An excursion to visit a friend in Victoria

Hey Grandpa what are you reading?

Taking care of one of her babies

Playing with her friend Julia

Johari and I went up to Victoria B.C. this weekend to visit a friend that I worked with in Tanzania, Gladys. It was wonderful to see her after 4 years. She arrived in Canada from Tanzania 3 months ago. What an overwhelming transition, I imagine. The millions of choices that one has to make in 'Western' society.

Gladys

I was thinking about how hard it is for people from many countries to travel anywhere else. The struggle to get a visa just to visit anywhere else. And yet with a U.S. passport, we take it for granted that we can just go most places without much work. We just have to show up and we can get right in. Shouldn't we all be free to travel the world. A world without borders that would be pretty incredible.
I also got more insight into the situation in Kenya, being that Gladys is Kenyan. She explained the situation to us more.
Johari has picked up a little cold. Hopefully it will diminish before we travel.
We had a nice visit with our friends, Cheryl and Jordan, this evening. At the end of our visit when we outside playing in the snow, Johari really really really wanted to hold Jordan's hand although the feeling wasn't mutual. She kept running after her and reaching for Jordan's hand. Before we got out of the house Jordan had wanted to hug Johari. She walked up to her with open arms but then didn't quite get her arms around Johari. Both very sweet gestures for one another.
Johari got a rolling dog from Christina about a week ago. A very cool toy for Johari considering she loves dogs. One day, I took her out to walk this dog down the street. It ended up being frustrating to walk the dog on the sidewalk because the dog kept falling over and then she would have to figure out how to get her dog upright again, take a few steps and the dog runs into the edge of the grass and falls over, work on getting it upright and on and on. Johari kept working at it. She was very determined.

Johari likes to put on her own headbands and several at one time. I like the stilo that she has created.
She is totally obsessed with her baby dolls. The other day, she wanted to bring 4 baby dolls with her. She was struggling to carry them all. So I put them in her backpack so she could carry them all. But then she did not want the backpack to be removed from her back. She likes to take care of all of them. And have them participate in activities. She gets them to wave "hi" and clap their hands or their feet. Sometimes she has them dancing. She can't let go of them. On the ferry ride home from Victoria, there was a very nice playroom onboard. A little boy in the playroom wanted to take care of Johari's baby as well. He was sweet to the baby but Johari had a hard time being alright with someone else having her baby. She is a protective mama. Not just any joe-schmoe kid can care for her baby. She only trusts me to do it at times and her grandma once in a while. Otherwise she has a heavy responsibility caring for all of her babies.