crazy days

This is an attempt to write down all the things that happened during the last week and especially 24 hours.

On Friday we came back from an exhausting trip to the capital. We had to renew Alia's passport, not because it expired but because she had no empty pages left. (not a typical problem of a two year old).

Since both parents have to be present when applying for a child's passport both Erlend and I had to go and since Max did not want to stay home alone, he came along, too :-).

Both kids had come down with fevers before we started traveling and while Alia got over it in a couple of days, Max added projectile vomiting and 24/7 whining into the mix... oh the joys of traveling with young kids.... 

We found out later that most of his behavior was because of the arrival his first tooth. (if every tooth means a week like last week, my every day coffee and painkiller intake will increase drastically).

A few days ago we found out that our co-workers have to return to their home country, due to medical issues. (this is already the second family we see leaving since we came to this region 8 months ago).

We are very sad about the news, for the family who we will miss and the hole they are leaving in our team.

Yesterday our bank card stopped working which is not a good thing, considering that it is our main source of cash. Then I got messages from other European co-workers who also work here, telling me that their cards also didn't work. Great, nothing like not having cash in a foreign country!

Around the same time I got a message telling me that my friend and language helper had a motorbike accident and hurt her arm.

I was supposed to pick up a German family (they are visiting their relatives here) from the airport last night and two hours later another friend. 

As I was about to head out the door, we got a phone call, telling us that the house, all of those people I was supposed to pick up, were going to stay in that night, had been broken into and some things were stolen, so nobody could stay at that house.

Since the guesthouse was full I had to find a hotel they could stay at (which is hard, when no credit cards are working).

Then the other friend (the one I was supposed to pick up from the airport later that night) called me saying that she was considering not getting on the plane since her tooth was hurting (no dentist in our city), and if I could try to get a dentist appointment and book a room for her in the city she was in, but please all of that within the next 10 minutes since she was about the board a plane. 

Then Max started crying and threw up his bed while I was on the phone with the dentist (first call with medical personal in the national language, yay for me!)

During all of this, Erlend was trying to help out with the communication between the guys dealing with the break in, and the foreigner that rents the house. Because he is in his home country right now, it was very hard to find out what was stolen, since nobody really knew what was in the house to start with.

I got the appointment and room booked for our friend and called her back. She had already boarded the plane but got back off so that she can have her tooth fixed today.

Confused? Yes, I was, too.

Aaaanyways, I hurried to pick up the family from the airport. I had never met them before, but I was the only Whitie, picking up the only Whities coming of the plane. Easy!

12 hours later I proudly report that 

- we got the German family settled for the night (and managed to find a card to pay for the room) and this morning on to their final destination, 

- my friend with the tooth ache is at the dentist right now, 

- Erlend is out trying to fix the credit card problem, 

- we are working on finding out what was stolen from the house, 

- and also working on helping my friend with the hurt arm....