Who Doesn't Love Spring Break?!?!

Well- today is the first day of spring and how appropriate that it is also the first day of my spring break. Am I getting too old to be as excited, or even more so, than my kids about this?

Because it is spring break I have a lot of free time to relax and catch up on my hands. There fore I have decided to write about a few more funny stories that have happened over the past few weeks :-)

About a week or two ago there were several of us that needed to have an official photo taken. So, I went with 2 other girls to the "Kodak" store. We walk in and go to the front desk- apparently this place takes photos and prints them out like a normal place you take film to. They took us back to the sitting room where we would have our pictures taken and left us there. I was so excited when I found a full length mirror- these are rare and extremely hard to come by here, in fact a lot of my friends don't even own mirrors. We began to look around the room and the props were hilarious. The guy finally comes back into the room with a digital camera and I was forced to be first. He took my picture and then the other girls had their's taken. While I was waiting for them I look over in the corner to see one of those Sony home printing stations. It was all I could do not to bust out laughing. After having our pictures taken the guy left us again. We waited...and waited...finally he comes back in saying he needs to know what size pictures we want (not in English of course so a lot of gesturing was involved). They escorted us over to the the room with the the computers and developers/printers. Since they are on the metric system here it took quite some time to figure out the size that we actually wanted (somewhere around the equivalent of a 3 X 5). Then- and this is the funny part- we look over and there is the guy at the computer with our pictures pulled up in photoshop. He took each one and airbrushed us, straightened our teeth, fixed our eyebrows, etc. He did it all!!! And, thinking he'd be funny, he starts making my friends picture all distorted looking. I couldn't take it any longer, I was laughing so hard I was crying! Once the pictures were fixed they were printed- though the men were shocked that we only wanted one each. While they were printing we went to wait in the lobby area. A few minutes later the photos were done and one of the guys is showing me that he had taken a picture of me with his cell phone- saying, not in English, good, right, right? A little creepy so I just walked away. Just another interesting experience here :-)

There is this one student at the school who has a developmental disorder. He is a teenager with the mind of a 5 year old. He can be very sweet sometimes and other times, well...act like a 5 year old :-) I've had a lot of funny times with him. He's a pretty big boy and one day I walked outside for dimissal with some of my children and he was "hiding" behind a shutter with his sunglasses on and finger over his mouth (ya know the quiet sign). So, some kids and I played along. It was hilarious and cute all at the same time- he was so excited to jump out and show us where he had been "hiding". He also likes to copy me. I am usually outside to cover recess and lunches for a couple of classes and he is out there for part of the time. On the days he's talking to me, he'll come stand by me and mimick my actions, laughing the whole time. Yesterday he was doing this but he was also very excited about a birthday party they were having in the class he spends some time in. He was jumping up and down so much that his pants kept falling down! He kept asking me to help him, which for his real age and the culture here is very inappropriate, so I had to get his aid to help him. He keeps me laughing though!

I was in the kindergarten class this past week helping out. I commented on one of the little girls hair (it had been braided) and one of the white kids looks in awe at it and says, "Yeah, I don't know how her mom does it!" It was so cute and funny because he was being completely serious.

That's all for now- off to enjoy my nice, relaxing spring break ;-)

A Different Kind of Pomp and Circumstance

Last night I attended my first university graduation here. It was definitely unlike anything I have ever been to or seen in my life- but fun.

Everything here takes time. One of my roomies is house and truck sitting for some friends that are out of the country right now. So, we took the truck to meet our friend. Then we went to the university and meet up with some more people, who might I add were really excited to meet 2 white girls, haha. We drank some REALLY strong, black, sugary coffee and then had to rush out of there to meet some more of our friend's friends. These friends were at a photo studio having their grad pics taken. We get there and these girls are decked out- I mean bangin'! Me and my roomie felt so out of place because we didn't realize that this was such a dressy event. We ended up in the pictures anyways, though we had just met the girls that were graduating.

Once the pictures were done we all loaded in the truck and drove back to the university. There we sat around in a room for a while, met tons more of our friend's friends (turns out she is very popular and knows just about everyone). They were all very sweet. It was almost time for the ceremony so we all gather our things and go out to the truck to move it not very far at all, I think our friend really likes that we have a car, at least for the time being :-) The graduates are all line up about 4 or 5 across and then in long lines (about 70 of them) complete with a band- drums, trumpets, etc. They had like a mini-parade type thing all over the small campus and then were going to get into all of the cars waiting for them to convoy over the the hall for the other ceremony and party.

