Hard to find the words

We had a rather good/great weekend all they way until Sunday 6pm.

Saturday was our month-long planned outing at Masungui Georeserve with friends, an award winning conservation project. I’ve been here twice before and absolutely recommend to anyone. It’s so nice to be outside of the cities, breath fresh air, and enjoy the gorgeous view of this place.

We took our time to stop, take pictures, chat, and just relax, so instead of 2 hrs when I came here two years ago with my running group, this time took us 4.5 hours of pure bliss.

we joke that it was a foster parents with the adopted son trip (the red headed boy is the foster son).

I love that it combined with obstacle courses which are very safe

and natural caves for some rest

I really enjoyed the time spent with husband, we chatted all the way to the place on the car, and then during our hike. So much laugh happened during the trail.

We got home and glad to know that girls did all their zoom classes and homework already. Nothing to feel guilty about 🙂 I took the girls to the pool for a while before it became rather rowdy so we left.

Sunday started with 9 miles of slow jog for me. Weather is getting harmer each day so I am taking it slow and enjoy the motion. Sofia’s golf lessons are cancelled already, part of the effort to control the COVID spread.

I made a new dish: samosa for lunch!

and McDonal’s style apple pie that girls loved! And so easy to make.

two loafs of bread too, one whole wheat, one regular for the girls.

sunday is girls dish washing day. They paired up and did it efficiently.

quiet time in the afternoon while I tried to read. But my mind is all over the place these days and had hard time to focus. After Sofia’s zoom piano lesson, they wanted to go out, so we went to a park nearby with scooters and chalk.

As I saw them playing there, I had mixed feelings. The pandemic is pushing us to the limit of “being content” with what we have. Resilient is the word we often use for the kids, and at my work to the poor people in the country. Then “abuse” came to my mind. People/kids could be resilient, but it doesn’t mean we should abuse their resilience.

then we got home, while girls showered and I prepared dinner. A text message came: ‘Sorry Rong, I tried my best’, followed by a presentation with the key message that domestic travels are suspended for two weeks. This means, no more Coron trip for us.

The rest of the evening, I was sad, sad that we got to this situation (one year into the pandemic and we still have no end in the horizon), sad that we cannot travel, sad that the economy will not recover, more poor will suffer hunger, more non-poor will become poor, more kids will have no future, more mental health problems, etc. At the same time, my rationale self tried to talk me out of it. “it’s actual good that no travel is allowed at the time of peak infection. We can always travel once things get better. How lucky we are actually to even have the opportunity to have those choices. I should be grateful for what we have. Just think about how many more are suffering…”.

I’m not sure my rationale self convinced my emotional self… but I’m getting there, one step at the time.

Meanwhile, i need to plan for some activities for the girls during the school break now that we can’t travel. They were so looking forward to the trip too.

Oh well… I need to be strong for them and help them to go through this process too, they are resilient but can’t abuse their resilience.