He Sings!

     The Aaron we enjoyed so much over a month ago is emerging again. He is back to his trademark giggle and outbursts of laughter and it is music to our weary ears. Yesterday evening, in an unbelievably happy and content mood, he sat between us playing for most of our time together. When he finally got up he led us up one path and down another, happily singing to himself under his breath. We could hardly believe our ears.
     Unfortunately, the singing stopped when the internat’s dog pack decided that we had crossed the line. There are about six mongrel dogs on the grounds. Most of the time they ignore us, and we do our best to avoid them. They are tended by the men who work there as caretakers. The caretakers are off on the weekends, and yesterday the dogs were all loose down in the back. There are two scary-looking shepherd-type dogs. One has a crippled foreleg, but a fully functioning jaw. The other barks viciously whenever he sees us and is usually kept tied in the back behind the vehicles.
     We have never seen the dogs together before so it surprised us when the whole pack came out and began to bark at Aaron. We quickly moved him out of harm’s way and took him back to our play area. Aaron versus dog is a loss for Aaron every time. We had moved on a few minutes later when one of the smaller dogs came running up to where we had left some toys, snapped up a deflated yellow punch ball balloon and took off running. Rob tried to go after it, but then the entire pack gave chase. Not a pleasant feeling. Fortunately one of the nurses saw what was happening and came to our rescue. She shook a stick at them and scolded them in her language, and they backed down. They didn’t seem to understand English scolding. We will definitely be more wary of the dogs from now on.

     Thank you to so many who gave us tips on shoes for Aaron. We are going to store those away for when we get home.

     In response to the weather questions…. Let’s just say that I did not pack for the extremes. It is vacillating between the 90’s and the 60’s. I wish I had brought at least one long sleeved shirt and another pair of long pants. I also left my tennis shoes and socks at home. Yesterday our walk home from the internat was a bit miserable for me. It was cold and rainy. I was shivering in my thin jacket. On the next market day we will be looking for a few warmer pieces of clothes for me and long pants for Aaron. Fortunately I did bring a warm jacket for him but left the long pants at home.