Did you know that if you rub ostrich oil on one leg and not the other your one leg will grow really long and the other will stay the same?
Today some people told me that in all seriousness. I found out that they were serious when I busted out laughing and they didn't really know why I was laughing, nor were they laughing with me. To gracefully recover I told them that I wanted it on both of my legs, otherwise I would just walk in circles all day and never go anywhere. Then they started laughing...then they repeated what I said for the rest of the day to anyone who came over to visit with us and they all laughed too. Like I've said, I just stick around to keep people entertained!
24 October 2007
22 October 2007
Eed Sweets
This last Eed was the sugar eed and I definitely ate way too much sugar! When you visit people you may only be there a few minutes but in those few minutes you'll have a glass of coke, a few pieces of candy and a few cookies. I always slip the candy in my purse and give it to beggar kids later, but that's just me.
The people out there don't have their own ovens. They do all their cooking over these little tin boxes with charcoal in them. I'll get a picture of those later, but there are shops that have ovens and they charge people to cook their stuff for them. So in this picture you can see the women with the trays of the sweets on their heads taking them to the oven shop, then their kids are carrying the empty trays where they'll put the finished sweets. It's a little hard to see...it's also a little hard to take pictures of things that you're technically not supposed to be taking pictures of...sorry!
Also during the Eed all the well-off people buy all new things. New furniture, new clothes, new dishes, new everything. I have friends who completely repaint and remodel their house once a year for the Eed. Then everything is decorated with lights and tinsel, etc. Poorer people can't really afford to be decorating and I'm not real sure how you would remodel a mud house, but this is a picture of a popular decoration with our goat families. This is a plastic yogurt cup cut in the shape of a star and then stuck on the wall. They were all over the place! The women said that their kids were really excited about the Eed and wanted to put up some decorations, so they made these...kind of reminds me of little kids getting excited for Christmas and cutting out paper snowflakes or making paper chains. It's pretty cute!
So I guess this year I somehow saw all the similarities on how we celebrate holidays in America and in the Sandbox. See all your family, eat too much, say Happy Eed (Merry Christmas) to everyone you see, make all kinds of cookies and sweets before the big day, , and then the kids get all excited and spend their days off of school making their own decorations and sticking them to the walls...if only they had turkey...
So the local people go visit everyone that they know during the Eed just to say 'Happy Eed' and due their duty. One of my friends went to 23 houses in one day...I can't even imagine. But he also said that it's only twice a year that he has to see his extended family so he doesn't mind...sort of sounds like how some Americans talk about Thanksgiving and Christmas, huh?
The point of this whole thing though. The well-off people buy their cookies and sweets. The poor people make their own and I got to experience some of my goat women (sounds a little strange) making their own. There were 5 women who got together at one lady's house, mixed up their stuff and then laid them out on these huge trays that are about 5 feet across.
The people out there don't have their own ovens. They do all their cooking over these little tin boxes with charcoal in them. I'll get a picture of those later, but there are shops that have ovens and they charge people to cook their stuff for them. So in this picture you can see the women with the trays of the sweets on their heads taking them to the oven shop, then their kids are carrying the empty trays where they'll put the finished sweets. It's a little hard to see...it's also a little hard to take pictures of things that you're technically not supposed to be taking pictures of...sorry!Also during the Eed all the well-off people buy all new things. New furniture, new clothes, new dishes, new everything. I have friends who completely repaint and remodel their house once a year for the Eed. Then everything is decorated with lights and tinsel, etc. Poorer people can't really afford to be decorating and I'm not real sure how you would remodel a mud house, but this is a picture of a popular decoration with our goat families. This is a plastic yogurt cup cut in the shape of a star and then stuck on the wall. They were all over the place! The women said that their kids were really excited about the Eed and wanted to put up some decorations, so they made these...kind of reminds me of little kids getting excited for Christmas and cutting out paper snowflakes or making paper chains. It's pretty cute!
