AB and I often go outside for a little stroll in our apartment courtyard. This is usually how it goes -
We walk down 5 flights of stairs, and go to our storage room at the bottom of our apartment building. I have to stomp very loudly as I walk in order to make the sound activated lights come on. I open the heavy metal door to our storage room and pull out AB's stroller and dust it off. I strap AB in to the stroller, turn around and head back out while still stomping very loudly to keep the lights on. I then unlock the even heavier metal door to the outside of the building, lift AB's stroller over a threshold while holding open the heavy door that is made to automatically close.
Once we are outside I hear a "ohhhhh?" That is the sound of excitement all the local women make when they see AB. If it is one of our friends I stop and chat for a minute. At some point I usually have to stop a village grandmother from touching AB's hand or face - hello H1N1? I have learned if we keep on moving then we do not get swarmed by them, but as soon as we stop they come running, literally...like ants.
During our stroll I always run into at least one village grandmother who is concerned about AB being too cold. It usually goes something like this, "she is cold;" "she is not cold." "She is cold;" "she is not cold," and that usually ends it. Recently I have become bold enough to tell the repeat offenders that "foreigners do not like to be told that their children are cold. We think it is not polite." This usually shocks them into silence, and as I walk off I can hear them talking about me and how expensive my stroller is. I do it with a smile though; I really do not want to offend people who live where I live. In the defense of our city, there some people who totally understand why we ask them not to touch AB, but unfortunately they are an extremely extreme minority.
Eventually I run into the few stay at home moms with kids around AB's age. Most young mothers work and the grandmothers keep the grandchildren, so it is rare to find a stay at home mom. I usually talk to them for a few minutes, but for them it is really all about AB. They just want to stare at her, ask me how old she is that day, talk about how big her eyes are, how white her skin is, and how happy of a baby she is. I do not mind these conversations, obviously.
In the end I usually walk us over to a little area to sit so that we can people watch; AB likes to people watch. On the day of these pictures the kids had a school holiday, so they were playing and came over to check AB out. I actually like talking to the school children. Their vocabulary is more on my level, and they are pretty sweet in how they approach AB. They almost always ask if it is okay to touch her foot; they know no hand touching.
In the pictures AB is holding her handwipes. I have to carry these with me to wipe off her hands after some village grandmother who just wiped her grandchild's bottom touches AB's hands or face. It is just a fact of life here. AB likes to eat the package of the handwipes.
These pictures depicts a typical interaction with kids in our apartment complex.
These are some boys who live in our apartment complex. The one in the royal blue shirt is the most talkative. They are sweet kids.
This is AB looking at them looking at her.
They like to stand around and talk about her.
Sometimes they will get enough courage to approach AB. This is usually when AB has been smiling at them. Here she was a bit more interested in her handwipes, but this kid tried anyways. It was sweet.
