Cone head

I saw the most peculiar thing the other day as I was standing outside the gates of our compound, waiting for the school bus.

The hotel and service apartment part of the compound is brand new. In fact, they are still working on some of the rooms and on the lawn outside. I have seen this couple; an older man and a woman of undetermined hanging out on the grassy area, just outside the entrance. I thought they were having break, taking some time out, or just enjoying sitting on the pesticide sprayed grass.

This day, while I was waiting, I say them across the street where there is a line of trees planted next to a long wall. What’s on the other side of the wall, I don’t know, maybe yet another housing development or a garden or just nothing. Anyway, I see the couple working hard around one particular tree and soon I realize that they are trying to dig it up. It takes a while but finally they succeed and they begin to carry the tree inside the compound to our little lawn area. Huh.

After the kids got off the bus and we walked by on the way to our apartment I again see them on the grass, this time digging up another tree. A dead one. So I wonder….are they just going to exchange the dead tree from the stolen one from across the street? And no one says anything about this?

Just as mind baffling is the fact that while the club house with all its wonderful facilities (gym, pool, arebics (no typo) room etc.) is only about two (2!) years old. Two out of ten showers have the shower heads attached. On the rest there is only a spout creating a very hard, steady flow that the kids love to play waterfall in. And while on the clubhouse topic; why is it that in China you HAVE to wear a swimming cap while in the pool? There is no way around it, they are VERY determined about this (another thing I had forgotten about China). Thank goodness the kids look good in everything, never mind that I look like a big cone head. One of the perks of motherhood I guess.