Many Packages Arrive

I had other things I wanted to discuss today - how similar people find each other, people being jailed for defamation, interesting trends, capacity of humans to adapt. The arrival of a large, 40lb box of gifts and food from the US compels me to delay those discussions to a later date.

The long awaited care package and birthday gifts arrived today with much excitement. I finally have cinnamon gum and no longer need to languish with such flavors as "blueberry mint", "sweet mint", "strawberry" and "orange". To my disappointment, my wife informed me she, too, wanted cinnamon gum, so I think we have enough to last us through the end of July. We also now have an abundance of Mexican food and bagels - enough to last us through the end of June, anyway.

More importantly, we also received many gifts for our daughter, who was absolutely delighted to open as many gifts today as she had received at her party on Saturday - and she still hasn't received the gifts from us! We decided we are not giving her anything for Christmas - she has too much already.

With every package she opened, she became more and more thrilled. "Look mom, another train set!" "Ooooh, dress up!" She loved it all, and she immediately recognized Thomas the Train. As I had feared, she also now has three different types of trains - Lego (normal and Thomas), wooden (that I bought) and the plastic version of Thomas the Train. We have more track than space, and we've already dedicated a room to her trains. She loves them all, though, so we'll have to figure something out.

The biggest gain for all of us in the gifts are the ones that will keep her entertained in the car in the packed Jakarta traffic. Her mind needs constant activity or she whines and fidgets, basically making the life of all other passengers (and restaurant guests) miserable. She's not quite old enough for "20 Questions" or to read quietly, and "I spy with my little eye" only entertains her for about ten minutes, so the water-based, reusable coloring books, magnetic dress-up books and etch-a-sketch like toys should work wonders in the car. If none of those work, we'll have to resort to the portable DVD player that we've been trying to avoid.

One other item to note for future shipments - every single item had been opened. All of the wrapped gifts had been opened - but not unwrapped - inspected, and put back in the box. All of the food had been opened and inspected. What I need to find out tomorrow is if that was done by my company, or by customs in Indonesia - or possibly both. I have learned, however, that packages sent with an itemized, detailed shipping invoice - especially if it is direct from the supplier - both breeze through customs and tend to be left alone.

Thanks to everyone who sent the food and gifts. They are a much appreciated reminder of home. (Pictures of our daughter enjoying the gifts will be posted later this week).