Thailand Recapish

My Mission Trip

“Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” Ephesians 5:1-2

Before I start this I should give you some information on what is happening in Thailand. Remember Nhu has 4 children’s homes in the area we went. Three are on th “old land” and one is on the “new land”. RNhu is in the process of moving each home onto the new land, which is located in a more rural part of the country (safer for the kids to be away from cities where trafficking is much higher). The reason they are having to do this is because Thailand expanded the city limits and now the kids are in a city that they would prefer them to not be in.

Before church, this little boy and I had a blast taking funny face selfies! 

All work is geared towards finishing the first boys home on the new land so they can get started on the next one ASAP. The majority of our group worked on cement and was digging the entire trip. Myself and two other ladies tackled making a HUGE amount of curtains for the home.  Each house has a “house mom” and helpers, so there is at least 1 adult for every 10 kids. For our project they took the house mom to the pick out fabric during the first trip (I was on the second) and from what I hear she was in quite a daze while picking it out.

The poverty in Thailand is just astounding. I’ve seen photos in National Geographic and seen documentaries on tv but nothing compares to standing there and seeing poverty like this.  (a whole nother blog post that I have in mind and may be popping up soon).  With that being said, imagine someone coming up to you and saying, “Would you rather have a Ferrari or  a Lamborghini?”. I wouldn’t know how to answer that question because it isn’t something fathomable to me. I’ve never truly thought about owning a car like that.

This is how the house mom felt in the fabric store.

Curtains.

What we buy without thought, is what she is dumbfounded to pick out because she never thought she would live somewhere that would allow her to have curtains. There she was, standing there in awe of the whole situation.

This girl and I clicked so well! She will forever hold a special place in my heart. The last time I saw her she said, "You are coming back next year! Don't lie! Promise me you will come back next year!". My heart has never broken like it did in that moment. How do you tell this girl that you don't know if you will see her again in this lifetime (thank goodness Heaven is real!). 

So became our project, curtains…more curtains than I ever could imagine making! We made all of the curtains for the downstairs room, which pretty much serves as a catch all. It’s a huge room that the kids hang out in after school to do homework, play, and eat dinner. We also made all the curtains for their bedroom, which is one large room with lots of bunk beds. (it sounds very sterile and institutionalized but it’s not, each kid has different bedding and it’s really quite adorable).  Then we also made curtains for the house mom’s apartment. Her apartment is located just down the hall from the kids rooms.

“What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me-practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.” Philippians 4:9.

This is Boo, our amazing driver and wonderful beacon of Christ's light to his fellow Thai people. 

Each day we would get up around 6 or so and be at breakfast at 7 am, at 7:30 we would do a morning devotional from Max Lucado’s book, “Just Like Jesus” (I highly recommend this book!).  After all that we would head to our work sites, and work all day. At 3:30 we would head home and clean up/shower. Which reminds me, I was not prepared for the blazing heat of Thailand. WOW! I would be drenched in sweat within 5 minutes of leaving my room each day. There is no central A/C and fans tend to just blow the warm air.

Anyway, at 5 we would head to one of the 4 children’s homes and hang out with the kids! Because there are so many kids with limited adults, they encourage us to hang out and just love on these kids as much as we can. These kids come from homes where they were going to be sold if RNhu hadn’t stepped in, so most of them just love being loved on! We played games, did homework, braided hair and so many other things that I can’t even keep track of.

This is a children's school that we were able to visit during our extra day in Thailand. They were so excited to see us, we were even able to bless them with a bit of money to go towards their education. This school has only been open two years and is for the kids in hill tribes whose parents come to the area to work each day. 

“Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.” Proverbs 22:6 (NIV)

Remember Nhu is taking these children away from poverty and trying to stop the generational cycle. They are paving a way for future generations to not have the same struggles that these kids are coming from. These kids just love God with all their heart and are so grateful for the work He is doing in their lives. On the last visit at each home, all of the kids line up from that home and sing us a song in Thai, they then go down and give each of us hugs and tell us how they will pray for us.

They are praying for me.

Church! All 4 children's homes in the area worshipping together! 

The kids who have come from literally nothing are giving everything they have to me. What a humbling experience. There hearts scream of the Lord and his work. Where they came from a place of darkness and no hope, they are all so joyous and hopeful for a future. They are now in a place where they can dream about possibilities.

