Trip to the village

My first helicopter ride. 30 minute flight and I arrived in the village. Funny story: as I am getting off the heli, I fall to the ground. I would like to say that it was because I was so excited about being there or that I was dazing from flight. The heli pad is made out of lava rocks and I am definitely not used to having to walk on rocks. I am used to flat land.

It was great to see exactly where my teammates work and how they live. The people in the village are wonderful...everyone was so nice. There are several really great project going on: Water and Sanitation (building latrines and water wells), Community Health (teaching men and women basic health education as well as teaching English), Agriculture (showing the nationals how to grow crops and introducing raising chickens) and a vocational center (due the day boys and girls that are orphans will learn skills of survival and then at night there will be a place for them to sleep so that they are not sleeping on the streets).

Here are pictures of the compound:

the bathrooms...no western toilets there.
the hut that we sleep in. (made out of mud, dung and then covered with rocks)
kitchen...talk about cooking over an open fire.
inside one of the huts

Thank you!!

Thank you guys so much for your support!! I am sorry that I have not done a better job at updating the blog. Who would have ever thought that this year at times seemed like it flew by and at times seemed to drag. So just to forewarn you, I am going to be writing quite a few blogs in the next couple of day. I hope to catch you guys up with what is going on.

Holiday

For the whole month of September, the nationals have been upholding their customs of Ramadan. They will fast from sun up to sun down...no eating OR drinking. BUT at sunset DO NOT get in their way of food. I was in local transport very close to the time of breaking the fast and thought that there was a chance that I could die. The weaving in and out of traffic was unbelievable. They are already bad drivers, but add to the fact that they are HUNGRY...WOW 10 times worse!! The other day started a holiday called Eid. Eid is the breaking of the month long fast. Everyone gets 3 to 7 days off of work. Everything shuts down. This has been a great time to visit friends. Today my roommate and myself dressed up in the traditional coverings for ladies and went on out merry little way. This was my first time to wear a tobe (toe-ba) and we were greeted with many comments. Everyone kept saying how we are now nationals and that we are not foreigners any more. It was great!!!

Vacation!!

For the past two weeks, I have been on a much needed vacation! First stop: Ethiopia for a conference!! It was beautiful...cold, rainy and green (everything opposite of where I am). We met a lot of great people. One day we went to this crater lake...again it was beautiful!!! There was only an hour there...which we were told that it takes 2 hours just to get down to the lake.

The hotel we stayed in...the first rooms were really nice!!

Reminds me of Savannah, GA.

The cater lake...BEAUTIFUL!!

Next stop: A visit with my mom and sister in Cape Town, South Africa. Again, BEAUTIFUL!!! The three of us packed alot in with only a week. We went on a Safari, whale watching, walking around Table Mountain, shopping, AND a wonderful massage. I enjoyed spending with my family very much so.

Mom, sis and I after going on a safari in the cold rain.

My favorite from our whale watching!!

I want to thank everyone for all the encouragement via cards, pictures and American goodies. Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!!!

Home in the Kind of Village

So, I know that I told you guys that I now live in the village. When I say village, I forgot to tell you guys that it is the second largest city in the country. We have running water, indoor plumbing AND electricity...most of the time. The times that we don't we have a generator. All in all, I have a pretty nice house/ compound. I went back the city this last week for a visit. It was hotter there and the electricity was horrible. The apartment in the city through it does have AC it does not have a generator to run it. When the electricity is out, it is out.

Bedroom with the water cooler in between the beds

Living room sort of

Courtyard with the hole that I fell in trying to get the clothes off the line…I do have a scar on my foot to prove it.

Bathroom and shower. Notice the hand sink in outside. Makes washing your bedtime routines nice because you can look up at the stars as you do them.

Dining Room

Mural on Dining Room wall

Kitchen…notice the stove on top of the cabinet. We have to get a chair to actually cook on it.

Haboob aka dust storm

I few days before I left to go out west to the village my roommates were heading to a friends house. I get a phone call telling me that a haboob was heading our way and that I needed to cover computers. I was also told that I needed to get my camera and head up to the roof. Wow!! I got on the roof and was very glad I had my camera. Here is what I saw:

Just in case you didn't know, I live in the desert!!

