the rest of our stay. We started with a lazy morning, moved through a lazy afternoon, and then had a lazy evening.

We ate Cheerios for breakfast, and lounged in our pajamas too late in the day. We hid in the hotel room from the hot, playing with Grace. She's starting to squeak and coo a little bit, especially if you talk to her, like she's talking back. In a conversational way, of course, not like teenagers do.

We came up with a plan to wander the street for a while. We decided to hike up to the NTA and get some more Internet access cards, as we were told they're getting hard to find. We thought also to stretch farther down the road and maybe swing into the Ministry of Visitor Affairs (MVA) to check out their offerings of Marshallese information. I'm trying to find some language-learning tools, like another dictionary (which we have but didn't bring), or whatnot. If we find we're near something that looks like Dr. Pinano's office, we'll try to stop for Grace's immunization record, or “yellow card.”

Schoolgirl and other mother from downstairs swung by...for something I don't recall. I do recall they were here and chatting. We shared our plan for the day, and learned they were just going to be hanging out, visiting with their birthmother. A few minutes later, the other dad stopped by and gave me his car keys; they weren't going to be using the car, it's hot, and he thought it might make things faster.

It did make getting around faster, to be sure. It didn't make doing anything faster, because, of course, we ran into many bits of island time. We skipped past the NTA, planning to get to it on the way back. Noticed Dr. Pinano's just as we drove past it, so pulled into a lot to turn around. Got there to find it was closed. Knocked on the door, just in case; all we wanted was a bit of paper that we were probably supposed to have already.

As we turned around to drive nose-first out of the Dr's driveway, we noticed the MVA was across the street. Handy landmark. We waited for a break in the traffic and bolted across the street. It wasn't directly across the street, and we entered the lot and parked at the end of the building. Although the sign says the hours are 8AM-5PM, there was no one there.

We then went to the NTA, thinking to finish our planned errands and return. We could make the same trek later. There was a short queue at the NTA, but we got our cards quick enough, and then thought maybe, since we had the car and it should be quick, to swing by and get some more BBQ for lunch.

We got there, as expected, in no time. There wasn't a line, and the smoke billowing gave us hope of fast service. Of course, they were out of “plates,” and they were waiting for the rice to finish cooking. The guy said ten or fifteen minutes, so we took a wander through the shop there. We grabbed some napkins and tissues, but otherwise just wandered a bit in the shade of the store.

I've been looking for a mesh bag for the laundry. There are laundry baskets galore, but I want something that wouldn't be sitting on the ground, and would still lend adequate air-flow to what it contains. There are bugs here (it is a tropical island), and we'd just like to avoid inviting them to nice hidey-holes. Also, it's very humid, so everything's got a hint of damp, if you take my meaning. It's nice to give things a little air-out time before stuffing it away for later care. We have nice, big mesh bags at home, that we use to stow our dive gear (which we didn't fit into our luggage), and I saw someone else had the idea at the laundry trailer, as their clothes were in a mesh bag. We've been looking when we shop, but haven't found any yet. I might have to compromise and just grab a basket (they're inexpensive), and put it on the luggage stand that's in the closet. Better than on the floor.

We went back outside after what seemed like it should have been plenty of time, but still no plates were there. We took a seat on one of the benches and waited. While we waited, we noticed the other mother from the other hotel and her older boy walking toward us. They were on the way to the hospital to get a copy of their son's “yellow card.” She said the BBQ sounded nice, and that they'd wait and chat. We offered to drive them to their hotel or hospital or wherever, and she accepted.

They waited. We chatted. Separately we each took short trips into the store for cold soft drinks. After an hour of waiting, we were on the brink of giving up. We were just discussing what to do next when Claudia called our cell phone to ask if right now was a good time for a visit. I explained that we weren't there, but could be soon, so we decide to make the visit a half-hour off, to give us time to return to the hotel.

As I told the gals, the BBQ dude returned with completed plates. He quickly put four together for us, and we piled into the car. Since it took so long, and it met their needs, and was on our way back to our hotel, we dropped them off at the hospital so they could fetch their records. We continued to the hotel and arrived just ten minutes before our birthmother was supposed to be visiting.

Grace was doing fine and didn't need much tending, so we quickly zipped around the room putting things into places, and I sat at the end of the desk we have (we haven't got a table), and quickly ate my BBQ. The rib I got had a bit more meat on it, but it was rather tough. The chicken was also pretty meaty, but also had a few bones throughout, so eating with care was required. Claire also ate, but just enough to abate her hunger. We finished and cleaned-up, and set to waiting.

About a half-hour after expected, Donna, Claudia's aide at the CAA, and our birthmother arrived. She quickly took and cuddled with Grace. We chatted a bit, first with Donna about her and her doings at the CAA and with the birthmothers, and then with her translations with our birthmother about things in general. We want to know so much, but don't want to pry. A lot of questions we ask of our birthmother, they, as her “case workers” already know, so we spend a lot of time talking about her, an not as much talking to her.

We did learn that her mother does have a computer, and uses it all of the time, so we can speed some communications by passing things electronically. We shared that we'd heard from bubu that they already had a post office box, and when Donna queried, she said that our birthmother had also just learned that; we speculated that our asking bubu earlier may have prompted the discussion later.

We learned also that our birthmother was just getting to know her own mother. Evidently our birthmother was raised and living with her paternal family on another island. There was mention of “when they split” some time ago, but we thought he'd passed, more finally. We'll try to get more of that as the visits or post-return communications continue. They've since moved to a different other island, where our birthmother will be joining them after we're gone and are no longer an impetus for her to stay on the main island. We didn't think to ask if there was postal service there, or if they already had something worked out, or if they had computers or access there. Also more for next time.

Donna said our birthmother made a comment about how happy she was to see how Grace was bonding with us. While our birthmother held her for most of the visit, there were moments when she'd do something, perhaps a little different than we would, and Grace would look around for one of us, relaxing a little when she saw us. Also, the roles of telling the “she does this or that” stories had totally reversed. This was told with apparent relief and satisfaction, and not any kind of lament or sadness.

After about an hour they left. We made indistinct tentative plans for a near future visit, but after Maddy returns this weekend. Evidently, not only is this visiting more her job than the CAA folk (and extra thanks to them for the extra effort), but she clicks a lot more with the birthmothers, and she spent some time in the U.S., so she's a lot more familiar with our conversational quirks and social references. We're also looking forward to her return.

We had a quick pass through the restaurant for dinner, and returned to the room. Claire's been missing home a little bit, so we broke out some DVDs of TV shows we like. Sure, we have the Discovery channel, a movie channel of sorts, and some other things on TV, but they repeat a bit too much, or are repeats in general. Plus, we're heavy-use DVR people, and are used to watching what we want when we have the time for it, and not making time for watching what's on the tube when it's on.

We chose Modern Family over Big Bang Theory, although it was a tough choice. We propped the Mac on a chair in front of the saggy sofa, and cranked the volume. We watched the pilot and second episodes and the extra scenes for each. They were, of course, hilarious. The pilot was as awesome as any pilot I'd ever seen, and I'm sure had we caught it on television the first time around we would have been hooked from the beginning.

We took our spirits, lifted by the well-meaning dysfunctional family comedy, and turned in.