Well now that I’ve cried (and written 1000 words), I should probably save the rest for later, but incase you want to help out these kids. There is a program where you can sponsor a child for $60 a month. Remember Nhu follows these kids through University and/or technical training depending on the child. They do this so the kids (adults by this point) can eventually provide for themselves and not have to go back to a lifestyle they had.

“Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.” Colossians 3:2

Each child is responsible for a different chore, and they do not ever ask for help with their chores. I asked to help this girl and she said, "No, thank you. You guest." I said that doesn't matter and rolled up my sleeves. Pretty far into it the other two ladies joined this girl and I and we barreled through those dishes. She seemed pretty happy to have some help, considering it's dishes for 100+ people all left for her to do. 

-Amber

Thai..thai..THAILAND!

Thailand Day 3...maybe 4, not sure! 

Well incase you missed the memo, I made it Thailand safely! What a journey that was, after leaving Okinawa I arrived in Shanghai, China for the night. I successfully made it through customs and began the journey of finding my hotel room. 

After much frustration I made it to my hotel room! YAY! Where I spent the night on a very short bed and watched CCTV (Communist China Television). That was pretty boring, but I had nothing else to do and was way to nervous to get a decent nights sleep. The next morning, I got up bright and early and went back to the airport to head to Thailand. 

I arrived to be greeted by a happy driver who took us (some friends from our team who waited at the airport for me) to our hotel. All in all it was a very successful trip to get here. 

Day 2 or 3 depending how you look at it, began with our team loading up and heading to the Children's home/work site. The majority of our team began laying concrete for a sidewalk at a new boy's home. I and two other ladies, began making the curtains for this new home. We have been working diligently to finish these curtains and to teach one of the ladies how to make them, so that when we leave, they can continue our work or make new curtains as needed. 

After our work day, we came back to our new hotel/conference center to unpack and clean up. We then returned to the Children's Home to spend the evening. I had brought a few decks of cards (which are now the Children's Homes). We played UNO, Spoons, battle and memory. For some reason, I seemed to draw out the attention of little ones, so I had a blast playing with them. 

There was a specific little girl who just stuck out to me. We will call her Jane. (Because of the nature of our trip, we are not allowed to share names online or locations to where we are at). Jane was a special needs little girl, who seemed to really enjoy playing with me after dinner. 

While playing spoons with her, I held my cards in my hand and showed her the face cards to allow her to look for more face cards. I then taught her the letter Q. At the beginning of the evening she couldn't identify the difference between kings, queens, and jacks; but by the end of the night she was able to tell the difference and even got 4 queens so she could grab the spoon. 

These girls in this home are all so incredibly loved and well taken care of. It amazed me how happy each one is in a situation that we would consider tragic. God has been doing some amazing things in this country and I feel so blessed to be a part of this awesome experience. Well it's time for us to head to a boys home, so hopefully I will get more stuff up soon! 

Please pray for my migraines, health of other members of our team, and for us to continue being such a help to the Thai people. 

Thanks y'all! 

Amber

Fun Fall Happenings

PROMOTIONS! 

The most exciting news we have going on in our family is that Kyle is getting promoted on November 15th! YAY!!! The Air Force does this really cool thing called tacking on, where two people get to "tack on" Kyle's new rank. When they tack it on they punch them and none other than yours truly will be one of the people who gets the awesome opportunity unfortunate task of punching Kyle! Kyle will be promoting from Airman First Class to Senior Airman. 

PHOTOS! 

American Village

In other news I got a new camera. For those of you who don't know I took a photography class in high school and a photography class in college. I got a Canon Rebel T3I and I am loving it! I will post a few of my favorite pictures I've taken in the past few weeks. I have found myself remembering all those lessons about ISO, Aperture, F-stop, rule of thirds, and depth of field. I have also found myself looking up my old photography teacher and contemplating emailing him for some recommendations. Kyle has been super supporting in this endeavor as I pick up yet another new hobby. He told me when I finish the 10 quilts that are just waiting on binding, I can convert my sewing room into a home studio. He has not been super encouraging of me constantly wanting to take pictures of him. He says I don't make him look very manly. 

Kyle!

Playing Light During Typhon Fitow

Charlie playing at the park!

Gratch, my friends dog

Noah practicing

FERTILITY TREATMENTS!