20 October 2007
Was That...Surely Not!
Well, bad news. A goat died. Even worse news...I ate it.
Thursday morning I got a phone call that went like this:
**are you coming today?
**yes, we'll come after one hour (meaning we won't be there in the next hour but we are coming today...very precise, huh?)
**Good. There is a problem with a goat'
**What is the problem?
**Amy called me last night. She said that the goat was very tired and restless and that it was very sick
**Well, we'll be there and we can look at it.
**You can't look at it. It died
**It died?
**Yes, I said there was a problem
**Oh, it died. Well, we'll go talk to Amy when we get there.
**Ok, see ya later.
I hope y'all get as much entertainment out of these conversations as I do. Anyways, so we get out there and they are telling us what was going on and that she called over her neighbor Hailey to see what she thought. She and Hailey stood there and looked at it but neither knew what to do...this just brings back many memories of college or of the Sandbox where something is wrong and I call another girlfriend over and neither of us has any clue what to do so we just stand there with our hands on our hips and watch as water is shooting all over the kitchen or something like that.
Anyways, eventually they said the goat got bad enough that it was going to die so they killed it. That's typical because they won't eat an already dead animal because they're scared of disease and some other religious reasons, but it can be seconds from death and they can slit it's throat and that's somehow okay. Anyways, after they killed it they handed out goat meat to all the neighbors and everyone got to have dinner last night.
So we're standing there talking about all this and they say, with pride, that the goat died from eating a plastic bag. They found it in his stomach so they know. I didn't argue with them, although when a goat eats a plastic bag they actually die like 6 months later of starvation, not the next week of seizures, but I didn't want to argue and I wasn't sure how to tell them that in Arabic either, so I let it go.
All this time, I've been preparing myself for something. See around here any time you go to someone's house they are obligated to give you some water and some sort of drink, normally a coke or some juice. I was really worried that, now that we gave all these people these goats, they would be giving us goat milk. I had already asked my language tutor what to say about why I can't drink goat milk...it actually does make my stomach hurt so that's not a lie, but I know that they don't boil the milk and I just don't want to risk getting some weird disease b/c I was polite and drank what they offered me. However, I was NOT prepared to be eating the goat...can't believe I didn't think of that.
After we discussed how the goat died and I knew it was because of something other than a plastic bag, we sit down to breakfast...meat, meat and more meat with some bread. Hmmm. Wonder where all that meat came from. We can't get out of this, there is just no way, so we just have to go for it. I take a bite and it tastes like a normal part of goat so I'm thinking PTL, it's normal. My friend takes a bite from the same bowl and says 'how's that liver?'. I was like 'it's not liver' and he says 'yes it is, I know liver.' And I say 'well I know liver too and I did not have liver.' So then we try to figure out what part of the goat you would cook with the liver. We could only come up with heart. Sick me out. So we're smiling and trying to just keep this stuff down...using the whole 'eat slowly and make it look like you always have a mouthful so you might be able to fake 'em out and make them think you're eating a lot.
We finish breakfast, all the while praying that we did not just get mad goat disease, and then sit around and drink some coffee. The ladies sons and husband come home for breakfast and she fixes their tray from the same pot she pulled ours out of...only they got the brain, one big whole entire brain. No wonder I couldn't pin down what part exactly I was eating...it was cooked in brain juice and that really changes the flavor. You can't imagine my relief when I realized that we did not have to eat the brain, then my horror when I realized that everything I had just eaten was cooked in brain.
Why can't I just live somewhere normal? I mean, most days I love it here, I really do. But then there's these 'brain days' and I just wish more than anything that I was somewhere normal where they eat normal, plain things and don't make you eat diseased goat meat cooked in brain...is that too much to ask?!?!?
I had a really cute picture of me with this tiny little baby goat but, of course, our amazing Internet here just isn't quite up to par today. Oh well, later.
