A Ring Tailed Lemur!

Today was "International Day" at Luke's elementary school. Since Luke's class focused on Madagascar, he got to be a Ring Tailed Lemur. A little ironic considering our good friends  Rob & Karina Barber, who are also from BC, just moved to Madagascar to serve with MAF (their blog is mafbarbers.blogspot.com). Maybe when one of their four kids have an International Day they'll do Indonesia...or even Canada. Lumberjack outfit!

Luke and his Grade one class! 

Sepeda Motor Cepat Sekali  (very fast scooter)

Running a business or small store out of your home is very common here. Within a one minute walk of our home we have at least two tiny corner stores, a store that sells crafts & purses, and a scooter repair shop. So, last week I took my scooter over to my neighbour's for an oil change and tune up.

Tinkering with scooters is bit of a male pastime here...Well, maybe I should say A LOT of a pastime. Wherever you go you are guaranteed to see some little haunt with guys hanging out doing something to their scooters. Or, you see young guys speeding by (I haven't quite figured out the whole "what's-the-speed-limit" thing) on their noisy, two-stroke, tricked out scooters. Or, just maybe you'll see a kid drive by that looks barely 9 years old, with no helmet & a cigarette hanging out of his mouth, doubling another kid. All great material for a future post!

So, the below picture is of my neighbour's drag racing scooter...Yes, that's right, a scooter built for the sole purpose of drag racing. He told me they run avgas (aviation gasoline) at the race track for better high compression performance. The one drawback is, I just don't think I can fit multiple kids on this one. And, that seat looks awfully uncomfortable. 

And yes folks, it is a scooter, possibly still the "uncoolest" form of transportation in many parts of Canada & the US (besides a segway - if they're still around).  But watch out, Europe loves them, Asia loves them, Australia probably likes them, at least a bit...Don't be left behind North America! Yes, I know, only good for the summer, but I heard gas prices are still on the rise back home. With my scooter, I get killed at the pump. With premium, it's maybe 4 bucks to fill er' full :)  

Helena a little while back looking cute carrying around her princess chap stick. It looks cute, but Amy doesn't much appreciate trying to clean chap stick off all Helena's clothes & the furniture. Now that it has mostly run out, we might just wait till she's four before we give it another try...or eight.