New friends and real Belgium waffles

Wednesday: We drove to Metallo and on to Ria's parents Chris and Rick, who offered us coffee and cake. Rick spoke a little English. He makes beautiful hand-painted scarves; he cuts out the scarves, paints the design on them, and has them hemmed at a nearby nunnery.  He gave me a lovely  one as a gift; I appreciated his talent and work, and wanted to buy another one. Rita kept telling me I didn't have to buy any, and I kept insisting I wanted to. Then I started wondering if my ability to convert Belgium francs into US dollars was a little shaky - did I just agree to pay $300 for a silk scarf? If so, I promised myself I would pay up with every indication of enthusiasm, but I was worried for awhile. Fortunately my first estimate was correct - $30, which was a great deal for these lovely scarves! 

They had a visitor that day who has been to the US (New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore), as well as Egypt and Russia, even though he cannot read or write. Ria's sister Inga and her son Yonny arrived, with a friend who was also named Rick. Chris's brother Aurece also stopped by; he likes to speak English to us and is careful not to lapse into Flemish. Then Margie and her boyfriend Peter came over and brought their dog. We all sat in the living room talking, while Chris kept offering us drinks and snacks. A little later we went out to see their new tool shed which is being built in their back yard (Rick, Ria, Chris, Peter, Margie and Rick).

Later I put on one of my new scarves and we went to a downtown market with Ria, where we happened to met up with Rick with his friends Martin and Katrin. It was very cool and windy as we walked around, so soon we went into a restaurant for waffles. Genuine Belgium waffles come with chocolate ice cream, chocolate sauce and whipped cream. Now this is the way to eat waffles!

After the party broke up, Randy and I drove back to Merksplas.