Thursday morning I got a phone call that went like this:
**are you coming today?
**yes, we'll come after one hour (meaning we won't be there in the next hour but we are coming today...very precise, huh?)
**Good. There is a problem with a goat'
**What is the problem?
**Amy called me last night. She said that the goat was very tired and restless and that it was very sick
**Well, we'll be there and we can look at it.
**You can't look at it. It died
**It died?
**Yes, I said there was a problem
**Oh, it died. Well, we'll go talk to Amy when we get there.
**Ok, see ya later.
I hope y'all get as much entertainment out of these conversations as I do. Anyways, so we get out there and they are telling us what was going on and that she called over her neighbor Hailey to see what she thought. She and Hailey stood there and looked at it but neither knew what to do...this just brings back many memories of college or of the Sandbox where something is wrong and I call another girlfriend over and neither of us has any clue what to do so we just stand there with our hands on our hips and watch as water is shooting all over the kitchen or something like that.
Anyways, eventually they said the goat got bad enough that it was going to die so they killed it. That's typical because they won't eat an already dead animal because they're scared of disease and some other religious reasons, but it can be seconds from death and they can slit it's throat and that's somehow okay. Anyways, after they killed it they handed out goat meat to all the neighbors and everyone got to have dinner last night.
So we're standing there talking about all this and they say, with pride, that the goat died from eating a plastic bag. They found it in his stomach so they know. I didn't argue with them, although when a goat eats a plastic bag they actually die like 6 months later of starvation, not the next week of seizures, but I didn't want to argue and I wasn't sure how to tell them that in Arabic either, so I let it go.
All this time, I've been preparing myself for something. See around here any time you go to someone's house they are obligated to give you some water and some sort of drink, normally a coke or some juice. I was really worried that, now that we gave all these people these goats, they would be giving us goat milk. I had already asked my language tutor what to say about why I can't drink goat milk...it actually does make my stomach hurt so that's not a lie, but I know that they don't boil the milk and I just don't want to risk getting some weird disease b/c I was polite and drank what they offered me. However, I was NOT prepared to be eating the goat...can't believe I didn't think of that.
After we discussed how the goat died and I knew it was because of something other than a plastic bag, we sit down to breakfast...meat, meat and more meat with some bread. Hmmm. Wonder where all that meat came from. We can't get out of this, there is just no way, so we just have to go for it. I take a bite and it tastes like a normal part of goat so I'm thinking PTL, it's normal. My friend takes a bite from the same bowl and says 'how's that liver?'. I was like 'it's not liver' and he says 'yes it is, I know liver.' And I say 'well I know liver too and I did not have liver.' So then we try to figure out what part of the goat you would cook with the liver. We could only come up with heart. Sick me out. So we're smiling and trying to just keep this stuff down...using the whole 'eat slowly and make it look like you always have a mouthful so you might be able to fake 'em out and make them think you're eating a lot.
We finish breakfast, all the while praying that we did not just get mad goat disease, and then sit around and drink some coffee. The ladies sons and husband come home for breakfast and she fixes their tray from the same pot she pulled ours out of...only they got the brain, one big whole entire brain. No wonder I couldn't pin down what part exactly I was eating...it was cooked in brain juice and that really changes the flavor. You can't imagine my relief when I realized that we did not have to eat the brain, then my horror when I realized that everything I had just eaten was cooked in brain.
Why can't I just live somewhere normal? I mean, most days I love it here, I really do. But then there's these 'brain days' and I just wish more than anything that I was somewhere normal where they eat normal, plain things and don't make you eat diseased goat meat cooked in brain...is that too much to ask?!?!?
I had a really cute picture of me with this tiny little baby goat but, of course, our amazing Internet here just isn't quite up to par today. Oh well, later.