While we were waiting a bunch of men crowded around our truck and started talking to our friend. Turns out they wanted the camera men to ride in the back of our truck to film the convoy and for us to be the lead car behind the cop on the motorcycle. My roomie and I could not stop laughing- and of course we jumped at the opportunity. The only problem was, we happened to be the very last car in the long line. The guys got us settled up at the front behind the cop and ready to go. Once the cop had jimmy-rigged his siren so it would actually work we started off- the horn was honking and all the women in the back seat, my roomie, and I started of the "eeeww-eeee, eeeewww-eeee" I can't remember the real name of this but at any celebration, especially weddings, the women do this sound at a VERY high pitch- very fun actually. Of course our friends were laughing at the 2 white girls trying to do it. We continued on with this and leading the convoy for about 15-20 minutes when we finally arrived at our destination where we were treated like VIPs- I think because of our truck, which is not really ours.

We get to the door and they wave us through without having tickets, like the VIPs they thought we were. Then take us all the way up to the front to the head table- you know, the nice one that actually has a table cloth, nice covered and comfy chairs. My roomie and I looked and felt very out of place but our friend told us to just sit there. Once seated she told us that they thought we were doctors, probably due to the fact that we had the nice truck and we were the only 2 white foreigners there, haha! As we sat they kept bringing out all kinds of sodas and bottled water.

Then the ceremony began. The graduates came in and sat up stairs surrounding the hall and looking down on us. Each graduate came down the aisle with their family and friends to a song of their own choosing (mostly Arabic songs but there was one Celine Dion song- they adore her here). The cameras are on them the entire time which is spotlighted on the tv screens up front. Once they reach the front they leave their family, or at least they are supposed to, and go up to the stage to shake hands and get their certificate. Imagine this process about 70 times, for at least 3 and a half hours, plus the music and annoucer all in Arabic and louder than loud. That was the ceremony.

We left right at the end of the ceremony because it was a school night and we had to get up early to teach. Our friends were disappointed because there was to be a party at that same hall afterwards and they wanted us to stay. I would have but there was no way we could. All morning I was fighting sleep and the ringing in my ears finally went away around lunch time. In all it was an excellent adventure though :-)

Time is Slipping Away- Slip, Slip, Slippin' Away

Time is going by so quickly it seems- I go to talk about something saying it was last week and one of my friends tells me it was more like 3 weeks ago. I think it is true that time seems to speed up as you get older. I looked at the calendar and there are only 9 weeks until I come home for the summer. I was shocked! I remember when I first got here and thought it would feel like forever. Although I love it here and love all my friends here I am looking forward to seeing my family and friends at home. I get more and more excited as I plan out my itinerary for the summer- although it's starting to look more and more busy.

We had a meeting on the river the other night. It was nice- especially seeing the sunset.

Looking forward to seeing a friend this week and going to her graduation from university (or maybe her friend's...working on those communication skills). That friend let us borrow a dvd player because ours is broken (due to dust, haha- go figure). But the problem with the borrowed player is that it won't play any of our dvds (probably because of the region thing). It's the thought that counts :-)

The kids at school crack me up! There is this one 4 year old that I always play with before school. Sometimes he looks at me and says- your eyes is blue. So I say your eyes are brown- to which he responds, no black and we get into the brown, black, brown, etc until we get tired of it. Then we chase each other :-) So cute! Another time, the assistant in the 4 year olds room was out for the day (I help out in there some). So one of the kids told their teacher, oh, I know, I know- just get Miss Suzi! I thought it was adorable because he thought he had the answer to solve everything.

They recently had basketball tryouts for both the boys team and girls at school. The kids were super excited.

That's about all the updates I have for now :-) Have a great week everyone!

March Meltdown

I know it's been a while since I have written- sorry.

Excuse #1: I've been really busy.
Excuse #2: The internet is a little shakey.
Excuse #3: Couldn't think of anything I wanted to write about.

...now that that's out of the way...

I went to my first traditional wedding here- well... actually it was one of the many parties celebrating the marriage (they said it wasn't the traditional part of it). It was neat to have that cultural experience though. Their idea of dancing here is hilarious- you stand still shifting your feet from side to side, moving your shoulders a little, and snapping or clapping. Haha- it sort of reminded me of middle school dances :-)

I went to a birthday party for one of the 4 year olds whose class I help with at school. It was a blast! The kids were dancing up a storm, there was one of those mcdonald's like playgrounds wit h the ballpit and slide and such (of course the balls were all over the restaurant as we were inside!), and even people dressed up in character costumes. It was similar to a cross between a birthday party at mcdonald's or burger king when you were like 5 and a chuckie cheese party (because of the people in costumes). But half the kids were terrified of the costumes and screamed until they left while the others danced with them. Oh- and the stereo system was crazy! This thing was humongous and LOUD! Imagine kids songs in Arabic to Arabic music- loads of fun. They even made a "remix" of one with the birthday girls name in it. They also fed us- complete with soda and cake...at 9pm on a school night...to mostly 4-8 year olds. Needless to say it was a fun day the next day at school, haha!

