Desert Rain

Well, I am here. I arrived back here this past week and have gotten started back full swing. I am still readjusting to the time difference, climate, etc. But things seem to be going well.

I went to a friend's house last night. One of my other friends has just gotten a car and we thought we could make it to her house just fine, though we hadn't been there in a few months. Well, everything started to look the same after a while, which is not a surprise because most places do look very similar here (same color, shape, etc) along with no road signs it makes for an interesting time finding places.

We finally called our friend for directions and she asked us if there was a "local shop" nearby (basically the equivalent of a little store that sells drinks and bread, etc) All we could do was laugh because those stores are on just about every corner and most of them are not named and have no distinguishing features.

So, we kept driving just searching for something familiar and finally decided to hand the phone over to a lady on the street. She starts talking to our friend in their language on the phone and after about 5 minutes hands the phone back to us. After all of this our friend on the phone tells us "You are lost". The whole time we just continued to laugh because the culture just kept showing itself here. The woman on the street calls over 2 teenage boys to hop in the car with us, not the most culturally appropriate thing to do- but hey, we were lost. As the boys got in the back seat with me I scooted as far over as I could. I had a bowl of sweet treats my friend had made to take with us and they were topped with powdered sugar. Well, needless to say the dirt roads were very bumpy and upon the first bump the powdered sugar went all over the boy's black pants. All I could do was laugh and say sorry in their language as I handed the bowl to my friend up front. The boys got us back to the main road and we left them there.

From there we started to drive again and ended up where we were when we had first called our friend. By this time I am just dying laughing at the situation. So, we called our friend again and handed the phone to a man on the street. He proceeded to hop in the front seat and direct us where to go in his broken English. Several times along the way though we stopped and he asked for directions but we always went the opposite way than what the guy was pointing.... Finally after about an hour of being lost we arrived at our friend's home. It was definitely quite and adventure.

Then, this morning I went to a local produce/meat market with a couple of the girls from my building (all "white foreigners" or American). Well, last night it rained a terrential downpour as it is still rainy season here. Though the rain made the weather feel quite nice it also made the roads, most of which are dirt, extremely muddy. We took a bus to the market and when we got there we couldn't believe it. The ground was just one big mudpit! Dodging the puddles and the deep-er mud we made our way to the beggining of the market. Here we dodged the hanging meat- sheep, goats, slabs of beef- as we tried to make our way to the veggies and fruit. At first we were trying to hold our pants up out of the mud and were doing well...so I thought.... The mud just continued to get deeper and more glue-y sucking the shoes right off our feet. And of course the whole time we walked through the market we kept hearing them calling out in their language "Look at the white people in the mud- Haha" or "Soddy, soddy" (that is "sorry"). I have to say I have never experienced anything quite like this before. I finally decided that I was going to be covered in mud no matter what I did just in time for a boy with a wheelbarrow to walk by and slip, slinging mud all over me :-) This is when we began to laugh- though it was still incredibly gross. We finally made our way through and got our fruits and veggies that we needed, carried by the help of one of those wheelbarrow boys. About half way through this whole process we decided to call a friend to come pick us up. It would have been VERY tough to take all of our stuff on the bus with us, especially covered in mud. In the end it all makes for a great story :-)

Bittersweet

I have had a blast this summer being home with my family and friends. It has been great getting to see almost everyone and catching up. I leave the states in less than a week and though it's sad to leave home and everyone again, I am ready to get back into a routine and to what I know I am supposed to be doing.

Anyways, I want to say thank you to all of my friends and family for encouraging me and helping me out this summer. I feel sort of like a nomad as I have been all over this summer but your hospitality has been wonderful.

Pray for me as I head out on my long journey through airports and the air. And if anyone is in Atlanta on Monday let me know- I have an 8 hour layover there ;-)