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.