16 October 2007
Weddings
I went to a wedding last week. Even though I've been to quite a few weddings in my time here I have actually never been to one where I knew the bride or groom or even someone in their family until this one. The first wedding I went to some local friends just called and asked me to go with them. When I told them I couldn't go because I wasn't invited and didn't know the people getting married they said 'we don't either. Another friend invited us.' I asked around and people told me that going to weddings uninvited was totally normal so I went. It was fine, although after a while I realized that I actually find weddings here extremely annoying and have since decided I will only go if I know the bride. Anyways.
I talked some of my foreigner friends into coming with me, just because I hate being the only white girl there and the center of attention. Another reason why I don't like going to weddings of people I don't know...the white girl is always the center of attention and I just think that the bride should get to have one day where everyone is looking at her. Now if she invites me to come then she brough it on herself.
We got there and were immediately surrounded by people wanting to talk to the foreigners. After about 30 minutes that got old, so we walked around for a while then sat again where we were again immediately surrounded. At this point, one lady said that there was something about my eyes that made me look black. I'm fairly certain I understood what she was saying since I kept saying that my eyes were blue and she kept saying, 'yes, they're blue but they make your skin look black like an african'. I don't understand why I was 'black' and my friends were still white. Here's a picture of the 3 of us. If you somehow see what this lady was talking about please let me know because I sure can't figure it out!
After about 2 hours of sitting there talking with people, which can get annoying after a while when you don't know them and all they want to do is know where you are from, what you think of their country, and how American weddings are different, the bride and groom finally showed up. Then there was really loud music and dancing. Here's me and my volleyball friend dancing.
Our hands aren't just looking funny. Dancing here involves very little movement but a lot of snapping your fingers and moving your hand back and forth and not surprisingly, I'm still not very good at it. Anyways. The music has to be turned off at 11pm (govt rule) and since the bride didn't show up until 10:15, there was about 45 minutes of dancing. The music was so loud that once 11 rolled around no one could hear anything and so everyone was yelling at each other to talk...always fun to watch.
We left about 11:30, but my friend insisted that they were just getting started and they were going to have some sort of ceremony where they bride and groom changed clothes and then sat on a bed next to each other while they were doused in different types of perfumes. While that sounded really interesting, we're kind of supposed to be home around 11pm or somewhere close to that and we figured that 2 am didn't qualify as 'somewhere close'.
So there's my wedding experience from this week. I could go into tons of details on how weddings here are completely different from American weddings, but I explained this in Arabic about 25 times during the hours that we were just sitting there waiting for the bride to come and I just don't know that I want to explain it ever again.
I talked some of my foreigner friends into coming with me, just because I hate being the only white girl there and the center of attention. Another reason why I don't like going to weddings of people I don't know...the white girl is always the center of attention and I just think that the bride should get to have one day where everyone is looking at her. Now if she invites me to come then she brough it on herself.We got there and were immediately surrounded by people wanting to talk to the foreigners. After about 30 minutes that got old, so we walked around for a while then sat again where we were again immediately surrounded. At this point, one lady said that there was something about my eyes that made me look black. I'm fairly certain I understood what she was saying since I kept saying that my eyes were blue and she kept saying, 'yes, they're blue but they make your skin look black like an african'. I don't understand why I was 'black' and my friends were still white. Here's a picture of the 3 of us. If you somehow see what this lady was talking about please let me know because I sure can't figure it out!
After about 2 hours of sitting there talking with people, which can get annoying after a while when you don't know them and all they want to do is know where you are from, what you think of their country, and how American weddings are different, the bride and groom finally showed up. Then there was really loud music and dancing. Here's me and my volleyball friend dancing.Our hands aren't just looking funny. Dancing here involves very little movement but a lot of snapping your fingers and moving your hand back and forth and not surprisingly, I'm still not very good at it. Anyways. The music has to be turned off at 11pm (govt rule) and since the bride didn't show up until 10:15, there was about 45 minutes of dancing. The music was so loud that once 11 rolled around no one could hear anything and so everyone was yelling at each other to talk...always fun to watch.We left about 11:30, but my friend insisted that they were just getting started and they were going to have some sort of ceremony where they bride and groom changed clothes and then sat on a bed next to each other while they were doused in different types of perfumes. While that sounded really interesting, we're kind of supposed to be home around 11pm or somewhere close to that and we figured that 2 am didn't qualify as 'somewhere close'.