Bridal Shower!

My language teacher is getting married in a few days and a couple of weeks we went to a showing of the gifts party. I call this a bridal shower. It was sooo fun. We got to see all her gifts and money that was beautifully decorated. We had lots of food, fun, fellowship and dancing.

One of my favorite resturants

There are several reasons this is one of my favorite resturants in the big city.

1. It has Western food and is VERY tasty!

2. It also has a bakery with some awesome bread!

3. There is ICE CREAM!!

4. It can be a cool place to eat due to there are little sprayer that mist cool water on you.

5. There is a HUGE coke bottle.

Here are the pictures:

Apple Barn

So, the other day I saw an Apple Barn magnet on a friend's refrigerator. For those who don't know, the Apple Barn is this awesome restaurant in the Gatlinburg area of Tennessee. I started thinking of their awesome food: apple fritters with apple butter and apple jubilee. I decided to look up the recipe online for the apple fritters and found that it would not be hard to make. Of course, I did not have a "Fry Daddy" (those from the south understand it is a fry daddy not a fryer)...so, I resorted to putting oil in a saucepan and it worked wonders. I took the apple fritters to a friend’s house and let's just say I think they were a hit because not many came home with me. The only thing I think was missing was the apple butter, so being the clever and humble girl that I am I decided to cover the fritters with powdered sugar. You will not be able to taste the result for yourself (they are long gone and I'm many miles away) but your can see the results!!! Enjoy!! Oh I forgot to tell you our kitchen is bright green kind of matches my bright yellow bedroom and the cabinets look like they are from the 60's. It's fun!!!

Dropping in the batter:

Them frying:

Me getting excited about scoping them out:

Finished product (don't they look yummy!):

Humbled!

Each day there has been several hours that we have had no water in our apartment. When this happens, we have to go downstairs to the water pump and try to get it to pump water to a tank that is on top of our roof. This process can take sometimes 15 minutes because we have to play with all the gauges and they have to be in the perfect spot in order for us to get everything to work. We have tried to explain to our guard this process needs to be done in the morning and at night, but inevitably we still have to pump the water. I don't understand...maybe our guard does get the concept if you don't pump the water, you don't have water. For the past few days we have done this and still nothing. We found out that it is because there is no water flowing from the city. We can usually get enough water for the day to do our daily routines. Well, I was explaining my frustrations to my language tutor...thinking that she would have sympathy for us. She replied that she has had no water at her house for 6 days...ouch!! I started thinking was I really just complaining about only have a few hours of water each day...WoW! I have since changed my attitude and am truly grateful for the hours that we do have water.

Snow

While most of you guys are either dealing with snow or just wishing for it, I have a pretty good idea that I will not be seeing any of that this year. When I first got here, the weather was not that bad. There were even times that I got cold...well, to the point of not just wear a long sleeve shirt to fit in culturally, but b/c I wanted to be warmer. The weather has definitely changed. This week the high has been in the 40 - 45 degrees Celsius or 110 - 120 degrees Fahrenheit. Let just say with the simplest task that I acquire a plethora of sweat. This has become a small issue due to the fact that there are time that I would LOVE to take a shower and freshen up, but there is NO water. So, you guys can think of me as you are enjoying the nice, white, cold, wet, powdery stuff.

Seriously, things are going well and I appreciated all the encouragement that you guys have sent me!! Thanks!! [ you can keep them coming ;) ] Love you guys!

One Month Anniversary

Wow! I can't believe it has already been one month since my plane touched down here in the sandbox. I am currently learning Arabic and can I say that I am being humbled each day. Each week I am required to put in 35 hours of language. For 5 day a week, I spend 2 hrs with a tutor, 2 hrs studying on my own and 3 hrs out in the community. This week I have been learning how to read it. There are a couple of the letters that have very simular sounds. If you change one sounds, it can mean a totally different word. Here is a picture of what the script looks like. Please remember as you read this you have to read from right to left. If you don't recognize this product, it is Coca Cola Light aka Diet Coke. That's for you sis. I have limited myself to one a day. The rest of the time I drink water or Crystal light.

