Goat Farm

This afternoon I went out of town into the desert to scope out this goat farm. We're looking into purchasing a rather large quantity of goats in the near future and would like to 'shop around' before we just buy some. Who would've thought that there are all kinds of goats, some give lots of milk, some die in the heat, some taste better than others, it's crazy! So we're trying to decide which breeds or crossbreeds we want to use and how much they should cost. (not how much they should cost the foreigners but how much they should cost a local...difficult!)

Basically I spent 3 hours standing in the sun in 100+ heat looking at goats and cows while the vets and the guys who knew what they were doing figured stuff out. It was an interesting experience. For instance, (pic below) this whole herd of goats just came up to us and stopped...sort of like they'd never seen white people before and didn't quite know what to do. Even the owner made a joke about how his cows had never seen white people and they needed some different culture!

My roommate who is in the village called me while I was out there. We talked for a minute before a cow made a really loud mooo and she asked 'what was that?'. When I said 'oh, I'm just standing in the middle of a herd of cows' it seemed like a completely normal thing and we just went on with our conversation...only in the Sandbox!

Even the goats were looking for any sort of shade they could find! Another funny thing we saw today...a sign for a barber shop with a pitcure of Tom Cruise on it! Who knew that Tom Cruise comes all the way to the Sandbox to get his hair cut?!? I mean, I knew Will Smith came over, he comes to a barber just down the street from some of my friends, but Tom Cruise? Wow!

Dust Storm of the Century

Last night we had the worst dust storm I've ever seen...and the worst one that the 80 yr old man down the street had seen too. I had a friend over so we were inside eating dinner but my friends have told me that it was like a black smoke wall coming at us, not like the normal brown dirt walls. Several of my friends have actually said that they seriously thought that Revelation was upon us, it was that bad. We're talking I have a friend who was walking when it hit and actually got lost and some random men saw her walking around blindly and came and took her in their store where she waited it out until she could see to go home. Rent the movie 'the Mummy' and then picture worse than that. It was absolutely crazy!

How did I know when it hit? Paper starting flying...inside my apartment! All the windows and doors were closed and, all the sudden, things were blowing over and loose papers started flying all over. In about 30 seconds my apartment was so filled with dust that we couldn't even keep our eyes open and I couldn't see across my living room into the bedroom. Normally, if I was just sitting at home, I would be able to smell the storm coming in but not see it. This one was so different though.

Guess the carpet really did it's job!
My friend and I walked out on the balcony and she said 'it is so strange that all the power is out except for at your house'. Well, it wasn't out, we just couldn't see the lights on in the hoosh DOWNSTAIRS! My friend left pretty soon after that. Her dad called and told her that she had to come home right away, I guess similar to when my dad would call if I was out and a big tornado storm was coming. (see my email update for more on this part of the story!)

The cutting board that I had JUST washed before the storm and left out to dry.

At that point what are you supposed to do, sit around and pretend like life is normal? I don't have a TV and I couldn't get out my computer with so much dust so I just sat on the couch and tried not to cry. It was that bad and it was everywhere. I had already had a particularly tough day. Instead of crying I figured I'd keep myself busy by doing the dishes again. (the ones we had just done after dinner were caked with dirt) As I was standing over the sink with the window CLOSED I was being pelted in the face with dirt, so hard that it was stinging my face. So I gave up on the dishes and just sat on the couch and got pelted with dirt. It was pretty much just miserable. The kind of time where you don't want to go home to the States but you just really want to be anywhere where you're able to open your eyes without them being filled with dirt. Don't know if any of you have necessarily experienced that before or not.

The picture of a normal dust storm that my roommate had left out on her desk.

The storm lasted a good 3 hours, just pure desert everywhere you could see. Then it started lightning and thundering. I have a beautiful thought on rain but I'll have to postpone that one for another day when it actually rains b/c last night it didn't!!! The rain here is my absolute favorite thing about the Sandbox...it might be odd that my favorite thing about living in the desert is the 8 times a year that it rains, but it is and I was SO looking forward to the rain and then it just didn't come. You could smell it and the weather changed like it was just right there, but it never came. I feel kind of cheated, that we went through that terrible storm and then there was no rain afterwards. Oh well, what can you do?

