I guess I have been avoiding updating because I don't want to upload any photos. But you guys don't need photos, do you?
The hottest news in my life right now is that we are looking for a new house to rent. The one we are in right now is so cute and the neighbors are wonderful. The rent is $3,000 per year. I know that is awesome, too, at about 250/month. The problem is that we have just outgrown it. Jonas needs his own room now so that we can all sleep better. We also need a dining room (we eat our meals squatting around the coffee table right now) so that Jonas can learn table manners. The kitchen is very small here- I should take a picture to prove it. Only one person can fit in it at a time. Also the water from the shower in the upstairs bathroom leaks down into the kitchen. It is really gross and the landlord has tried to "fix" it different times by putting about 4 inches of caulk in all of the cracks in the shower, but I think it is a problem with the pipes. I would also like an office rather than having the computer desk in the corner of the room with Jonas' toys in it.
So there are many reasons to find a new place. One of the houses we have looked at was very unique. It used to be a dance club, so it has it's own disco room. Now, this is reason enough for me to want to move in. It has TONS of bathrooms (including mens/womens bathrooms with stalls, since it used to be a club!). It has a huge room that our nanny could live in (she actually asked us to find a house where she could live with us. right now she lives in a shack on a construction site where her husband works). I envision using the disco room for alot of purposes, such as holiday dinners in the foreign community, playgroup (there has been talk among the foreigners about turning "playgroup" into "preschool", and it would be nice to have a big space), and special movie nights (our friend has an LCD projector. We have over 300 bootleg DVD's. Need I say more?). And one more thing...this house is downtown. I would like to give the young girls on the street a place to sleep every night, on cots in the disco room. When I see the little 10 and 11 year old girls begging, I feel so terrible knowing that in just a few years, they will have gone through puberty. And they might turn into prostitutes. I want to save all of them. I want to let them take showers and wash their clothes. I want to feed them dinner and breakfast. I want them to drink milk and take vitamins. I realized that I can't keep waiting for "someone" to do "something". It might have to be me. I was kind of overwhelmed at this realization because I don't know how to get money. But I'm sure it will work out if I just get started somehow. Everyone wants to save children.
Anyway, this house also has a huge parking lot that I would like to put a basketball goal in and let the boys and young men in the community come play. They could even pee in the men's bathroom.
The house has been vacant for a long time. The original rental price was $600/month and we asked for $400/month. The lady said that she would get back to us. I hope it comes through.
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In non save-the-world related news, our TV sometimes spontaneously turns itself off or switches itself off of DVD mode back to TV mode. The other day Jonas was watching one of his baby DVD's and the TV switched somehow without me knowing. I don't know how long he watched WWF RAW, but when I came in the room he pointed at the TV and said "BOOM!" I think he had just seen a sweet takedown. But it was kind of a slap to my intellectuality.

Friday, Apr. 28, 2006 at 8:43 AM