October Week 2

Work here is going well. I am getting busier each day. There are many different instruments here to learn, and a variety of different projects I'm trying to assist with. It is very challenging trying to get to know enough about each project so that I can make a positive influence on it. But things are progressing.

Last weekend, the girls and I got on a train to Liege. This is in the French speaking part of the country. Belgium is split just about right down the middle into Wallonia (french) and Flanders (Dutch) with a little left over to the east that is German speaking. Liege is also called Luik (dutch for Liege) and it turned out to be our least favorite city so far. It was much dirtier than any city we have been too, and fewer people spoke English there. However, they had the most amazing market you have ever seen. Here are some pictures of our day.


Mia loves fountains. She has to go and look at everyone we come across


Every city has a market day. These run all year round and most are large enough to have 20 or so vendors. These markets are like a farmer's market on steroids. Usually you will find 50% of the vendors selling clothes. Some of these are regular outer garment clothing vendors, jackets, pants, shirts, and shoes but there are also many which sell only undergarments, stockings, panties (can you imagine buying these clothes outside?). The other half of the vendors are a mixture of meats, veggies, home-decor, candies, and tobacco booths. This particular market had EVERYTHING. It was like the Super-Liege-Market. That's right, live animals for sale: chickens, geese, guinea pigs, hamsters, ducks, and rabbits. Mia thought it was great and really wanted one of the large bunnies that was letting her pet it.


Here are pictures from either side of a bridge overlooking the market. It is an attempt to show the size of this market, it stretches along the river side as far as you can see in both directions. We decided it was at least a mile long. It was unbelievably crowded too.

The most popular food here in Belgium seems to be seafood. The North Sea provides a large supply of fresh catch for the population here. Among the more odd things we saw at the market was this vendor with fresh octopus. Yum!



Here is an update on the pregnancy. Mindy is doing pretty well with her back and sore hips, some days are better than others of course. Our baby girl is at the moment about 12 inches long and weighs around 1 pound. In the next 15 weeks before she joins us in the world, she will gain another 7ish pounds and grow another 7 inches or so.