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Archive for December, 2009

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Kboy12, number two son

Thursday, December 3rd, 2009

Brasov, Romania

A follower, admiring whoever he is spending time with….one who is happiest in the company of others and in heaven if there is also a ball…..one who wants to make money and prefers to own things than simply borrow them….one who would rather engage in adventure than do dishes or clean toilets….a dreamer, who can while away the day doing absolutely nothing. The first in our family to miss friends at home, but also the first to make friends wherever we are.

“How will the trip affect you in your life to come?” we asked him.

I think I will definitely not have five flash cars like I used to want. I may not even get a car at all, although that is unlikely (unless we move to a city with good transportation like trolley busses and metro and trams, and a house near the market).
I will definitely use less water, because I used to think water would never run out, but with being in the motorhomes and gers with no running water, I now know that water is actually precious. One bath is about one tank of water.
And I thank God for how fortunate I am to have done this trip, and for the beautiful world God has made for us live in.
One day I might be a missionary in one of the countries we went to, to tell the people who can’t see God that He wants to open their eyes. (One of the strongest impressions I have got is how many Asians make marvellous temples for idols and Buddhas, but all the effort they put in is for nothing.)

 

Posted in 2008/09, children, God | 4 Comments »

Jboy13, the eldest son

Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009

Brasov, Romania

“What’ve you learnt over this past year?” I asked last week.
Jboy13 managed to reply, “How to empty a portapotti.”

Left alone for a few minutes, he then produced another answer (although I must say I remain grateful that he was such a competent loo-emptier, and saved me from ever having to complete the task).
”I now have a better understanding of money.”

Maybe it started here:

On a train in China, a man boarded with this little clipboard, and proceeded to give a long spiel about counterfeit money. Unfortunately for Joe Chinaman, it is impossible to tell whether a note is counterfeit or not – he even had samples for you to check. But fortunately for the passengers on the train, he also had a special little UV torch, which, if purchased on the spot, could be used to show you the authenticity of your notes. Another gadget is not what we needed, so we made a point of only using authorised money-changers and not using enormous denominations.
Jboy13, meanwhile, enjoyed inspecting the samples!

A few weeks later he was up near the top of Hong Kong’s tallest building, this time inspecting a display of the counterfeit measures taken in Hong Kong to protect their monetary system. Actually, make that systems plural – three different banks and the government all produce money there, each designing their own notes.

Added to these experiences, was the opportunity to *use* money. At home I don’t even carry five cents on me; I use a card for all purchases and so the children had rarely seen real money being used. Some smaller ones even thought if you produced your card you could buy whatever you wanted.
One of the things we wanted to do on the trip was to allow the kids to make money-decisions with us. And using *actual* money has made this very easy. Flashing a few baht in front of them in Thailand and asking them to decide whether it should be spent on a truck ride home or that we walk the three kilometres and buy ice-creams on the way started the process.
Comparing prices in different countries for the same products – a loaf of bread, a kilo of rice or the cheapest local fruit – enhanced their money-savviness, not to mention improved their mental arithmetic!
Today the older kids were sent out to do the day’s food shopping. They were given the freedom to walk further to a particular supermarket to buy the pasta at well under half the cost of getting it at the market and also buy themselves something with a portion of the savings – or to just get everything at the market and a closer supermarket. They came home with chocolate! WIN-WIN Actually, they really won; the man, who they bought a cauliflower from, would not accept any payment at all!!!
They have also had money of their own to spend. The six-year-old has struggled most with this; he could determine to save it all and precisely twenty-seven seconds later be tempted to the point of wanting to spend by a bag of lollies. More Than Once. Jboy13 limited his purchases to significant items: a watch, an electronic game and a crossbow. He still has money in the bank too. And now understands better what the numbers stand for (the children had always had virtual bank accounts kept in a notebook at home, and Jboy’s in particular had seen a lot of activity with his flower press business – but now it means so much more).

Being a boy, who pays an inordinate amount of attention to detail, he has noticed a lot more about money than any of the rest of us. In fact, it sparked an interest to compile a bunch of pictures of coins and notes every country we have visited for more than a day.….which then grew into a mind-numbing comprehensive array of details about other aspects of those countries, too – flag, capital city, official languages, population, average rainfall and temperature, and time zones (Russia is fascinating!)
Having produced this *stuff*, we thought it might as well have a broader purpose and should be displayed on the blog….if you would like to have a squiz, you can go to the pretty interesting stuff page. Sadly, to our DetailsMan, the computer will not support the non-latin scripts he so painstakingly gathered – each country written in its local script….so you’ll just have to imagine squiggles and dots and dashes and all sorts of interesting writing!

Posted in 2008/09, children, learning, money, parenting | 3 Comments »

*celebrate*

Tuesday, December 1st, 2009
Brasov, Romania December first always signifies the beginning of our Christmas preparations. A year ago we were in Laos, the most non-Christian country we have visited. This year, it’s Romania, and we have six months of frequent church-visiting behind us. One of the ... [Continue reading this entry]

Posted in 2008/09, food, God, history, learning, postcard: Romania, recreation, tradition, weather | 1 Comment »

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