This morning everyone was cleaning, sweeping huge piles of dirt from their houses. In retrospect (as I'm not being hit in the face with papers flying around!) it was really a beautiful thing. God was just reminding us of His power and how, in this crazy and unpredictable place, He can make the world stop if He wants to. Last night He made this little piece of the world stop, even if it was only for 3 hours, He made it stop. Pretty Amazing.

Pictures

Today I went out with a friend just driving around. Our goal was to take pictures of American or foreign things around here that are just really out of context. (we did have a legitimate reason for this, not like we just thought it would be fun or something!)

To preface, there are lots of Mercedes and BMWs around but every once in a while you'll see cars that just don't fit, like audis, porsches, etc. So you have the rich and then the richer. But then there's the 'more rich' and those people own American imported cars like Explorers, Suburbans, Yukons and Hummers. I know, it seems a little backwards that these cars that are so regular and everyday to you would be a huge status symbol here but they are. Because of sanctions against this country absolutely nothing can be imported from the States. So all the American cars have to go to some third country and sit for a few months, then they can come from that country to this one. But then the govt here places a 100% tax on them. So the brand new, 2007 Yukon that I saw the other day probably cost at least 300k.

So out on our picture-taking excursion we spotted a suburban in front of an unamed embassy. This being Friday, there aren't really a whole lot of people out and we thought we could get a shot if we just slowed down. So I had the window rolled down and stuck the camera out when I noticed about 10 policeman sitting under this tree...they'd all seen me and had started to stand up. We rolled up the windows and hightailed it outta there. Not like they could chase us or anything b/c police around here don't have cars, but still. I'm sure we made their day. Just imagine what they're thinking...2 foreigners roll up in front of this embassy, slow down and start taking pictures, then head out when they notice security...sounds a little fishy if ya ask me!

The American cars are few and far between around here but every time I see one it brings a smile to my face and it just feels like a little piece of home.

Legal Notices

Yesterday morning I came home from a meeting to find 2 pieces of paper glued to my front gate. One was from a lawyer, one from the judicial system and both were in Arabic. I didn't really know what they said but, seeing as how I've had my share of local judiciary system experiences, there was a chance that the letters might be for me. I figured that if they were for me or my neighbors next door we would rather not have everyone else in the neighborhood know what they said when we didn't, so I took them down. Tricky thing though, when you stick glue paper to metal in 100's degree heat it doesn't exactly peel off neatly (for future reference). Being the innovative person that I am, I ran upstairs and got my camera, took a few pictures of the letters and then took them down. Good thing I took the pictures b/c there were holes in the middle of the paper, words missing...it was pretty unreadable.

I took the letters upstairs and later in the afternoon I got together with my foreign neighbors next door and we set out to decipher what the letters said. If you haven't ever attempted to learn Arabic I'll let you in on a little secret. Written Arabic is totally different than spoken Arabic, at least in this country it's like two different languages. So while my neighbors and I can speak just fine, we had absolutely no idea what the papers said and had to break out the dictionaries.

After spending about 15 minutes on one line we realized that we were decoding our address...felt pretty stupid about that. We also figured out that there was a defendant and a plaintiff, only to later realize that the 1 word for defendant is also used to describe the plaintiff if it is followed by a second word. We spent about an hour going through this thing and didn't even get halfway finished. Then we realized that the people upstairs were the defendents and not the plaintiffs and it had nothing to do with us. Good thing too, because I just don't know that I'm up for spending another entire day at the police station.

Highlights

It's been a pretty long few weeks, just with various things going weird...but here are some of the highlights.

**fanta citrus - we've always had several flavors of fanta but fanta citrus is my favorite and we just got it in last week. I could hardly believe it!

**diet pepsi - I don't even drink diet pepsi but there's just something about seeing a truck filled with like a million bottles of something new that can really make your day.

**melted plugs - for about 3 days in a row just about every plug that we had in the house melted. Not quite sure why but the refrigerator did not catch on fire so I'm considering myself blessed.

**digital pictures - there is a place where we can print pictures. It's a little pricey but it's there and I managed to go and do it all in Arabic...even convincing the lady that my pictures looked just fine the way I wanted them and that she did not need to go and mess with the colors.

**boneless chicken - we used to have it in a few stores but I haven't seen any for over 2 months now. Imagine my excitement when the store had one package!!