So there's my wedding experience from this week. I could go into tons of details on how weddings here are completely different from American weddings, but I explained this in Arabic about 25 times during the hours that we were just sitting there waiting for the bride to come and I just don't know that I want to explain it ever again.
15 October 2007
More Goats
I've been spending a lot of time out with the goat families. One of the goats had twins last week. They're pretty much the cutest goats I've ever seen. Here's me and my friend petting them.I visited the family that I 're-gifted' my goat to. The wife is a teacher and they have 9 children. I guess 9 kids sounds like a lot at first...until you hear that they actually want 12...then it doesn't seem like so many. When I go to their house I don't even know which kids belong to them and which kids are from the neighbors. I just know that their house is always full of kids!
I asked her if they had named the goat and she just looked at me like I was crazy. I told her that, if the goat was going to be Fatima's friend (her 4 month old baby girl), that it had to have a name...all her other kid's friends had names. She laughed but I think it was just because she thinks the white girl is crazy, not because she thought it was funny.
I asked if her children liked the goat and she said that they go to the pen and look at it every 5 minutes and that, if she can't find one of her kids, more than likely the it's underneath a bed somewhere playing with the baby goat.
This is really my favorite part of being out there, visiting with the families, watching their kids play, learning about their lives, asking them strange questions like if their goats have names...This is what living in the Sandbox is all about!
Year of the Locust
First off, apparently only people from TX use the word 'grasshopper'. I was so confused when people started talking about this locust plague because I couldn't find any locusts...you know those ugly green things that attach themselves to trees and are really loud and then leave those crunchy brown shells behind that you play with in the yard as a kid. All I saw were grasshoppers everywhere and it took me a surprisingly long time to figure out that those were the locusts they were talking about...I think the heat is getting to my brain! Anyways, everywhere else in the world what I know of as grasshoppers are called locusts and come to think of it, I don't actually know what name they have for our TX locusts. For me it's more the year of the grasshopper, but that's neither here nor there.
There are 'locusts' everywhere. Like when I go outside I have them hitting me in the face. The other day there were 4 in the car which makes it a little difficult to drive. When I got to my friends houses they help me pick them off the back of my shirt. That's fine, they're huge and they kind of hurt when they hit you in the face, but if they stay outside then that's fine with me...except for that they don't stay outside. I don't really know how but it has become the year of the grasshopper in my apartment.
We also have a surprisingly large number of frogs...I mean, it's the desert, frogs? When it was raining there were thousands. You actually couldn't take a step without stepping on several at a time. They were really tiny and swimming around in all the puddles. That was 2 months ago. Now they've grown into full sized toads and, especially at night, you just never know when one is going to jump on your foot. The frogs aren't inside the house...except for that one time...so they're not really as annoying as the grasshoppers but they're still everywhere! My aunt would absolutely die, she hates hates frogs.
I probably shouldn't be complaining. People here sometimes eat 'locusts' and frogs so there are probably a lot of little kids who would otherwise be hungry but now have something to eat. I just really wish I could watch a movie or cook dinner without having one crawl up my leg.
There are 'locusts' everywhere. Like when I go outside I have them hitting me in the face. The other day there were 4 in the car which makes it a little difficult to drive. When I got to my friends houses they help me pick them off the back of my shirt. That's fine, they're huge and they kind of hurt when they hit you in the face, but if they stay outside then that's fine with me...except for that they don't stay outside. I don't really know how but it has become the year of the grasshopper in my apartment.
