Part 5: Hangin with the kids

The family we are visiting has two kids, a girl Tracy's age and a boy between Loren and Tracy's age.  The director of the music department is another American who is there with his family, three kids.  Tracy was friends with Daryl for a while back in our 'hood and is that is actually how we met Tom and Daris.  The kids are pretty free range at the university, so they'd all disappear in a pack and show back up hours later, I honestly don't know what they were doing most of the time.  Playing the way kids used to play and I wish they still did today, instead of scheduled activities and social arrangements every minute.   Thursday afternoon I joined the kid pack and they headed off to play in a creek near campus.





Loren found this teeny tiny tree, and I made her stand by it for scale.  Oh wait, I mean freaking gigantic tree!!


My son.  Just because he's awesome.


Loren knows how to "strike a pose"


Inseparable girls


Heading back home.  This girl is happiest when filthy.  It's how she rolls.



While I was off playing with the kids that day, Mike and Tom were attempting to build a ramp to the stage for the concert coming up.  They were doing so without the aid of such places as Home Depot, Sears, or Lowes.   Proper tools are hard to come by and it was quite the adventure explaining to the guys at the lumber place what types of boards they needed cut for them.  They managed to get about what they needed but the lengths are approximate and the ends crooked so they spend a long time with hand saws trimming boards and then assembling the ramp.  But they managed to get it together!  Yay!  Luckily Randy, the department head has one power drill/screwdriver.