Last but not least, I'm sure all of you are wondering about fertility treatments. We are on our fourth month (in a row!) of fertility treatments. Unfortunately we are still not expecting, we were told that if we don't conceive by Christmas I will need to go off base (and pay out of pocket) for some further treatments. We are both emotionally drained so once we finish these two cycles we for sure will be taking a couple months off before making a decision on what to do next. The side effects of the medicine are hard on my body and even harder on Kyle (he doesn't do well seeing me not feeling well). Our biggest request is that everyone could please lift us in your prayers. 

An Emotional Year

Well, as I'm sure many of you have noticed I haven't updated our blog in quite a while. We have had a crazy few months and I thought I would pick up where we left off since Kyle and I are finally ready to talk about it and put it out in the open.

Last time we talked Kyle was getting ready to deploy. My my, what a crazy time that was. To fully update you there is somethings you should know about my health. I have two conditions that I battle regularly:

     1. Chronic Migraines: I do not have a migraine here or there. I have multiple migraines a week. I seem to only have them in Okinawa since I only had one while in Texas. These are not your usual I need some peace and quiet migraines. They hit usually between 6 and 10pm, I close the door to our bedroom and the blinds. I turn off every light in our bedroom, turn off the central a/c, turn off the fans in our bedroom and Kyle is not allowed in because hearing him breathe is so magnified it sounds like a freight train. I then put an ice pack on the back of my head (same spot every time) I take a prescription migraine medicine and I take melatonin. I don't consume a lot of caffeine so I usually take these medicines with a highly caffeinated beverage. Then comes the waiting game. I wait for the melatonin to kick in while there is a screeching noise piercing through my ears. As I wait if I even look at my phone, iPad, computer or anything back lit I will be sent running to the bathroom to vomit. Fun right?!? We've been to the doctor three times about them and I have had IV cocktails three times to stop them because they went on for 8 hours. Luckily they hit evening time so I am not one of many people whose life is drastically altered by them. I'm also praying this is temporary for as long as we live in Okinawa. Please join me in this prayer. Kyle would like to not sleep on the couch every now and then because I can't bear his breathing.

     2. Poly Cystic Ovarian Syndrom (PCOS): Many of you may remember a few years ago I started having cysts rupture on my ovaries. Since 2010, I have had somewhere between 13-18 cysts rupture. You lose count eventually. I was told in 2010 that I will not be able to bear children. I have learned to have a very high tolerance for pain so I do not use the vicodin and ibuprofen that is provided for me regularly (we have flushed ALOT of pain meds because I don't use them YAY!). I also have extremely horrible menstrual cycles because I do not ovulate correctly (the reason I may not be able to bear children). PCOS is a syndrome that manifests itself in many many different ways. My hormone levels are off. Without going into too many details. I have low progesterone, high testosterone, and random estrogen. I am very very blessed in that I do not struggle with some of the more embarrassing side effects of PCOS. I do battle my weight, because my hormones are off. Since diagnoses I have gained over 40lbs. This seems like a lot but I have one cute butt that carries the majority! HA! I also have very painful cycles, that last double to triple the average length, and I have these awesome pains that shoot through my sides. If you ever see me clutching my side it's ok! It will pass in a few minutes or I will look at you and you will know a cyst is rupturing.

I needed to explain these to ya'll to update you completely on our past few months. Kyle and I were not planning to have kids until we met a few goals we had set for ourselves. Well in the end of January/beginning of February we conceived a child. In the end of February/beginning of March we found out we were expecting. We were shocked! I was about to leave for dragon boat practice when I had this sudden feeling I was pregnant. I didn't tell Kyle because I regularly take pregnancy tests since my cycle is so irregular I never want to start the new month of birth control(bc) without either having a cycle or taking a test. Usually I have to take a test because my cycle appears when it wants even on BC. After taking a home pregnancy test (HPT) and it came out positive, I had a mild heart attack (just kidding). I walked in the kitchen and handed Kyle the test he responded with, "What does this mean?". I barely got the words out but said, "We are having a...child!" Of course both of us were shocked, now I'm not the best at medicine so I was lucky to take my BC 4 times a week much less daily but when you've been told for three years that you can't conceive what's the big deal?

