What Yousuf's been up too

As we continue our wait, Yousuf of course waits along with us. Kids are remarkably agile, more than we give them credit for. Of course for Yousuf, this is the second time in his young life he's had to wait for such a long time for the border to open (the last time, he was a tender 8 months). No that doesn't mean he doesn't notice what's happening around him-say something once, and he picks it up. He's remarkably intuitive that way, I think he gets that from his father ;)

Now he's taken to the habit of asking us regularly "when will the border open? I want to go to Lazza?" (yes, Lazza...he still has trouble pronouncing the "Ghain".

He provides the lot of us (my parents and I) a bit of comic relief when out of the blue, or when he has just woken up, stammers "you know, I think today is the day. I think they will open the crossing today" when of course he has not idea what he's going on about.

In the meantime we've tried to make the experience as enjoyable as possible for him-walks on the beach and playing in the sand with my father, taking him on tacky manually run park rides, and his favorite of all, the one that gets him jumping up and down: riding the public bus, jam-packed with people of every shape and color, to downtown. Who knows...

We've also finally chopped off that mane of his-people were beginning to confuse him with a sheep!


Yousuf drinking Tamarind juice in the souk








Yousuf's "before" and "after" pics....