Random Thoughts

So I haven't been able to post for a while. Apparently the entire Internet system in K-town has been down...it's amazing to think that roughly 8 million people have been without Internet for over a week. I guess that's what you get when you have only 2 Internet providers for an entire city, you just never know when they will both have problems. There have been random times when you can catch one or the other working, but even then it's really really slow (as compared to normal, when it's just really slow!)I haven't been able to think of anything good to put on here or anything, so I thought I'd just share a few random things to catch up.

Yesterday, I had an early language class and got back to my apartment around 11. As I was walking back I was thinking to myself 'wow, it's really cool this morning, maybe even bordering on pleasant'. After I was at the apartment and had changed into a tank top & shorts I felt something hit my shoulder and realized that it was sweat and my hair was so soaked that it was actually dripping. It was kind of gross. So I checked the thermometer that we keep handy and, turns out, what I had thought was a 'pleasant morning' was actually 104. It was kind of sad.

Last week, as I was walking to my language lesson, some guy just walking down the road yells out 'Your eyes are more beautiful!' I wanted to yell back 'More beautiful than what? I have sunglasses on!!!' but I didn't.

People keep telling me that my Arabic is very good. It's usually like rickshaw drivers and random people and the conversation usually goes like this (but in Arabic, of course): 'Hello' 'Hello' 'Street 39' 'ok, get in'....we drive a little, then 'turn right here, turn left at that street' 'You speal Arabic very good! very good!' and my response is always 'only a little' But sometimes I'm really tempted to say something like 'yeah, I know' or 'about as good as your English' but I don't think that they would get the sarcasm. It's just kind of ironic, I would never ever think of complimenting someone on their English if they could say hello, how are you, turn here, and goodbye. But here it's like if I know these few things, people think I'm fluent. There's this one guy in the office who only speaks Arabic and he knows that I only speak English and so when he wants to tell me something, he will say it in Arabic, but he'll repeat himself 3 or 4 times....like that's all I need to be able to understand him...repetition.

My current landlord lives right across the hall from me and he is redoing his apartment. It was actually looking pretty nice for a while there, they'd chosen some colors that, maybe I wouldn't have chosen for myself, but for the sandbox where things are usually brown, colors are a step in the right direction. So they have the main room a peach color, one room is a light yellow and then the girl's room is a light purple....and then they painted the door candy-apple red. It looks very nice against the peach....

Life in the Sandbox

I Don't Have A Car!!!

Here in the Sandbox, shopping is a little different than back home. For one, there are no malls, just the souks. But then, as you're driving down the road, there are teenage boys that walk around selling stuff. They come to your window (especially if it's obvious that you're a foreigner, like me) and offer you what they're selling. You can find anything (as long as it's extremely tacky and ugly!) carpets, serving trays, kleenex boxes, blue fuzzy cowboy hats, those annoying recorder instruments that kids play. So the other day I was sitting in a taxi and a kid came up selling steering wheel covers, floor mats and sunblockers for your front windshield. He asked if I wanted anything and I said no thank you, but he just wouldn't go away. So finally I said (in Arabic, I was kind of proud of myself) 'I'm sitting in a taxi. Obviously, I don't have a car!!!' I wasn't really trying to be funny, but my driver thought it was absolutely hilarous and the kid laughed too and then he left me alone. Anyways, I guess I made my driver's day....a white girl saying that in Arabic!

Friends Part II

Last night I walked into my room and noticed something rather large moving on the ceiling. (On a side note, last week, one of my teammates got bitten by a rat. My theory, up to this point, was that normally, a person would notice something moving and then see what it was long before it had a chance to actually bite you. Until last night, she had me seriously doubting my theory.)

So I noticed this lizard on the ceiling and immediately went to get my roommate. I’ve been wonderfully blessed with a roommate who has a degree in wildlife science and does not have a ‘thing’ with lizards. I, on the other hand, have a ‘thing’ with lizards; mainly that I don’t like to see them or think about them, and definitely not touch them. So after chasing the lizard around the ceiling with a broomstick for a good 20 minutes, we gave up. Being the generous roommate that she is, she volunteered to switch rooms with me for the night. I had actually been planning to sleep on the couch since the moment I saw movement on the ceiling, but I took her up on her offer since beds are more comfortable and I knew that she actually didn’t mind sleeping with the lizard.

Last week, I’d walked in the kitchen one morning and saw something scurry underneath the cabinet. I figured it was either a very large roach or a very small rat. Now I know that it was a medium sized lizard, or at least I hope it was. I would hate to have 2 new friends at the same time.

2 months of intensive training in subjects very relative to my life in the Sandbox, but never did anyone teach me how to get a lizard off of the ceiling so I could catch it…and by ‘I’, I mean someone else would actually be doing it and I would be giving instructions from the doorway. Oh, the situations that you find yourself in when you’re living overseas.

Maroon 5

Do you ever find yourself in a situation and wonder how you got there? For instance, the other day I found myself riding down the road on our way to go shopping in a brand new, air conditioned honda civic with my current landlord, 2 of his teenage daughters, and my housekeeper....with Maroon 5 blasting.

It all started when I wanted to tell my housekeeper something in Arabic. Of course, I had no idea what I wanted to say, so I stepped across the hall to grab one of the teenage girls (who speak perfect English) and have them translate for me. The landlord was already in the hall and so I told him that I wanted him to tell her that I would take her shopping to get whatever she needed to clean with and then any food she wanted. Apparently he found something in this plan unacceptable and the next thing I know I'm being whisked away to the car. The second we got in, the girls handed up their Maroon 5 CD (which I never would have imagined a national having in the Sandbox) and we were off. Even now, I'm not exactly sure where we went and I sure couldn't get back there, but it was a bonding experience with the teenage girls and my househelper, who seemed a little standoffish at first, but is now more friendly than ever!

July 4th!!

I’ve been looking forward to this day for a while…finally something to celebrate! We had a small get together of about 11, basically all of the Americans that we know of in K-town, and had some BBQ and sweet tea, along with some other things that remind us of home. We had a good time together but, honestly, it wasn’t the best 4th of July that I’ve ever had. There was no swimming or fireworks, not a whole lot of red white & blue. There WAS plenty of country music, but it just wasn’t the same as being at one of Cyndi’s parties with friends and family that I’ve known since I was born. I can only remember one other 4th of July that I didn’t get to go to Cyndi’s and I can honestly say that they don’t even compare to one of her parties. (I hope that all of ya’ll had a wonderful time! Although I heard it rained...sorry about that)

But then there’s just something bittersweet about celebrating freedom in the midst of a country where the people are oppressed and everything but free; a country where the government controls every little thing and has absolutely no regard for human life. Something that I’ve found that I say pretty often and usually jokingly is ‘well it’s a free country’. So, for instance, a friend suggests that we do something strange I say ‘it’s a free country so I guess if you want to, go ahead’. But here in the Sandbox that’s not a true statement. Every time I start to say it, it hits me that I’m not in a free country anymore and my life is drastically different here than it is at home. I’m learning to truly appreciate the freedom that I’ve been given and the price that has been paid for that freedom.