The next day we took a blood test and that evening our doctor called us to tell us we were definitely pregnant. Based on my very irregular cycle I was estimated to be 10 weeks. We later found out that I was two weeks when we found out we were expecting. After a very difficult few weeks of keeping our secret (sorry Mom, Amie, Gran-gran and Oma). We had our first ultrasound. At the first ultrasound we were told it's pretty amazing I conceived and that I had at least 4 cysts on my ovaries at the time. Other than that everything was going swimmingly I was estimated at 5.5-6.5 weeks. The baby was growing perfectly and we were thrilled. Then began the amazing phone calls to family and select very close friends.

The next Monday Kyle was working from 3pm- 11am. Of course not even an hour after he left I noticed spotting. I frantically showed up at my friend Lori's house and asked her to accompany me to the ER.

This entire time we were also preparing Kyle for deployment. He had received a small pox vaccine which is a live virus and was not allowed to be around pregnant women or babies. If only he'd waited two weeks to get the vaccine. So we were stuck washing all of our clothes separate, sleeping with our own blankets and washing those separate, and he had to sleep with a shirt on every night plus keep the sight completely covered. Some nights, he slept on the couch just because he was so nervous about accidentally laying his arm over in the night which he does almost every night. We also found out Kyle was due to arrive about two weeks before my estimated delivery date of November 20, 2013. We were praying that I made it to full term and that He made it home a few days early, but were also preparing for a labor without my husband. I luckily have an amazing boss who I know without a doubt would have helped me get through labor (and volunteered to go to all the classes with me). She and two other women have truly become lifetime friends I have made while being here in Okinawa.

I went to the ER, they first tried to get a heart beat but were unable. At 6.5-7.5 weeks this is not uncommon but not common in average pregnancies. They also took scans of my entire uterus and ovaries, where they once again pointed out I have some weird ovaries! After doing an ultra sound where they still couldn't get a heart beat they told me I had a sub-chorianic hematoma, a blood clot between the placenta and uterus. I was told I would have to wait and see what happens. Most the time these heal themselves and everything goes ok. They happen in approximately 4% of pregnancies and of those 4%, 10% end in a miscarriage. What they didn't tell me was that the blood clot surrounded over half of the babies placenta, leaving almost no room to grow.

Over the next week we went through the emotional roller coaster of getting Kyle's stuff organized, packing lists made and all those other organization things you go through before a deployment. This was all happening while I was consistently bleeding. On Friday I was so emotionally exhausted, I had to know what was going on. I knew I was going to be getting off work early so I called at 6:45 in the morning and asked them to work me in. A wonderful doctor named Dr. Jennifer Klimpel worked me into her lunch break. How awesome do such a nice thing! When I showed up for my appointment she told me the baby had not grown since my last ultra sound and was still measuring 6 weeks when it should be 8 weeks and that I was indeed going to have a miscarriage from the blood clot. Unfortunately everything was fine with our baby (which we called ALIEN because I was VERY sick all the time), it was just my body had a random error in conceiving. This was nothing we could prevent or control and over time I have accepted that it's not my fault. After receiving this devastating news she verified it with another doctor who confirmed her diagnosis and we proceeded from there. I called Kyle and asked him to come to the hospital and see if he could get off work while we went through everything. That afternoon we got a phone call saying Kyle's deployment with him and a few other guys was cancelled and that he would not be leaving the next week.

I choose to have a D&C which is a surgery where the doctors go in and remove the tissue and clean out your uterus. This was the best choice for me for a few reasons: I was EMOTIONALLY exhausted, I had already been through so much bleeding that wasn't even miscarrying yet that I didn't think I could handle any more, and because for me I didn't like the idea of having to flush my baby. Kyle agreed with me that this was the best option for our situation and overall I am very pleased with our choice. Monday morning April 8th I had surgery and everything went very well.

Fast forward to May 13 (yes I had this appointment on my birthday because I was so excited). I went to meet with the amazing Dr. Klimpel again as we discussed my options. She estimated that I probably only ovulate about twice a year and asked if we were interested in beginning fertility treatments to treat the PCOS, and help us to conceive a child. After a whole lot of prayer and sought counsel Kyle and I decided we want to try and conceive. We went through a whirlwind of tests, I can not count how many times I have had blood drawn and iv's done since we have been in Okinawa. I am also a pro at the old peeing in a cup. On June 14th I officially began fertility treatments. We have until approximately December before we will need to take a break from the treatments. Hopefully in the near future you will all hear about our family expanding.