Here are a few pictures from of my apartment (2nd Floor), front yard, and the street I live on. Our street does not actually have a name. It is funny: there are many a times that we walk out our gate and onto our street stepping over our trash from the day or two before which is not exactly where we put it.

Here is a picture the city during a small "haboob" aka sand storm. The sky is usually blue, but in this picture it is more of a haze of dust. Because of this, no matter if your windows are opened or not, there is always a film of dust on everything. Welcome to the desert!

This picture is for my dad. They do have beetles here. This one is to show where the car shop is. Also, today I was a volkswagen that had a car front and a delievery truck back. I'd never seen one like it before!

Thank you guys so much for lifting me up! It means alot to know that I have be blessed with so many awesome friends and family members! You guys are the best! Please keep me in your thoughts with language and to make awesome friendships here! Thanks again!

Lucy Strikes!!

As my mom would say: "Lucy (Ball) has struck again!" I am having to get used to not just being able to plug anything I need into the wall. So far, I have blown a surge protector and have burnt a portion of my hair. I have learnt that if you plug things into the wall without a voltage converter then the item gets too hot. The surge protector actually had black smoke coming out of it...I was a bit scared that I was going to burn down our apartment and smelt like smoke for awhile. The curling iron looked normal, but as soon as I put it to my hair I instantly smelt burning hair. Needless to say, when I pulled the curling iron away from my hair there was a chunk of my hair in it. Welp I now have bangs, which I was not necessarily wanting. I thought you guys might enjoy hearing about this and laughing with me. Yes, I am laughing and thinking that I am such a blonde sometimes. Besides this, I am doing well! I am in language and enjoying it. I am finally feeling like I can get around with my language. This is a blessing! Thanks for all your thoughts. They are greatly appreciated!

I"M HOME!!!

I am FINALLY home! This is the view from my window. Ok, it was actually a two hour drive from my house. You can probably understand now the reason for the name of this blog. I have been enjoying my time here. The weather has been nice for me. It has been a little werid from what I hear. Yesterday, a sandstorm (haboob) settle over the city all day long, which made it cold here. Today, it actually rained for about 10 minutes...CRAZY!!

The first day here was a bit crazy. We arrived at the apartment around 4:30 am. After settling down from the hipe of being in my country, I finally got to sleep around 6am. I woke up to the smell of coffee that my roommate had made around 9:30 am. For the rest of the day, I unpacked and organized my room. I felt pretty accomplished because it was put together by that night...what a relief that I was finally settled and not living out of a suitcase anymore! Here is a view of my room all put together! Warning: You will need to wear you sunglasses...it's bright!

First Birthday Overseas

For the very first time, I got to celebrate my birthday overseas. I had an awesome day! First, I had class until about 10:00 am and then worked on a project until 1:00pm. Second, I got to just hang out in my room for a bit with my awesome roommate. Next, the girls went and got manicures and pedicures...it was AWESOME!! We had a quick dinner at McDonald's (this bought back memories of having parties there as a kid). We then met and had a time of worship. Finally, we came back to our hotel and had this awesome cookie cake. It was the BEST! The picture shows the cake and it says Happy Birthday Teresa in Arabic. My friends made sure that there was orange icing on it. The man in the bakery really couldn't understand why they wanted orange instead of pink. I don't think I could have asked for a better overseas birthday.

Visiting History

For the past two weeks, I have been studying by day and visiting history by weekend. Last weekend I went to Jerash which is the ruins of the Greco-Roman city of Gerasa. The earliest inhabitants were in the Bronze Age. It was a great experience. The grooves from the carts from back in the day are still on the streets.

I also went to Petra. This city is most famous for it part in the second Indiana Jones movie. Indiana was seen riding a horse thru this exact same spot. Some of us went into the theathre which am not sure that we were supposed to. I have to say that was one of my highlights. My weekends have been full of lots of history. It is so amazing to see where the Romans lived.