Well, that's all the fun stories I have for now. I will try to be better about posting more often. If you are not on my email list for the letters I send out and want to be send me your email address and I will add you.

Toodles!

Looks like Snow!

So lately here the weather has been acting a little crazy. The past few days have been pretty hazing and overcast- not typical here. We had a small haboob (dust storm) the other day and then today it rained- granted it wasn't very much, but it ONLY rains here in rainy season (July and August). We were joking that all the clouds in the sky looked like snow clouds, ha! Wishful thinking :-) It is funny to see all the people from here though- bundled up in these huge and heav jackets. Their bodies are made for heat so they can't handle lower temps. Us foreigners love it!

I have been working more with more of the classes at school and getting to know more of the kids in the school. I love working with the little ones because they crack me up! Especially the 4 year olds. Some of them are so smart and witty :-) One of my favorites came in the other day singing "Nobody wanna see us together..." by Akon!!!! I was laughing so hard! Another kid who comes from the 3 year olds in the afternoon to the 4 year olds was sitting watching me sing the abc's, complete with sign language, with some of the kids the other day. When we finished he didn't skip a beat, smiled big and gave me a big hand of applause. It was hilarious!

There are so many more funny stories but I am out of time for now. Hope you are all doing well- let me know what's going on in your life :-)

Safari Time!

I just got back from Kenya about 2 days ago. It was an amazing trip!!! I really enjoyed being back in a place where there is grass and flowers and trees even. Once you've been in the desert for so long and see the greenery, you marvel at God's creation seeing these things again.

I stayed a couple days in Nairobi before leaving for a 3 day safari. We left just as the violence was rising. I couldn't believe the uproar about the elections- go figure that we would be there for the once every 8 years elections, ha! But God kept us safe the entire trip.

The safari was incredible! I couldn't believe how close we got to all of the animals. We saw lions, cheetahs, tons of elephants, cape buffalo, zebra, giraffes, warthogs, all kinds of birds, gazelles, antelope, and even hippos and crocs. I'm sure there are others that I can't think of just now. Our safari guide was funny and full of knowledge, best of all willing to take risks for us :-) The tents we stayed in were nicer than I thought they'd be- we had toilets, showers and hot water- what more can you ask for? We also go to visit a Masai village. They showed us around and taught us about how they live. They are one of the only tribes in the world that still lives primitively and the same as they originally did. And of course they tried to get us to buy all of their handy crafts. Some of the warrior men wanted me to trade my tennis shoes for spears and other things, including their 5 year old shoes made out of tires. All I could do was laugh- and I totally would have traded but they were the only shoes I had with me.

After the safari was over we went back to stay in Nairobi for a night but we had to stay in a different place than planned because of the potential violence where we had stayed before. Then we were off to Mombasa. This is where we had our team conference. It was such a nice place in the middle of nowhere on the Indian Ocean. I enjoyed being able to lounge around in my swim suit, swim, walk on beach, and just relax for a few days. It was very odd at first to not have to be fully clothed- especially after living that way for 5 months already. Mombasa reminded me a lot of home- palm trees, the beach, and tons of humidity!

Another highlight of my trip was going to a store called Nakumatt. This place is like walmart! I was so excited- but best of all I found Dr. Pepper!!! I ended up buying 10 cans to bring back with me because they do not have it here. I also asked about Mountain Dew. The guy got my hopes up when I asked because he said, "Green can, right?" I was like- YEAH! Then he said no. Ha! I was a little disappointed.

Anyways, we all made it back safely and have a few days before school starts because of the unexpected governmental holidays- gotta love those ;-) I have started back to language classes already and am trying to get myself back into a regular routine. It was so nice to have a mid- way break. I am now refreshed and ready to go! Until later... :-)

Merry Christmas!

I just realized that it has been almost a month since I last updated this blog. Well, the last month has just flown by! Christmas is just around the corner and I have been here for almost 5 months! In some ways time seems to go so quickly here, but then there are days when time just seems to stand still.

As I mentioned, Thanksgiving went well. I can't remember if I mentioned about our school football team (soccer). We won 3rd place in a tournament this year- Go Crocs! The boys were so excited and proud of themselves.

School was just one major whirlwind the past month. Between the beginning of the trimester, Christmas program stuff, progress reports and the actual program itself- I don't know where the time went. The program was this past Monday (which was also the last day of school). It went very well and we were all excited to see our kids finally perform. Needless to say we were also glad that it was over- I think we all needed a break and nice refresher. I have enjoyed being a lazy bum the past few days. Though it is also a holiday here and is tradition to go see your friends. So I have been doing that as well.

Next week we leave to go to Kenya for about 2 weeks. I am pretty pumped about that. It will be great to see some green again- and some wildlife other than geckos, roaches, ants, sheep, and goats :-)

That's about all the updates I have for now. Hope you all have a very merry Christmas!