**I love you - this random guy walked past and said 'I love you'. Not anything unusual but when I ignored him he mumbled 'mafrood tegooli I love you too' meaning 'you're supposed to say I love you too'. I wanted to turn around and say a lot of things but I didn't and instead of getting irritated I laughed at the fact that he mixed his Arabic and English because I do that too.

**Addressing envelopes - you have no idea how liberating that can be until you've lived for a year in a place with no postal system.

**kites - imagine standing in the middle of a camp where over 750,000 people live in mud houses or tarps without electricity or running water. Everywhere you look you see brown until you see this lone brightly colored kite flying above the camp and the 100's of kids standing below it in silence, amazed by something so simple.

These past few weeks haven't been all that exciting or really all that great, but it's amazing how He still allows you to find humor and joy in the little things.

Some Stats

10.6 million children died in 2003 before they reached the age of 5 (the same as the children population in France, Germany, Greece, and Italy) from lack of access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation.

In 1998, $11 Billion dollars was spent on pet food in the US & Europe, while 6 billion was spent throughout the world on education.

A person needs 30 liters of water a day for basic survival. The average daily water use in the US...600 liters a day.

Half the world - nearly three billion people - live on less than $2 a day.

These are just a few of the statistics that I'd read but never really understood before coming to the Sandbox...it's a little different when you live in the midst of these statistics. It all becomes more real when you actually know the names and faces of people who fall into these categories. If you're interested in reading more, follow the link below.

http://www.globalissues.org/TradeRelated/Facts.asp

April 15th

Here in the Sandbox April 15th is just another day and it holds very little meaning. However in the past it was 'that day'...I don't even know how to describe it other than it's April 15th. It's kind of strange that even though I don't have a stack of 20 tax returns on my desk to be done in the next 2 days I still get that feeling...every time I hear the words 'April 15th' I get this wave of adrenaline and dread and panic all at the same time. This feeling that time is running out quickly, I can't possibly finish everything and I've forgotten something very important. I know it's not for real and, after I tell myself that, I get a pretty big feeling of relief. Then I look back and can't believe that I'm actually here, in the Sandbox, and not back in the States fulfilling all those 'expectations' that people have for you after you graduate from college...I wouldn't trade this time in the Sandbox for anything.

For all of y'all out there who will spend the next 72 hours in an office, I hope that you make it through Monday and really take advantage of next week when you don't have to do anything but recover!

Text Messages

Around here text messages are a big thing. It costs less to send one than to call someone so my friends send them to me all the time. Here are a just a couple samples:

I wish to U happy new year..soft as silk..white as milke..sweet as hony full of mony..and all Ur dream com True

If someone can write ur name on the sun by ice...he will be the only one who miss u more than me..happy eid (easter) for you.

I never know if the spelling is like text message code or if they thought that was actually how words are spelled, although I can't judge because I don't even attempt text messages in Arabic. I get at least one of these a week from the most random people, some of whom I don't even know. I like to pass them on to my American friends here b/c some days you just need something to laugh about.

Little Known Facts

Here a few facts about America that y'all might not know:
** Braham Lineekal was the celebrator of slavery
** Benhameed Franleen had polio
** Vancouver is a city in the states, along with Ontario
** ALL of our petroleum comes from TX
** ALL of our animal resources come from Chicago
** I must be a republican b/c ONLY Republicans are allowed to live in TX
** and ONLY Democrats are allowed to live in Pennsylvania
** Ban Ki Moon is now an American b/c he is in charge of the UN and, of course, the UN is the same as the US

I learned all of this in a 10 minute amjad ride today. My driver was pretty astounding in his knowledge about America. Although I really stumped him when I asked what George Bush was doing now that Ban Ki Moon is in charge of the UN/US. He couldn't figure it out and I didn't explain. Was that mean?

1 Year

Today marks my one year anniversary in the Sandbox. Exactly one year ago today I left everyone and everything that I've ever known and moved to the most random place in the world. It's so crazy to think that I have spent an entire year here. It's also weird to think that so many odd things have become so normal that I couldn't even make a fun list. I wanted to make a list of lots of strange things but I couldn't even come up with any strange things because they're all so normal!

I have learned so much this year, about myself, about culture and life overseas, about reaching out to people who are in need. It feels like I've been here forever and at the same time it's like time is flying by. I hope that I haven't weirded anyone out with my strange experiences and gross pictures. Thank you to all of you who have been keeping up with what's going on over here in the Sandbox and for thinking about me.