We also have a surprisingly large number of frogs...I mean, it's the desert, frogs? When it was raining there were thousands. You actually couldn't take a step without stepping on several at a time. They were really tiny and swimming around in all the puddles. That was 2 months ago. Now they've grown into full sized toads and, especially at night, you just never know when one is going to jump on your foot. The frogs aren't inside the house...except for that one time...so they're not really as annoying as the grasshoppers but they're still everywhere! My aunt would absolutely die, she hates hates frogs.
I probably shouldn't be complaining. People here sometimes eat 'locusts' and frogs so there are probably a lot of little kids who would otherwise be hungry but now have something to eat. I just really wish I could watch a movie or cook dinner without having one crawl up my leg.
12 October 2007
Holidays Are Here!!
Today marks the beginning of the Eed. The 3 day or so holiday to mark the end of ramadan (PTL it's over!!!). It's another one of those 'we don't know until the night before if tomorrow is a holiday or not' kind of things. I was out about 8pm and people still didn't know so when I went to bed I hadn't heard if today was the holiday or not. At 6 am this morning, I figured out that it was.
How, you might ask, did I know? Well, the mosques, every single mosque around, went off for an hour straight (by went off, I mean some guy came over the loudspeaker and yelled all sorts of things). Then there were the constant firecrackers from the neighborhood kids and the loud cheering from everyone around. I don't know if any of y'all have ever heard the high pitched, African 'ulululululul' sound but all the women were doing it. While I am very excited that ramadan is over, I was not excited between 6 and 7 this morning as I laid in bed, wondering if the celebration would ever end.
It finally did, probably because they all had to go make breakfast now that they can eat during the daylight. Firecrackers have been going off all day and there is nobody out, including me. I stayed at home and did absolutely nothing today...what better way to celebrate a holiday that I would rather not observe!!
No one is really sure when the Eed will be over. Around here holidays tend to drag on. Remember last January when the entire month was just one big holiday?!? Since it started today and is technically 3 days long Sunday should be the last day. I've heard from local friends that things might pick back up Monday, maybe Tuesday but definitely by Wednesday...insha'allah. Not a bad deal for people who are getting out of work...not so great for people who are planning to leave the country in 2 weeks and still don't have a visa in spite of 2 months of waiting for one.
How, you might ask, did I know? Well, the mosques, every single mosque around, went off for an hour straight (by went off, I mean some guy came over the loudspeaker and yelled all sorts of things). Then there were the constant firecrackers from the neighborhood kids and the loud cheering from everyone around. I don't know if any of y'all have ever heard the high pitched, African 'ulululululul' sound but all the women were doing it. While I am very excited that ramadan is over, I was not excited between 6 and 7 this morning as I laid in bed, wondering if the celebration would ever end.
It finally did, probably because they all had to go make breakfast now that they can eat during the daylight. Firecrackers have been going off all day and there is nobody out, including me. I stayed at home and did absolutely nothing today...what better way to celebrate a holiday that I would rather not observe!!
No one is really sure when the Eed will be over. Around here holidays tend to drag on. Remember last January when the entire month was just one big holiday?!? Since it started today and is technically 3 days long Sunday should be the last day. I've heard from local friends that things might pick back up Monday, maybe Tuesday but definitely by Wednesday...insha'allah. Not a bad deal for people who are getting out of work...not so great for people who are planning to leave the country in 2 weeks and still don't have a visa in spite of 2 months of waiting for one.
08 October 2007
Bonus Week
This goes with the 'unmarked road construction' referenced in the last post. This one just popped up today although, to be fair, some people might would call this 'marked'. I wouldn't, but some might. ***
This week is bonus week....in life. That's right, just like the bonus round in a game show or on a video game. The last week of Ramadan is bonus week and people get extra points for doing all of the things that they're supposed to be doing all year but don't. So this week everyone gives alms to the poor, everyone says their prayers 5 times a day, etc. and everyone makes a big show out of it.
