Tonight was one of those nights when I didn’t want to respond to all the ‘hellos’ yelled by small children as I biked. I wanted to go hard and fast to get a good workout. I smiled but didn’t respond to the first few, but had to smile at my selfishness (and God’s sense of humor) later on - several older woman and men yelled hello tonight! That’s never happened! There’s just something about an older person with no teeth yelling from their vegetable patch that melts you and forces you to wave and yell back or stop to chat.

I also cut down a different road than normal and saw 2 men in a cattle field doing what looked liked water-witching with long sticks. One yelled out to ask me where I was going, and I stopped to reply. We yelled back and forth while they worked, and I watched them carefully, finally asking what they were doing. ‘Looking for snakes for dinner’ – I’m outta here! I’ve only seen 1 snake so far, and I want to keep it that way.

A little further when I turned left to head through the rice fields to head back, at 2 different homes they asked me to stop and then offered me their kids. Its not a rare occurrence, and I just want to scream! I joked that my house isn’t too far from their house so there's no need to come with me. How sad to be willing to give your kid to a stranger just because you know you can’t give them a better life. That doesn’t even register with me to a large degree…