With Love,
Kyle and Amber

Preparation

Preparation seems to be the long running word in our house hold. As many of you know we are preparing (there is that dang word again!) for our first deployment. Kyle will be leaving here coming soon and we thought it would be a good idea to give an update to everyone on how the Clement family is doing. In order to prepare for this we have had to do a few things that a typical 21/22 year old married couple doesn't usually do; prepare a living will, advanced directives, power of attorney's, and other random miscellaneous things that make you look at your life and decide what you would want if a tragedy stuck.

While this seems to be a horrible thing to have to imagine, it has given us the opportunity to be grateful for all the wonderful things we are blessed with. We've traveled to multiple countries, have seen some beautiful things, have wonderful friends and family, and we are so excited to see what God has planned in our future!

The other day I called our bank to let them know Kyle's debit card expires soon and that we will need to get a new one before he leaves or have them send the new one super early so that when it does expire I can get it to him in time. I was then navigated to the "deployment team" to make preparations  for deployment. They proceeded to offer us additional life insurance. Talk about the one conversation I was not prepared for.

Recently Kyle had to get the small pox vaccine among with many other vaccinations in order to prepare for leaving. I am not sure if you know what is involved in the small pox vaccine but for those non-medical field and non-military friends and family out there I thought you would appreciate a detailed description. The small pox vaccine is a live virus that is given to you by dipping two needles in the virus and rapidly poking (I'm sure it feels like stabbing) your arm in a particular spot 15 times. Once this has happened you are to cover the sight of the vaccination until it turns black and falls off. This sounds quite simple, however the time between getting the vaccine and it turning black and falling off is approximately 21 days. Kyle has to keep his arm covered for and wear a shirt at all times until this thing that is a puss filled pocket falls off. He also has the average side effects, headaches, fever, and chills. This wouldn't bug me too much since I'm not feeling any of them, however I'm tired of him turning the air conditioner off in our house!

Overall we are doing very well and the preparation is going well also. We do ask that each of you pray for our family. We appreciate all support and prayers, that come our way. We are both excited and nervous to see what the short term future holds. Thank you all in advance for supporting us over this time.

With Love,
Kyle and Amber (Mostly Amber since we all know Kyle didn't take the time to write this out!)

Has A Year Already Passed?

 

Well, it's been a year since my last post (oops!), so I guess I should highlight all the awesome happenings of the last year. We began the year with a program called FTAC (First Term Airman Course), there I met one of my best friends, Lori Forest. At the time I had no idea that over the next year we would become very close and have some awesome memories. March 19th, we celebrated our 1st wedding anniversary, at a wonderful restaurant called Bella Napoli's, they have the best 4 cheese pizza I have eaten in my life. In May we celebrated my 21st birthday in style...with a Strawberry Margarita! I have since tried drinks here and there, and have discovered that I think some are absolutely disgusting and some are quite tasty! In July we celebrated Kyle's 22nd birthday at a wonderful restaurant called Marinos. They serve you pasta from a parmesan cheese wheel, have unlimited soday/tea/juice/coffee (quite a rare commodity in Okinawa), three desserts per person, cheese fondu, and some amazing Cream Corn Pizza. I know, I know you're thinking it sounds disgusting, well, you're wrong. It's DELICIOUS! September began my new job as a nanny for the most wonderful people and bosses ever. I get to spend all day with an adorable baby named Charlie and his older brother Noah. New change began in November when Kyle received the wonderful blessing of getting to further his knowledge of Fuels, by going to Cryogenic school. That was in Wichita Falls, Tx so he got to take a small trip home on the weekends and surprise his family! When he got back to Okinawa he was tasked with a deployment, that will be coming up soon. We are scared and excited at the same time. Mostly anxious to see how this goes, considering this is something we will face again and again as he chooses to continue his career in the Air Force. For Thanksgiving we went camping. During our camping trip it rained, which typically would be fine for a little rain, however we were using rented tents that were about as durable as the cheap toilet paper in most office bathrooms. We woke up soaking wet but incredibly thankful we had a clean, dry home to go to. For Christmas we were able to spend it with our close friends and my amazing bosses. They welcomed us in their home and Santa Clause even came and visited us at their house! We had wonderful feasts and saw a fantastic movie. For New Years we once again watched a movie with the Driver family, who welcomed us in their home with Tye Dye Cheesecake. By far the coolest looking cheesecake I've ever seen. Those were the major happenings of 2012, hopefully 2013 brings more updates with more pictures!



A Day Of Exploring...

