How many more days til Easter?

This is a question I am getting several times per day now. I try not to be irritated, but honestly, Viv knows the answer. I think it is a case of when you are little, you just like to be told things over and over, like stories.

We were watching American Idol today and there was some guy on there named Casey somebody performing. He might have been an ex-contestant. He had his hair in a bun (!) and a scraggly looking beard. Vivian said, "Mom, I do not expect that man has a wife!"

She read me two stories tonight from her Classic Fairy Tales book. She loves to read and is even doing voices and reading with expression. It tickles me to no end.

Sophie is spending the night at Inbar's house. Inbar spent the night with us last night. Since it was Good Friday Eve, traffic was horrific and Inbar's mom told me it took her an hour to move 1km. She asked if Inbar could spend the night at the last minute because the traffic was so horrible.

What is the big deal about Good Friday Eve, you ask? Most children in Uganda, if they go to school at all, go to boarding school. The reason for this is that it cuts down on the parent responsibility of having to arrange transportation and food each day for a child. Children are sent off to BS at age 6-8. They come home only for 3 breaks per year. Christmas, Easter and a month before fall term. But mostly they go all year.

Thursday night all  the locals are getting their kids from boarding school for the 4 day weekend that will last thru Easter Monday. They will send the kids back to school on Tuesday after Easter Monday. Whenever boarding school is beginning or ending, traffic is a hot mess here.

Since we are all alone, Vivi is in my bed. So long as she keeps to her own side, I really don't mind.  The woman who waxes me said her first born daughter wanted to sleep with her up til the age of 15!  Especially when she would come home from boarding school. That does not give me much hope.

By the way, we leave for our first trip to Turkey in a few more days. The girls are super excited. You would think they are going to Disneyland!  They are about to jump out of their skin. I got the SpaceBag down from the top of the closet and had them try on pants and shirts to see if any warm clothes still fit.

Vivi does not want to wear any dresses or any bright colors. She basically wants to wear anything that looks like boy clothes. That reminds me. The other day, she told me she was going to marry a girl, because then she wouldn't have to have a baby.

I am scared to ask where this logic comes from, because to the best of my knowledge, she wouldn't know the technicalities of where a baby comes from anyway.

The good news is that they have plenty of warmish clothes to wear in Turkey. It is supposed to be beautiful spring weather - 45-61 degrees. Just perfect.

Their friend Inbar is Israeli and it was really cute hearing them tell her what she was going to miss about Easter. They really wanted to share Easter with her. We did an egg hunt with her for fun yesterday. But they said, "It is so fun when the Easter bunny leaves a jelly bean trail!"  "And you won't get any chocolate or Easter basket?"  They were devastated to know this won't happen to their friend.

Another topic that came up in the car ride today was, "Why do so many people in the world not like Israeli's?"  If only I had an answer for that. It was also very cute to hear Inbar recite for us the story of Passover. The girls were captivated by it.

Vivian was troubled by why the whole world is only celebrating Christian holidays and not Jewish  ones.  But I assured her it depends on where you live, and reminded  her that in Zanzibar, we were there over Ramadan, and people were definitely celebrating there.