Foreigners

Living out here is definitely very different than living in the capitol. First off, we are the only 2 white people for miles meaning that everyone knows who we are and what we're doing. We met a lady in the village we're working in 30 miles away who said that she saw us in the market last week. We were in a shop yesterday when our plumber called. He had heard that we were in the market and wanted to make sure that we were ok. In that same shop, 3 guys came in, saw how short my roommate is (like 4'8") and were discussing amongst themselves how they had seen her driving around town but couldn't figure out how she could drive this huge 4WD SUV when she was that short. Of course we understood them and just laughed at how serious they were about this conversation.

We are also constantly reminded that we are the foreigners. Everywhere we go the word 'khawajia' is yelled at us. (a rude term for white person, probably the equivalent of using the 'n' word) People stare and follow us all over. We've been here a month and even our neighbors still haven't gotten used to seeing us.

My roommate and I have been having an ongoing discussion about the appropriateness of the staring. For instance, there are some people who you can tell have never seen a foreigner and are just honestly surprised. Then there are others who are all 'ooh baby, ooh baby' making inappropriate comments and gestures. I don't mind the first ones staring but the majority of men fall in the second category. Actually most of the boys over the age of 4 fall into the second category...I don't know how many little kids arms I've twisted for grabbing me in the street. That sounds really mean but the neighbor kids need to understand that they can't run up and grab us inappropriately every time we step out of our front door and simply telling them no wasn't working. You just get tired of it, but what can you do?

I don't know that this is a concept that anyone can understand until they've actually experienced it so I guess at this point I'm just complaining. Although this is a huge part of every day life outside of the capitol and I don't know that I'll ever get used to.

LOST

There are dust devils like I've never seen out here. This one is a relatively small one!

Today we went to visit with a good friend of ours. He is like a 'family friend' I guess and we really like him so I don't want to make fun of him or anything, but here are a few excerpts from our conversation.

'By the way, did I tell you that I am watching lots of television these days?. My favorite show is this one, it is called LOST. Have you heard of it? It is very famous all over the world. It is my favorite because the plot is so serious and realistic. Their airplane just fell from the sky, and on a deserted island of all places! And there are people from all different countries on it, not just white people, and they are learning how to get along. It is my favorite.'

'By the way, did I tell you that I am loving American music, especially American country music? My favorite singer is Dolly Parton. I also like Lionel Ritchie but not Michael Jackson. He's too strange.'

I have to say that I could not contain my laughter when he said that his favorite singer was Dolly Parton. My roommate and I tried to explain Dollywood but he couldn't grasp the concept of an amusement park, much less the play on the word Hollywood. We had lots of fun with that!

A new 'restaurant' (not anything like you're thinking about when you hear restaurant) opened up in town and they are the very first restaurant to serve pizza, even though pizza is very common in the capitol. We had some tonight and decided that it was not good and really not worth the trouble of getting out and going to a 'restaurant'. So we're back to square one with the cooking thing.

Village Trip

We went out to the village this morning...finally we got all the paperwork with the right date on it, the right stamp, an escort and a plan all in the same day and we headed out.

This is the village...pretty remote, huh? It was a good visit. We went to some of the houses to ask the women some questions about their hygiene habits and health education. We met with a 15 yr old woman who had a 2 yr old son, a 20 yr old women with 3 kids, the oldest of which is 6, and a woman who didn't know how old she was but her daughter guessed that she was about 17 and that would make the mom about 35 or 40. It was an interesting time but we had lots of fun.

We are required to have a govt escort when we leave town which I didn't understand until today. Apparently in the desert there are these huge sinkholes and if you don't know where they are you'll just disappear into one. Plus we saw this poster at the school and talked with them a little about this problem. Apparently some of the roads have been cleared and our escorts know which ones and then we follow them, I guess just in case we stumble across something. The war may be over but they're definitely still dealing with the repurcussions.



So we had all these local people accompanying us out there and I decided that it was time to play the crazy foreigner card and make them all laugh. They already think we're pretty strange so why not be myself anad prove it for them?!? So I made some sarcastic jokes about how all these kids were crowding around the house we were in b/c they were so amazed to see a group of locals sitting around having tea, that they'd been staring at us all day and so surely they were tired of looking at us. They got a pretty big kick out of that one.

I also told them that I wanted to see our neighbor country. It's only about 15 kilometers away and, while I have no desire to actually cross the border and get arrested, I would like to get close just to say that I've seen this country that is pretty much forbidden to Americans at the moment. They all laughed that it would be a big deal for me to see a place where they go all the time but then about 15 minutes later they were seriously discussing where would be the most beautiful place for them to take me so that I could see it and that we would go the next time we come.

