making friends here at the hotel

On Thursday night Raegan and I were sitting in our hotel room and we could hear the voice of a young girl. Her voice was so clear that I finally had to go out on the porch to see who it was. Sure enough, a tiny girl was on the steps playing all alone. She had been watching the stray cat but he ran off. She immediately started talking to me. After a short conversation I went back inside. A short while later I was headed across to Troy & Tyler’s hotel room but never made it past the porch. The little girl began talking to me. She asked me if I had any babies. I told her that my babies were inside, but they were big. I called Raegan outside and she greeted the little girl. After short discussion, Raegan went back in. The little girl said, “do you have just one?” I told her about the boys and fortunately, Tyler came out on his porch just moments later, so I called him over. I introduced him. He and I stayed there playing with her for quite some time. We tossed a balloon around and just made general silly conversation with a 4 year old named Nakunda.

I was a bit surprised that this small child was outside so late at night by herself (it was about 10pm). She told me she wanted to go in my house and that I should buy her a bed. J Raegan came outside and told us that Floyd was on a Google hangout with Uncle Jason, so Tyler went inside to say hello. Nakunda literally ran right into the house to say hello as well. Floyd was definitely taken by surprise, as he had no idea that we had even met a neighbor.  They came back outside and we continued playing. Her mom had come outside once to check on her, and finally called her in for the evening.

On Friday night we had an even bigger surprise. Davis (the driver mentioned before) came to our door for a visit, as he does most days. He has a daughter that is just 2 weeks old. He asked if he could take us to meet her and the mama. It is just a short walk from the hotel, so we said yes. He took us out the side, pedestrian entrance to the hotel and we walked through an empty field and into an area of homes. Many children were in the field playing and they greeted us with excitement. 

We arrived at the house and were welcomed in. It is sort of like a duplex, in that it is split with 2 small, young families. We took off our shoes and went into Davis’ side of the structure. We held the beautiful little girl whose name is Roxy. Davis is a proud father. He told us that he saw the movie “Over the Hedge” and he calls his daughter RJ as a nickname. It is one of our favorite movies, so we were all familiar. Sure enough, when he said RJ, she must have recognized his voice because she smiled each time.


We also got to meet the almost 2 month old and mama of another one of our hotel friends. His name is Elly and he always works the dining room. He takes our orders, lets us know when food is ready, and helps us with all things related to eating. He lives in the other half of the structure with Davis. It was a pleasure to be invited into their homes and to hold their tiny babies! Sorry we don’t have pictures. We did not carry our phone or camera with us. 

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