Easter

Easter was good this year. I took the day off, which wouldn't normally be weird except for that it's been a while since I did that. I was really excited because some of my local friends had asked if they could come to celebrate with us but then their cousin's car got hit by a piece of shrap metal and exploded so they couldn't come. (that might sound like a fake excuse but it's pretty believeable. yah, it's been a seriously long week) About 5pm the electricity went off, it was 125 outside and 95 in our apartment but what can you do?

We had already cooked the ham and stuff and at 6 did a little service. By the time we were ready to eat it was dark. We lit about 15 candles and had a candlight dinner, although can I just say that candlelight dinners don't really work out all that well without some kind of soft backlighting. Just imagine trying to mash potatoes, fix a plate, eat, clean up leftovers, rearrange the fridge to fit the leftovers, etc in the dark. It was...fun...I guess. We had to leave dishes all over the kitchen since we couldn't see to clean them and then sat and stared at each other for a few hours. What else can you do in the dark? Eventually after they messed with the generator for a while it finally started and we had lights and fans, but that was about 10 and it was time to go to bed. At some point the power came back on in the night.

So I guess Easter wasn't really all that exciting, but it's amazing how the simplicity of life over here really helps us to focus on the real reason for celebrating.

Homework

Here's a picture of my arabic homework from the other day. I know it's kind of boring for y'all but I can actually read this and kind of understand what it says...of course that's only after reading it about 10 times and having my tutor tell me over and over the meaning of the words, but still, I feel like I've accomplished something.

The Stationery Store

I went to the stationery store to pick up a few things yesterday and was surprised by the plethora of choices I had. First off, let me defined a stationery store. There's no such thing as pretty paper in my country so the stationery store is more like office supplies. Imagine Office Depot but the size of 7-11...probably smaller. Lost of notebooks, pens, paper, etc...you get the idea.

Some of the things they had yesterday included:

**blow up arm floaties for when kids go swimming

(wanna guess how many swimming pools we have here?)

**neon bouncy balls with bugs inside

**whistles in the shape of soccer balls

**hairties

**stickers

**snorkels and masks

**keychains

and last but not least

**fireworks and sparklers

When the owner saw me give the fireworks a questioning look he gave me a demonstration of the sparklers....inside the store right next to a big stack of paper...smart thinking, huh?

A few more pictures of the kids from the distributions last week.

Are You Calling Me Crazy?!?!?

One day last week while we were out at the camp we ran out of water. Instead of drinking the local tap we thought it might be better to track down some bottled water. The camp we were in is huge, over 600,000 people and I can pretty much guarantee you that my friend and I were the only white girls there at the moment, making us the focus of attention.

We stopped at a little shop and got some water. As we were trying to count out the change to pay for it this hand all the sudden appears and tries to take the money right out of my hand. I knew we had drawn quite a crowd but didn't think someone would actually try to take the equivalent of pennies out of my hand. I looked up to see this really tall guy in a felt cowboy hat reaching. I of course said (all this in Arabic) 'No' and he replies 'but you're white. You owe me money'. 'Why do I owe you money?' 'Because you're white and you have it. I'm poor and you should give me some.' So I just said 'I'm poor too'. 'My name is John Michael. What is yours?' 'I just said 'thank you'. At this point my friend chimes in with 'we're working and so we can't give out any money. Those are the rules.' Then he comes back yelling 'you think I'm crazy?!?!?'.

Talk about causing a scene. Obviously he was a little crazy and, judging from the crowd's response of absolute laughter, they already knew it and were just hanging around to see what the white girls would do. At this point he turns around and actually goes crazy, yelling into the crowd something about westerners and how we are all that is evil in the world. Meanwhile my friend and I hightail it out the 'back door' thinking it might be best to leave before we caused even more of a scene. He tried to follow us but some men stepped in and wouldn't let him.

What's really funny is that, in Arabic, the word for rules and the word for crazy aren't really that close. My friend is fluent in Arabic and she said the right word for rules so we're not really sure where he got crazy from except that he already was crazy and was just hearing things.

So that's our encounter with John Michael. Too bad his name wasn't Michael Bolton....or Michael Jackson!!! If I was going to make up a fake name I would have at least picked a good one!