Buses and Boats and Big Mama

This week went pretty slow. The reason being, our crate was supposed to arrive on Thursday! So, the days seemed to just drag by. I would realize that I needed something, but then thought, "oh, I have that coming this week in the crate", so I didn't really go grocery shopping at all. The kids were pretty excited and only asked about 20 times a day if it was still coming on Thursday. We would always answer, "it's supposed to, but don't get your hopes up. We probably won't be able to get it out of customs until Friday anyways". The long awaited day came. Along with it, and email from the shipping company. It said we should expect our crate around April 24th. Hmmm. Yeah, I know that my last post was about seeing positive things in all situations. But I have to say, I'm really sorry...I shouldn't have written that. Because, I didn't see anything positive about this situation. The kids had to be told. They thought I was joking for some reason. It took a pretty serious face from me, to convince them that I, for once, wasn't lying to them. So to ease the tension and depression, David suggested an outing for the Haveman family. "Let's take a boat out to an island on Friday", says he. Screams from all the kids followed.


The boat left at 11am. We have to take the bus to get there and it never takes a half an hour to get into town...so we left at 10:30. We walked to the bus stop. For the first time ever, the bus was a little late. We got onto it, and it was the older model, probably from the 50's. It rattled and squeaked. I could feel something bumping under my feet. The bus driver, I gotta tell you, was  pretty crazy (in a positive way, of course). He pulled out right in front of a line of cars coming. They didn't stop, they just passed us, which made the cars coming at us, have to take the side of the road...but it's all good! We had to make a couple of stops. A girl got on and sat in front of Jadyn and I and passed back an apple to her, then reached across the aisle and gave one to Addie, who was sitting on Elizabeth's lap. I liked her. I wanted to ask if she would be my friend, but I was too shy. Plus she started eating a hard boiled egg and I didn't want to disturb her, because let's face it, no one wants to be disturbed while eating a hard boiled egg. Time was flying by and we were getting nowhere. Close to town, the driver pulled into the gas station to fuel up. Everyone else was really jolly. I started biting my nails. There is only one boat out to the island and I was pretty sure we weren't going to make it. After getting gas, we finally got to the waterfront, but had to catch another bus down to where the boat was leaving. All six of us piled on and found a seat. Then David realized that it was the wrong bus. All six of us piled off and piled onto another bus. The bus driver was taking a break. The bus wasn't even running. So we sat there and I finished off the rest of my nails. Finally, at 11am, David walked up and asked if he might take us to catch our boat. Of course he would! He started right up and got us onto the road in no time. He drove us right up to the boat. I had a moment of fear for our lives because I thought he was going to drive right into the water. I guess he was getting the boat driver's attention, because he was starting out. He stopped and we all piled onto the boat. We caught it!


It was a great day. The kids got to swim, swing on a rope swing, terrorize the local hermit crabs (speaking of, I have about 20 of them wandering around my house right now. Addie brought hers home and let them go) and made a couple of new friends with two other little white kids. I was talking to the mom, and after about a half hour of talking with her, I found out she had been a missionary kid in PNG. Yes, we're everywhere.  We got to hang out with them all day and it was a lot of fun. I also got to talk with Big Mama. She's the owner of the island that we went to. I liked her immediately because of her name. She had to have a great personality if she went by "Big Mama". I was right. She sat on her mat under her little fale (hut) so she wouldn't get her skin dark and I sat in front of her, baking my skin in the tropical sun and learned a lot. I think, maybe too much. I laughed a lot though and I decided that if I gain about 200 pounds, I'm going to go by 'Big Mama', as well.  I asked her about the two ship wrecks right in front of her island. Right away, she gave me the history of the big one. It had sunk in the 80's when a cyclone had passed thru. The little one she said was hers and she didn't want to talk about it. Then started laughing so hard, David and I started laughing and kept laughing even though we didn't know what she was laughing at...and come to think of it, we never did find out the story.  We got home refreshed and not too sun burned with a promise of a puppy on Monday, from a lady on the island. I'm not going to tell the kids about it...just in case it doesn't happen. I've learned my lesson. Can't take an island trip every time hope is deferred!


So even though we have to wait a few more weeks for some more towels and a can opener, we're okay with it! Because we know that it will get here when it gets here...right?