Faith

Although the driver thing has perks, I really hate not having a car and really miss driving. I cannot stress enough how crazy and chaotic the driving is here though. I regularly see drivers confidently going down a one-way the wrong way, driving down bike paths, making four lanes and out two. Throw in bicycles, pedestrians, the occasional donkey, and this leads to many, many accidents. They make the Italians look down right law abiding. Our driver speaks very little English and yet, I somehow manage to get where I want to go and he somehow manages to find me when I come out a different door than I went in. Many times I come out of a big shopping center and think, "sh*t, this isn't where I left Mr. Sun." and then beep, beep, here he comes racing up to get us. He's pretty amazing.

One day a week we can't drive our van and I have a different driver, Mr. Wong. This is to help with pollution, although how swapping out one car for another helps pollution is beyond me. It's the kind of idea Al Gore would use when taking credit for saving the planet...so China might as well too.

Mr. Sun speaks almost ZERO English on an English literacy scale and Mr. Wong speaks -10. Friday I was trying to point on a map to Mr. Wong where I wanted to go and next thing I know he's calling Mr. Sun and handing me the phone. Seriously, you want me to explain to the man who knows "yes, no and no problem" where I need to go today.... over the phone? I gave it my best shot, and gall durn it, if we didn't pull up right in front of the grocery store I had explained over the phone. Kenny says that my Italian roots are coming in handy here given that it's really all the arm waving, miming, and gesturing that get the point across. Jack asked me one day why I always make the gesture of my fingers "walking" when I tell Mr. Sun we're going to walk somewhere.

Guess you gotta have faith-a-faith-a-faith (did you know Donny Osmond sang that at one time? George Michael and Donny Osmond - two people I never thought I'd write about in the same paragraph).

Here are the boys at Luc's science fair.