I also wrote one of them a note in Arabic. I know it doesn't sound funny but my grammar and my spelling are horrible, plus written Arabic is totally different than spoken Arabic and I just know spoken. So I wrote out the note in phonetical, spoken Arabic and left it with his secretary...who passed it around the office before we even left. They got a good laugh out of that one too!

So, as you can see, it doesn't take a whole lot to be a comedian in Arabic. They thought I was really funny. Next time we go I'm going to tell our escort's driver that I want to practice my driving and see if he'll slow down and let me follow him in circles around the desert for a while, or even better, teach me!! I already kind of know how to drive and I did drive a little yesterday, but that wasn't in the desert and I still haven't gotten out of 3rd gear. Our escort's driver rarely smiles but I think this just might do it!

As we were parting ways back in the city, our security guy who follows us around got out of the car and said 'see you tonight at 6 at Joe's house!'. How did he know we were going to visit Joe's family tonight? He doesn't speak a word of English and, even if he did, we hadn't mentioned anything about it. I guess it's his job to know things.

So that was the village. Not too exciting but our first real outing from the house in 2 weeks. We've been spending so much time with repairmen, electricians, plumbers, etc that we haven't done a whole lot of getting to know any of the local women. This was just a start but it was a huge encouragement.

My House

Just a few pictures of my house. This is the front of it. We just had the razor wire put up this morning (that was the pole project) so we should be safe now.

The bathrooms. No, they are not connected to the house, neither is the kitchen or the office. Nothing is connected so we have to go outside to do just about anything. Notice the huge gaps at the tops of the doors, that's for circulation. It's about 130 degrees in there at night and its kind of hard to shower in the middle of a dust storm!

This is the living room. Very long and bright...came with the blue paint.

And below is the kitchen. Not a bad size but we can't keep the refrigerator in there b/c it stays a solid 130 in there too and the motor would burn up. Makes it hard to be motivated to cook when you have to go outside to get something from your pantry, plus it's so stinkin' hot. I've been here almost 2 weeks and we haven't cooked anything. So if anyone has any 'no-cooking involved' recipes I would love for you to send them to me!! Right now we're surviving on random vegetable salads (no lettuce, just a mix of whatever the vegetable guy happened to have that day) and junk food. Other than that, we got nothing and would really appreciate any help you can give!

Price Tags

The frustrations of moving to this new town have really been amplified by this whole 'no price tags' kind of culture. I mean, I grew up with the mindset of 'am I willing to pay this much?'. We all did. You go to the store, see something you want, look at the pricetag and make the decision to buy based upon how bad you want it. Here the mindset is 'how much am I willing to pay?' meaning that I have absolutely no idea how much something should cost and I have to make a stab in the dark guess as to how much I will pay for it, never knowing how much it should actually be. I know how much things are supposed to cost in the capitol but out here it's different.

For example, the new city is where they grow the vegetables and take them to the capitol. So I go the vegetable guy and he gives me a price that is way more than the capitol. When I ask, he says that vegetables cost more here. How do I know? That doesn't make any sense at all if they're grown here, but I can't find any vegetable guys who are cheaper than the first guy. Does that mean that vegetables really are more expensive here or is there not even one honest vegetable guy in this city? I don't know.

Another example, cokes. My country actually has their own coca cola bottling plant and, in the capitol, a glass bottle of coke costs 25cents. Out here, they cost 35cents. Not a huge difference but the first time I bought one and kind of argued with the guy, he just laughed and kindly explained that it costs more b/c they have to bring the bottles full from the capitol and then return them empty. This one makes sense. Good thing the guy took the time to explain or I would have never gone back to his little store again thinking that he was trying to rip me off.

Yet another example, a bottle of water. In the capitol it costs 25cents but I can't figure out how much it's supposed to cost here. The first time we asked, the guy said 50cents and so we didn't buy one from him, that's twice as much as we think it's supposed to be! Went to the next store and they guy gave it to us for free because we were 'his guests'. The next store I went to, the guy just threw it in for free with all the other stuff I bought and couldn't figure out why I would need to know how much it cost if he was giving it to me for free.

Do you see my dilemma here? Everywhere I go, everything I buy, I have no idea how much I'm supposed to pay. I've been ripped off a few times since getting here and now I don't want to trust anyone when they tell me a price b/c they are probably lying and I have no idea. Even though it's just small amounts, it's still the principle of the matter. I shouldn't have to pay twice as much for something just because I'm white!

Oh yah, picked up my poles this morning. 15 exactly the same as the example I left with him, just like I wanted. I really expected to get in there and have 15 weak poles but they were all just right. Guess all that repetition paid off!!!

