Change of plans…

A lot of cool stuff happened today. I left the house early because I wanted to get some stuff done for the business. I got to the main island too early, so I swung by a wifi shop to update the blog, check email, ect. While I was online, my dad skyped me. Way to go dad! It was great. He has a webcam and mic and I could see and hear him fine. It was great to be able to see family live for free. He called my sister on her phone and she got on and I was able to see and hear her too. I did not have my mic or webcam with me, so I had to type, while they just talked. Once I get my internet connection at the house, I will hook up my webcam. It was really funny though, because I am not sure that the guy in the room with me had ever seen anything like skype. I was typing and not saying anything and my computer was talking to me…. at first in a male voice (my dad) and then in a female voice (my sister.) He got up and came over to look at my computer… it was really funny. I had to take my papers to the trade department and get my business registered. I met a nice lady that I believe will help me with the process. I also went to the immigration office to look into the visa process. One of my friends from my visit here in January called me and wanted me to meet one of his friends. This new friend works in the employment department (this is the department I will go to after the trade department). He gave me all the information and the forms I will need to fill out once the business is registered. I know this sounds like a lot of work and very confusing… this is what I meant the other day when I said I was persistent. My friend from the tourism department called me after I met all these knew friends and told me he would follow up with my papers and get back to me.Because of all the progress and expected phone calls, I chose to not go with David to the other islands. I thought I better be around and ready to jump when they say jump. I sent my video camera with David so he can have video documentation of the needed relief work and I can have some idea on what to look for when I follow up. We stayed around the house most of the afternoon. We went to a local shop and found some water containers so that we can use our water filtration system that was given to us by the Freeman family. We got it all set up and it is working great.I happened to be out looking at some other flats and a man came out and said he was an American. WOW! How could this be? We have been staying on the same road for over a week, we are like the only Americans here, how is it that we did not see each other until now? It’s not like we dont stand out here. He is originally from Lebanon but went to school at UT Austin. He met his wife, married and is on a 2-year contract with a business here. He was headed out to go jogging. WOW! I said, “You like to run?” He said, “No, I like to jog.” I told him about my marathon last year and he invited me to begin running with him. He introduced me to some of his coworkers (one from Cambodia and the other from Pakistan) who also jog with him. They said they jog every evening about 7pm or so. I told them that I would go with them tomorrow. It seems like Kyndal did not get as sick as Braden. Her fever was not as high and her rash not as bad. It seems like we are turning the corner on the virus.I know I linked you to a video that I wanted you to see, but I could not upload it. I think the 4 meg file really freaked out the free wifi spot. I will have to wait and upload after i get me internet connection, which by the way should be really soon. So go ahead and get your skype account from www.skype.com and add me to your contact list. All you have to do is put in my name bobbycox (one word) and click on the green phone button and it will call me. I cannot answer unless I am online, but you can get it setup.One last thing… I want to try an experiment with the mail. I have been told what my address is, and that mail would be delivered to my flat. Let’s give it a shot. If anyone once to try and send us something, I have some ideas of some small, light weight items you could send us. The list is below. If you think you might want to join in on the fun, email me what you would like to send us and I will email you my address. All of the items are fairly cheap and would not be a great loss if they didn’t make it.1) There is no parmesan cheese here. Maybe somebody could go by Mazzios or Pizza Hut and pick up some of their “cheese to go“ packets and mail them. We have found spaghetti in one of the shops. Cheese would just be a luxury and a good experiment. Any takers?2) How about some Kool-Aid packets. The best would be the small crystal light packets you can add to 20 oz bottles of water. We drink a lot of water and it is sometimes easier to get the kids to drink if we can flavor it.3) Children’s vitamins. The food does not provide as many vitamins as what we got in the US. Again not a necessity. We also take Vitamin B to try to help with the Mosquitos, i think it is working a little.4) The little protective covers for a digital thermometer. With the kids being sick, we have used all of them.Just let me know if you want join in the experiment. In the event there is more than one guinea pig, I will email you back with the specifics. My email is bobby@bobbycox.org. Thanks for reading.