Africa- Day 2

WARNING: I will be referring to our trip as a trip to Epiphany. Just know that Epiphany is in northern Africa. I will not be using our friends full names, just J, R, K, and G or the Gs for the family. I will turn on comment moderation for several months just to make sure we don't accidentally say something that we shouldn't say! Please feel free to leave comments, but I will approve them before they show on the site. If you have any questions about our trip that I can't answer publicly just let me know. We are happy to share details, just not in a way that could jeopardize our friend's new life in Epiphany. Thanks for understanding!


So, after a really good nights sleep we rolled out of bed around 8 or 8:30 and started our first full day in Epiphany. The boys headed downtown on the train system to try and find a transformer to convert 220 power to 110. We needed this to make R's new espresso machine work without starting on fire :) J warned us that he might not find anything or if he did it might not work. Well, the boys did find a transformer for about $14. R and I plugged in the espresso maker, after a short tutorial on how to use it, and hoped for the best. The espresso machine did not behave like mine at home and soon we smelled smoke and burning electronics. We unplugged everything as fast as we could because it would be sad to see the new espresso machine meltdown on day one. Thankfully their neighbor across the wall as a more reliable transformer that we were able to borrow and we brewed drinks for all four us. YUMMY!

The working Espresso Maker!



The local, smoking transformer that did not work. I asked J if he could get return it and get his money back- he just laughed :)



J and R enjoying their lattes!



J, G, and Amelia



J, G, and Amelia making funny faces. I'm not sure G knew what that meant :)



After G's nap we headed to a great city park that is a short drive from the G's house. They have a park just around the corner but it is covered in weeds and full of broken glass- not exactly kid friendly. This park was great, but it was Amelia's first major adventure outside in public. Her blond hair definitely drew attention and she soon had 2 or 3 young girls following her around touching her hair and kissing her cheeks. R had warned us that this would happen and Amelia did really well for awhile and then got a little freaked out by the whole thing and spent some time hanging out with us.

A and R at the park. Even with the hat on her hair drew a lot of attention.



We saw the "recycle rat" up close and the kids were scolded by a city park worker because they touched the rat :) We are pretty sure "recycle rat" is not the official name of the city's recycling campaign mascot, but we think it has a nice ring to it and it stuck. We even saw the recycle rat in other cities we visited!

The Long Family with the Recycle Rat!



After the park we headed to a place called Tam Tam for dinner. You know it's a nice place because they had toilet paper in the bathrooms! We all had our fill of good food and then enjoyed very yummy gelato / ice cream for dessert. K and Amelia could not keep their eyes open on the way home and slowly melted into sleep in the backseat.


A perfect ending to Day 2!