Exactly How Many Cows am I Worth?

Technology. You gotta love it. Unless it’s not working for you.

First, I could not for the life of me locate an adapter for this country in Hawaii. Note to families yet to travel: Although I’m told they are around, I checked all the usual suspects and nobody had what I needed, so start looking now. Finally found three adapters at the Atlanta airport. I’ve been here two days and I’ve broken two of the three. Fortunately, adapters are sold here at the grocery store and they are of better quality than what I got in Atlanta.

Had a little trouble with my MacBook powercord at the hotel on Tuesday, but got it working with some jiggling. Arrived at the Guesthouse on Wednesday and settled in. Plugged in my computer so that I could touch base with home and found that, again, I couldn’t get power to the computer, no matter what I tried. Wednesday was a difficult day simply because I did not believe I could do this trip without regularly talking to Russell and Zaffron, which I do via skype.

The enormity of what I'm doing hit me. And the length of the time that I'll be away from my family hit me. It left me feeling a little beat up.

So, Thursday my plan was to do everything I could to fix the problem. (My thanks to my awesome husband for immediately going to the Apple store and buying replacement parts, to Tony (the proprietor here) for tracking down a tech store for me, and to Amy for calling one of her techie friends and letting him know I might be calling!) But before I left the house I tried again… and I had power! No reason why. I’m nervous about losing it again, so no one is allowed to come within 3 feet of the computer cord…. Don’t want to disturb its happy place.

So, YEAH I’VE GOT POWER! I didn’t have a chance to connect since I was running out the door when this all happened. But I couldn’t wait to skype my family when I got home later that night.

So, you can imagine my dismay, chagrin, utter horror, when I plopped into my seat (careful not to touch my power cord), logged in, pulled up a browser, and saw those dreaded words, “page not found.”

WHAT WHAT WHAT?!?!?!

(Remember in the movie, The Christmas Story, when Ralphie says fudge, but he really didn't say fudge? Remember when Ralphie's mother called his friend's mother to tell her that Ralphie had learned the word from her son? Remember the What What What? shrieking reaction from that other mother? That's the kind of WHAT WHAT WHAT?!?!?! moment I was experiencing here.)

Can this be? Can this truly be happening to me? Did I just get my computer working only to learn that I didn't have internet access? Yep.

There was no network available for me to hook into. Where did it go? I didn’t want to wake Tony to find out (it was after 9:00). So I went without connectivity for another night. This morning, Tony told me that there was lightening last night, so he unplugged the network. Apparently they have had fire shoot out of the outlets during lightening storms and he wanted to protect his network. I could understand that. Problem is, when he plugged it back in, it wouldn’t work. So, I went all day today without connectivity, until just a short while ago, when it quietly and mysteriously came back.

And for that, I am grateful.

Despite my challenges with modern technology, I’m really enjoying my time here. On Thursday, Mom and I visited the candle factory. It was cool watching one of the staff take a white ball of wax and turn it into a lifelike zebra in 10 minutes. The Candle Factory does not offer shipping service. It’s too bad, there were two items that were oversized that I would have liked to pick up. Prices here are super reasonable. I'm hoping to return home with many treasures.

Today we visited the Cultural Village. Very fun and somewhat goofy. My mom & I really enjoyed the singing and dancing performance. The tour was interactive whether you felt like interacting or not. Our guide, Albert, would assign the guests various roles such as village chief or first wife and encourage us to act them out. There was one couple from Italy who were rather reserved and didn’t want to pretend. They’d say, no no no, no thank you, and back away. That didn’t stop our guide. He would just continue on with his story, and assign the role to another person. The funny part was, 10 minutes later, he’d tell the Italians that they were some other family members and the whole, no, not us, no thank you, begging off would begin again.

I’m still not catching everything that is said to me the first time I hear it. Sometimes I have to ask people to repeat themselves. Sometimes I don’t realize I’ve misheard. Today, a boy walked by Albert and they exchanged a few words. Albert then teased me in the same way he must tease other women every single day. He said, “that boy over there thinks you are very attractive and would like to offer 7 cows for you!” I called to the boy, “only seven? I’m worth at least 8!”

Later on, during the tour, Albert told us all that a bride cost 17 cows. He said this several times and it dawned on me that I had misunderstood. I had heard 7 when Albert had said 17. Here I was trying to be cute, when actually, I had responded to his offer by lowering the price!

Okay, I’m tired. I’m going to bed. I’m happy to be one more day closer to meeting my new daughter.