Bambinos, Baby!

Bambinos is the name of our favorite little local ice cream "parlor"; I use the term loosely, as this small business has only one small refrigerated display of their frozen delights, offering about a dozen, but no-less mouth watering, flavors- chocolate, chocolate chip, mango and coconut to name a few of our favorites. Now, granted, this could never compete with my rich ice cream history, coming from a long family line of ice-cream-lovers and having worked faithfully in my youth as Baskin-n-Robbins ice-cream server/aficionado for over 5 years. But in lieu of the 31 Flavors (which BTW, most B-n-R's have well over that many for the tasting on any given day), this little gem in our sand box will more than suffice!

And today was no exception! We finished our exercise routine, made ourselves presentable(*), plopped Ben in the stroller ( we call it "the rickshaw") and journeyed out into our neighborhood, enjoying the pleasantness of the mild evening. Bambinos is about a 10 minute walk from our flat and we like to take the back "roads" to avoid the busy main streets full of cars, trucks, buses and rickshaws.

Soon we arrived at our destination and within minutes were savoring the sweet goodness of ice-cold sweet creaminess... We both got cones, 3 small scoops each (equaling the size of a regular scoop, for about $1.20) and sat down out front of the little shop to take in the night life of the area.

But there was more for us to enjoy than just ice cream on this trip to Bambinos.

Within seconds a young woman approached us, gazing at Benjamin and attempting to grab his attention. A few moments later, another woman joined her, both now snapping and smiling and giggling. A few more seconds passed and a third lady came on the scene, mobile phone in hand, trying to get a snap shot of our little bundle of joy. Literally, within 3 minutes of sitting down, the stroller was pushed away from us and toward this small crowd of women, all cooing and clucking at our little Benjamin, who, I might add, has never been one to shy away from attention! The ladies took turns holding and kissing him (thankfully just

on the cheek, feet and hands!) and took countless photos on their mobile phones-- of Ben, of them holding Ben, of us holding Ben, of us holding Ben with them (you get the point!)...

I'd never seen anything like it. We had come here countless times in the past, sat in the exact same spot and never had so much as a glance in our direction. But now, with the addition of our sweet Benjamin, we've met a group of college students who live in a dormitory (of sorts) just down the street from us, and those are just the few that actually stopped to talk to us while admiring our son!

It's amazing to see the influence someone so small, so quiet, so simple can have on people. Ben doesn't say a word (and even if he did, it most likely wouldn't be in Arabic!); He doesn't offer some form of service and doesn't share a similar culture or history. He's just a baby. But he is our baby, a foreigner baby, living and growing here in their community. And his precious little presence speaks volumes to them.

And this speaks volumes to us. Sometimes, or probably most of the time, it's not so much what we say, or even what we do that impacts people. It's just our presence, our little family, here in this place and living among these people, that can have an eternal impact.

Photos: All we had was our mobile phone- so here's how it started... and how it grew! (*)This was one time I really didn't want any sort of documentation of what I had chosen to wear that day... ugh.. note to self: Always leave the flat wearing clothes/head coverings you wouldn't mind being photographed in...!