So today we went on an adventure to explore some more of the island. As we get more comfortable here, we find ourselves wanting to adventure out off the base and see what is out in the Japanese culture. Boy is it fascinating!



We went to the mall today and I tried some milk tea ice cream. It wasn't disgusting (well Kyle thought it was) but I probably won't order it again. After that we went to this cute boutique in the mall and I got a very unique and cute bracelet. I really liked how different it looked. After that we went to the arcade, and played a very unique popcorn game. First you pick a flavor (since we can't read Japanese we just went with a random one...it ended up being powder cheese) Then you had to crank the machine to "make" your popcorn, and after a few minutes of vigorously cranking this machine you got the most disgusting popcorn ever!!! We laughed alot, then gave it to our friend...he ate it all! Brave!   

Our next lovely adventure was the photo booth...and boy are those interesting! First you put in your 400 yen (appx $5) and think GEEZE that is an expensive photobooth. Then we walked into this HUGE photo booth, where we picked 9 backgrounds. We then began posing for these pictures, and by posing I mean Kyle leaning over like he has osteoperosis because the camera was so low. As we took the pictures we realized that they had tons and tons of lights and reflectors and a quite elaborate set up with green screen technology and everything. So we continued on our adventure. When we got out we waited and waited and waited for our pictures...no pictures. Only to find out there was an "editing" station. We sat down to edit and realized they took glamour shots of us...as in it looks like Kyle has make up on they did so much editing. Laughter is an understatement to our reaction to this. I frantically tried to figure out what to do to undo the editing of Kyle's face...one problem, we don't read Japanese to figure out what the buttons mean. Here was our results.

Next we went to the "Vending Machine" Resturaunt or Arashi's. It is called the vending machine resturaunt because you walk in, put your money in a vending machine, press the buttons for what you want to order, sit down, and someone brings you your food. It is quite good and quite cheap! Kyle ordered fried rice which came in a skillet like fajita's do in the states. That was really neat. I have no idea what I ordered but it had noodles, some sort of meat (I think ham), and some broth. The broth tasted fishy because it was a fish sauce based broth. I really enjoyed the meal and was proud of myself for ordering completely blind.

While at the mall we saw this lady who was selling fresh baked bread from a van...no joke the bread was cooking in the back of the van. Not sure how but it was cooking away. Anyway I wanted to try it and figured what would two or three bucks hurt. I picked a random bread, since she didn't speak English. OH MY GOODNESS!! This was the best thing I have ever eaten. It was a soft, warm, melt in your mouth strawberry bread. Words can not describe how amazing this bread was. The inside was like the texture of cotton candy with the flavor of bread. None of the sweetness of cotton candy just the texture and richness of a warm loaf of bread. YUMMMMMMMMY. I did not take a picture because we devoured it in a couple seconds.

Next thing we dropped our friend off who had joined us for a joyful day of adventures and decide to go look at some animals. We've known we want a pet but weren't sure when. We were also in limbo over a dog or a cat. Kyle has always said the only way I will ever have a cat is if he is all black with green eyes! So we walked in to look around, we told the lady we were just looking and weren't sure if we would get a cat yet or not. She said they had a cat that was about two years old and had been at the on base Kennel for a few months, which is a long time. Since they needed to get rid of him he was free. If we choose him, we would just have to pay to have him neutered. We asked her to show us him...there he was an all black cat with green eyes. After about a minute of playing with him I looked at Kyle and we both silently agreed he was THE ONE. We paid for his neutering and took that ball of fur home! Kyle named him Ninja, and boy is he cute!

Our next adventure for the day was trying out McDonald's and a Food mart which is just a gas station. McDonald's was so incredibly different! The food was fresh, people were nice, and the place was clean. There weren't five thousand kids acting wild. They were all playing and behaving just fine, the lady behind the counter bowed to us and everything...oh yeah and we got these super cool cups for ordering a large combo. We want to go back a couple more times to get a bunch of these cute cups! The food mart was really cool too. We got this apple tea that comes in a carton. They give you a super tall straw to drink it out of and it is delicious! It could be a little sweeter for our tastes but definitely something we will drink regularly (also super cheap). We also got some donut like things, they are so cheap and taste even cheaper. For some unknown reason though I keep eating them, guess they are kinda good. Well that was our adventurous day of exploring. Tomorrow is church and probably going to the local farmers market to get last minute produce for the week.