The movers were here Monday and Tuesday packing everything, and then it all was loaded on Wednesday. It was a good crew and I was probably more relaxed than usual – the same cannot be said of Flavia, poor girl. We brought in lunch from the Embassy’s cafeteria each day, and our housekeeper Benetta was on hand to help as well. It’s eerie being in an empty apartment with just our suitcases and items from the welcome kit. The vet also came on Friday to examine Flavie and issue her health certificate – she commented on how good Flavia looks at (almost) age 17.
The Ambassador and his wife had us over for a relaxing dinner on Thursday night. It was fun just to get to visit and talk without other people around. Friday night, Matthew and Ana hosted the consular officers and spouses for a home cooked Indonesian meal – that, too, was wonderful as it gave us a time to say our goodbyes and stuff our faces with Ana’s good cooking! The meal fest continued last night when Khalim and Saoussan had us and the Pasches for a Moroccan dinner (amazing!). We really like the four of them and it was a fun dinner. John taught 10-year-old Amelia a magic trick and she was amazing (really!).
We were deeply saddened to hear that one of our favorite Embassy drivers, Clifton, passed away yesterday. We’re not clear on the details yet, but it sounds like he was having a minor operation. The health care here is so poor you have to wonder if it could have been prevented.
When John and I moved to our house on Saddle Hill back in 2004, we bought a great (and heavy) reclining sofa. We’ve had it in many of our posts and it’s so comfortable for watching television. However, we decided to bid it farewell this trip and asked the movers to find a home for it. It had a few stains on it, and after the move from Mexico to Monrovia, we could get the foot rests up to a point, but couldn’t get the seats to recline fully. As the movers stood it on end to take it through the door, John saw that the movers in Mexico had tied the reclining mechanisms with twine to keep everything in place in transit! A simple snip of the scissors would have fixed everything! DOH! At any rate, it was still time for it to find a new home.
