Turkey Day!!!!

I hope everyone had a very happy thanksgiving. Mine was much better than I expected it to be- being my firsst thanksgiving away from family. We had a huge get together at a friends house with all the Americans we could find. I think they said there were about 80 plus people there not including the 30 something children. I loved having the children running around because it made it feel like home. One of the guys had traveled to the states and back the week before thanksgiving and in one of his stop overs in another country picked up a couple of turkeys. We were all super excited- though we each only got a small slice we still had turkey on thanksgiving in Africa :-) There was also mashed potatoes, dressing, green bean casserole, pumpkin pie, one pecan pie, and a couple more comfort foods from home. I ate way too much! It was so worth it though. We got in a big circle after we ate and sang, read a short story to the kids, and said what we were thankful for.

In other news, I have moved upstairs and have 3 new roomies. A girl from upstairs and I switched places, not by my choice, but I am getting adjusted. The girl that I am now sharing a room with and I rearranged our room yesterday. After a week of living in an unpacked chaotic room it's nice to be settled in. I am still adjusting to the new way of doing things up here, but my roomies are great. Last night we decorated for Christmas, ate leftovers from thanksgiving, and watched a Christmas movie (complete with hot chocolate). It was nice.

It is finally winter here (which feels more like spring in Florida). Last night we slept with the windows open and just fans, no a/c or air coolers. It's so nice and breezy at night and in the mornings. It still warms up in the afternoon but it's not nearly as hot as it has been before.

The football team (soccer really) from school has a huge tournament this afternoon. A bunch of us are going to support our students. They have been asking me to come for a while but the games are usually in the evening when I am in Arabic class. I am pretty excited because there are 4 students from year 4 on the team and I pretty much know the rest of the kids.

Starting tomorrow I will have a new schedule at school. I will not be working with just year 4 and 5. I am going to be spread out between reception (the 4 year olds), year 2, year 4, year 5, and year 6. So my schedule is about to become even busier at school. My base will still be in year 4, helping in the morning with homework, grading, copies, etc. But I will also be working with the other classes on literacy and fluency in reading.

Until later- have a good week and happy after-thanksgiving shopping! :-)

Marriage Proposals.....

Last week I went to this English club we have at one of our education centers. It was interesting- I had no idea what to expect. They sit each of the English speakers at a different table. Most of the people there are men- there are a few women. All of the people are learning English through the education center and this is just practice for them. You are given a sheet with the topic and some discussion questions and then you sit for about 1 to 2 hours and talk with them. It is interesting to hear their view on things, especially since each of the people come from a different cultural or religious background ;-) Then one person gets up for the table and talks about what we discussed at the table. Afterward is just some free time to talk and get to know people, relationship building. It was nice except for the fact that I was surrounded by men, which I am not used since being emeresed in the culture here. One of my guy friends said I looked like I was teaching Sunday school when I was talking them them- because they were kind of in a semicirlce around me. The conversation with them started out fine. You know the usual- where are you from, family, what do you do here, etc. But then we got on the subject of marriage somehow and religious views, which was still alright....until I started getting marriage proposals, HA! But then again- I am pretty much used to that from walking down the street hearing "Marry me, marry me- I love you!" And as many times as I have heard it it still cracks me up every time. Overall I did enjoy the conversations and maybe I affected a little bit of their way of thinking.

Arabic class is going well. My classmates, all 2 of them, are back from traveling so it's not just me any more.

I am going to visit one of my friends- the hokey pokey one if you look in previous blogs- on Friday. I am pretty excited. Even though I see her everyday at school it is more fun to hang out together at a home. Plus she has 3 sisters that I don't get to see very often :-)

The kids at school are just as cute as ever. It's so much fun getting to know them and be a part of their lives and growing process. Our school is small enough that I can get to know kids from other classes as well. We have about 200 students I believe. I love when the little ones come up in the morning wanting to play with me. It's like being a little kid myself again.

I am looking forward to Thanksgiving!!! We are having a huge get together with all the Americans, sort of like a potluck. I might even try to make some kind of pie!

Ok- that's all for now. Have a great week!

Random Pictures

Photobucket Album

The photos in the album above are just a few from the past 3 months (yes, I finally put them online...) Enjoy!

bumper cars

I just realized that it has been a while since I have updated my blog. I have been pretty busy with school, language classes, and meetings. I just celebrated a birthday here- thanks again to all those who sent messages :-) It was a lot of fun. Many of my kids made me cards, brought me gifts, and brought in candy and cookies. The cards and gifts were so cute because I could tell that they did the best they could. My roomies made me potstickers and mashed potatoes for dinner, YUMMY! And my mom had sent a cake mix and icing for me so I made cupcakes. Then a group of us went out for what was supposed to be ice cream, but we were all so full that we just got drinks. They have this new slushy machine at the place we went to, a-maz-ing!!!! And tonight we are all going bowling, yes BOWLING, woohoo! It is in celebration of about 3 or 4 birthdays from this week, so it will be fun.

Last week my small group met a public park that has rides and such- almost like a county fair. It was nice we had a picnic because they actually had grassy fields! Then we were going to ride some rides (which was going to be interesting in itself). Well we finally made it to the bumper cars but there was no one running the ride. The at the ticket booth said that he had gone to pray. So as we are waiting a bunch of little boys come running through us and get on the cars. Then some older teen boys came and started pushing them around in the cars- the whole time we are watching, the ride is not on, and the guy has yet to come. The guy finally shows up and they rush off of the cars and form a line where he tells them to....so we end up at the end of the line! When we finally reached the beginning of the line the guy starts talking to me and my friend who is also a girl. He starts making this motion like turning a wheel and pressing a button. My friend and I looked at each other and realized he was trying to tell us how to drive!!! We were laughing while he is still demonstrating for us. I finally told him we knew how to drive, though I don't think he believed us. It was a lot of fun to play around on the bumper cars and ram into each other. When we finished and as we were leaving I asked the guy if we had driven alright and he smiled and said, "Ok, Ok...."

I also met a woman the other day at the sandwich stand next to the school I work at. She wants me to teach her English and hang out. I am very excited about this opportunity ;-)

Ok- I am tired and in need of a nap. I will write more stories later :-)