Our Daily Life

Every day in the streets of our neighborhood you’ll see people throw out their garbage into the streets: full garbage bags, uneaten leftovers, rotten fruit and vegetables, cut hair from the endless barber shops lining the street, and any other type of garbage imaginable, including human waste. Very gross. TP will occasionally get mad at those people if he sees them do it and confront them, like he did today: “Why do you ruin your city like that? Do you not like your country?” The people are always thrown off and are very confused. TP always wants to throw the garbage back into their homes or businesses but I have to remind him that these people have never been taught any other way. They’ve simply known all their lives to throw out the garbage in the street, and the street sweepers (with their blue overalls, their garbage wagon on wheels, and their bamboo brooms) will come out every few hours and sweep it all away.

In the local restaurant today we paid $2 for our dinner. The lady brought out TP’s food first (not like in America where everyone gets their meals at the same time) and then brought out my soup and placed it next to TP, on the opposite side of where I was sitting, as if serving to an imaginable person, even though I had ordered it and she knew it was mine. We laughed and TP said, “Who are you serving it to? There’s no one sitting there?” She seemed very confused as she put it in front of me. We still haven’t been able to figure that one out.

Our apartment has a gym with a pool where I like to swim…or float. Call it what you want. The first time I tried to get in the lifeguards wouldn’t allow me to since I was pregnant and it’s apparently unhealthy for a prego woman to swim??? I assured them I’d be fine and that I would only pool run to ease their nerves. The agreement was that I would stay in the shallow end only and not dunk my head under. One of the lifeguards stayed by my side the entire time and yelled at anyone who got too close telling them to be more careful when near me because I was 7 months pregnant.

The other day I went for a swim, and a rather large old lady blocked the stairs and told me not to get in since I had a big belly. I ignored her and got right in beside her and smiled. She also yelled at me for swimming with my head under water. That same day a bunch of young boys were playing tag in and around the pool, running at full speed around the perimeter chasing each other. Even though the floor was slippery wet and they could have fallen and been hurt quite badly, not one lifeguard gave a second glance…Some things I will never understand.

Jen at 11 weeks


At 31 weeks

At 33 weeks