Visitors from a Strange Land

I almost forgot to cover the most exciting part of this past weekend. Viana got to meet her "cousins" from the Friedman family, Zollie (3) and Bela(1). Lamine has been best friends with their father, Greg, since the age of 3, they went to the same elementary school together and have stayed in touch through high school, college and 14 additional years of life. They have been best friends for 30+ years. Today Greg and his wife Amy are living in Bangladesh and teaching at a school there. They have been there for the past 3 years, prior to which they taught in Honduras, and have raised their two kids abroad. Talk about adventurous!

They, along with their parents Ron and Marlene, and Greg's sister Danielle, came down to Ramona for a long weekend and Viana got to spend an afternoon with them and meet Zollie and Bela. Viana received a basketfull of multi-colored Bangladeshi gnomes from Zollie and Bela, which Zollie and Bela immediately started to play with too. Kids are so cute. The gnome is the red figure on the left.

At any rate, it was fabulous to see all the Friedmans, even though the time was too short as always. It does seem that whenever we get together it seems like we have hardly missed any time apart. And it is wonderful to see our kids growing up "together" and it is truly exciting to see where the three kids will be 30 years from now! I do wish though, that my dad could have joined us for this weekend, he would have thoroughly enjoyed it. Although I know that he is smiling down on all the kids, old and young!

Greg and Amy, along with Zollie and Bela, will be making the rounds in the states (Colorado, Los Angeles, etc.) before heading back to Bangladesh for the new school year. It was great to see them again, and with any luck they can keep up with Viana's exciting news via the blog.