Wait! Wait!

We're undertaking a major project at our new house and today I had to go to the souq and get a lot of metal poles. I've been to this one guy a few times and he's really nice so I figured I would use him to make the poles since I don't know of anyone else. I had already been to his shop twice today for random things. Then I had to go to another NGO to pick up the sample pole and go back to his shop. Our conversation went like this (all in Arabic, of course):

'Hi'
'Hi. I need 15 poles made exactly like this one (I show him the one I brought with me)'
'ok, I can do that before tomorrow'
'wow, that's quick'
'yup, what kind of metal do you need?'
'the same kind that this one is and I need it to be exactly the same heighth and with all these little loopy things on it' (like I know the names of different kinds of metal or loopy things in English, much less Arabic!)
'do you want a strong one or a weak one?'
'the same kind that this one is'
'well that one is strong. Do you want strong or weak?'
'I guess I want strong'
'no, you should feel the strong'
so he pulls out a 6 meter pole for me to pick up
'I think I want the strong'
'no you have to feel the weak one too'
so he pulls out a 6 meter pole for me to pick up
'I definitely want that one, the strong one'
'How long do you need it to be'
'as long as this one is'
'well how long is that one?'
'I don't know. Can you measure it?' (he measures)
'ok. so how many meters do you need?'
'However many makes 15 poles' (he pulls out the calculator)
'ok, that will be 215 pounds'
'ok, I'll be back tomorrow to pick it up. Thanks, see ya later'
'Wait! Wait! do you want strong or weak?'
'I want strong'
'are you sure? feel those two and be sure of the one you want'
'I already felt them. I want the strong'
'ok, ok. I thought you wanted weak. That will be more expensive, 240 pounds'
'ok, 240. I'll be back tomorrow'
'Wait! Wait! How many do you need?'
'15. I said that'
'Oh yah. And how long do you need each one?'
'exactly the same as the one I brought and am leaving with you. You measured 1 1/4 meters'
'oh, oh yah. Ok. And you wanted strong or weak?'
'Strong, definitely strong. Anything else?'
'you want to feel the strong one?'
'I already felt. Anything else?'
'No, they will be ready tomorrow, insha'allah'
'Thank you. See you tomorrow'
'Wait! Wait! Do you also need all of these little hooks and welding on your poles?'
'Yes, like I said, I need my poles to be exactly the same as this one. Strong, 1 1/4 meters long, and with loopy things and weird bottom part. Can you make it like that by tomorrow?'
'of course. Now did you want strong or weak?'
'STRONG!! I want strong and exactly, everything the same as this one I am leaving you!!'
'ok, I will make them before tomorrow'.
'ok, I will call you at 8am tomorrow to see if they are ready'
'insha'allah'

What's strange is that he really wasn't trying to rip me off, his price quote was still below what we had been told by a local to pay, he was just slow and couldn't seem to catch on to the fact that I wanted my poles to be EXACTLY the same as the one I had brought him.
No wonder it takes me all day to get only one or two things done!!

The New Homestead

I made it out to the new city. It's very interesting and so different than the capitol, but I guess it should be since that was city living and this is country living. Here's the view from my new house...not bad.

When we came into town we had to stop at the security checkpoint and they wanted to give us a baby kitten...it was strange and we politely declined the offer and they still let us come into town so we figured we were doing alright. Today (3 days later) I was climbing a mountain with some friends and all these little village kids were following us up. We stopped for a break and one kid asked me where I lived. I told him I was new and that I didn't know where I lived but it was that direction and he points and says 'yah, you came before 3 days. You're working for that aid organization and you live right there'. Then this other little kid starts talking about a baby cat. It takes me a few runs through his story before I figure out that he's not trying to sell me a baby cat but was talking about how security wanted to give me that kitten. Hmmm...ok, there aren't any white people here so it would make sense that people know how long I've been here and where I live, but how did these random little kids who live really kind of far from that checkpoint know that I refused a free baby kitten?!?!? Small towns...

Week In Pictures

You know how BBC or Yahoo or places have the 'week in pictures? If not, well, they do...I've never actually looked at them but I've seen the little 'click here' box. Anyways, hHere's MY week in pictures. Interpret them as you like!

Duststorm

There are a few names in Arabic for a dust storm but here's a pic of a big one. The regular, everyday ones pretty much consist of hazy dust that just kind of falls on the city, visibility is reduced but you can still see. Your house gets dirty but it's always dirty so who cares. Then one of these rolls in and you don't have a choice but to sit inside and wait it out. Pretty powerful.