We celebrated our Day of Independence on July 4th like so many expats around the world: Americans dressed in red, white and blue hats and tee-shirts, gathered around tables laden with all our favorite dishes: potato salad, pasta salad, fruit salad, baked beans, chips, grilled burgers and hot dogs with all the typical condiments (including French's mustard, no less!), slices of watermelon and homemade ice cream! Yum! For the past 3 years we have been invited to a cook-out at the home of another couple who does member care, but with a different organization. Most of the guests work with various Christian agencies in Budapest and attend the Danube International Church (which is where we now attend).
We could tell Facebook has really made an impact on life around the world when we saw this sign!!! (Dad, the " Like :) " is a symbol used by Facebookers to indicate they "like" something that someone else posted on their Facebook page.) I, personally, thought this was quite amusing and very hip!
Have I told you how hot it is here? For the past 5-6 days temperatures have been in the 98-103 degree range. Now, I know Atlanta is experiencing a terrible heat wave too, and it's breaking all kinds of records there so I may not get much sympathy from you ... but we don't have the luxury of as many air conditioned houses, businesses, and stores like in America. This lady had to be 60 years of age, out watering her flowers in the concrete planters in front of her house ... in a tee shirt and bathing suit bottom.
And how about this lady pulling up weeds out in front of MY house? We hated to see them build a house/business in the empty lot in front of our house but not as much as we've hated seeing all the building trash lying around for a year! Fortunately, they are starting to haul off dumpsters full of yama yama! So glad this lady is taking care of the weeds along the street, in her bikini, no less. :-) And she is at least my age. Have I told you how hot it is here?
For the past week or so, Glenn and I have been sleeping (and eating, working and watching "TV" on the computer) in our basement since it is so much cooler down there. It also helps that we bought this monster fan to stir the air (and dust!). As of Friday night, the heat wave broke and it is only supposed to get up to 93 degrees today. A cool 93. It's amazing how cool 93 degrees feels compared to 102. I wonder if I will ever get used to the heat??? (I remember after having lived in Cote d'Ivoire a few years, we would pull out our sweaters when it plummeted down to 75 degrees, so maybe I will get used to the hot weather too!)
While we were in the U.S. for those 3 weeks, we had help with cutting our grass and watering our flowers, for which we are extremely grateful (!) but no takers on pulling weeds so I came back to a jungle in my little garden patch. I waited until after it rained Friday night to attack the weeds. Sorry, no bathing suit for me. It's not THAT hot!
We're here for another week or so before heading off to our big Annual General Meeting (AGM) in another country. Hmmm, what can I write about next week? Maybe the cold wave that is scheduled to come in on Thursday! Highs of 75 degrees! Man, my life is exciting!
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