***
One thing I've found interesting is how many beggars are out. Sorry if I talk about beggars like they're commonplace but here, well, they are commonplace and I am bombarded by people constantly asking for money and it gets old. Anyways, there are all kinds of people out. They're on the street corners, they knock at your front door and then if you open it they stand in the way and you can't close the door until some stranger with a kind heart sees you and comes over to pull them away, they stand in between you and your car and won't let you get in until you threaten to go to the police station.
***
But after a while you kind of get to know them, at least the regulars. Not really know them, but I recognize the people who sit in certain intersections all year long and I'll give the kids a piece of candy every now and then. But this week the 'professionals' are out, the ones who are just out to take advantage of bonus week. They come out of the woodwork, it's crazy.
***
The good thing, however, is that for this week and this week only the beggars might just leave me alone. They know that they'll get more money out of the local than the foreigner so they opt to ignore me and ask the locals. If, by chance, one of them happens to forget that it's bonus week, I kindly remind them that it's the last week of ramadan and I am not a Muslim. If they still won't leave me alone I might say something like 'you know, I heard that it's Ramadan and that muslims are supposed to be giving money. There is one right there (I point to the guy in the car next to me) and I bet, if you ask nicely, he'll give you more money than I will b/c all I have is some crackers and you can't eat for another 6 hours'. They usually leave me alone after that.
***
Some would argue that we're supposed to love people and take care of the poor and the widows and orphans and I agree and I do that as often as I tactfully can. That's pretty much what my job at the NGO is all about. But I just can't start handing out money in the street here or I'll be mobbed by people looking for a free handout. I'm mobbed when I give just one kid a piece of candy!
***
Please don't judge me or think that I'm heartless. I know this sounds harsh, but I would guess that the majority of people have never had someone who looks surprisingly healthy walk beside you down the street for a good 10 minutes repeating the word 'money, money, money, money, money' like an auctioneer.
07 October 2007
Somewhere to Sit
I am dog sitting and, of course, the dog is now broken and we had to take it to the vet. Yesterday they gave her a shot and said to come back tomorrow. We went back today and they gave her another shot and told us that she would need and X-ray for her leg. They called someone and it was obvious that they could not get a hold of whoever it was. They conferred on who had what number for this person, called again and then told us to 'have a seat'. Well, we've been here long enough to know to NEVER sit down when you're told to have a seat so I asked them what the plan was. They said that they couldn't find the X-ray technician but that it was no problem, we could wait in those chairs right over there. When I asked them how long it would be they said 'maybe after tomorrow, maybe after the A9ed'. Well, the A9ed is this weekend and won't be over until Sunday or maybe Monday (another one of those 'you never know when it will be' holidays). We told them we would come back and politely took our leave. What I should have said is 'you are kidding. I have been searching for somewhere to sit for the next week and you're saying that I can sit here?!? What a coincidence! This is just great, thank you!!'
If we hadn't asked we would have been sitting there all day until they closed and, even then, they probably wouldn't have told us that it wasn't going to happen today. This is one of the most ridiculous things about this culture that I will NEVER accept. If they know it is something you probably don't want to hear they just don't tell you. Instead they talk around the subject or they'll just flat out lie to you. I'm surprised that they even told us it would take a while when we asked. Normally they would say 'oh, after one hour. It is no problem.'
Kind of like the cooler repair man. He came last Monday and said he would be back early Tuesday. He never came back, ever. Finally we called his boss on Saturday morning and he assured us that he would come 'after one hour'. Stupid us, we waited around. He showed up today while we were at the vet. The guard let him in but he didn't fix a thing. Wonderful.
If we hadn't asked we would have been sitting there all day until they closed and, even then, they probably wouldn't have told us that it wasn't going to happen today. This is one of the most ridiculous things about this culture that I will NEVER accept. If they know it is something you probably don't want to hear they just don't tell you. Instead they talk around the subject or they'll just flat out lie to you. I'm surprised that they even told us it would take a while when we asked. Normally they would say 'oh, after one hour. It is no problem.'
Kind of like the cooler repair man. He came last Monday and said he would be back early Tuesday. He never came back, ever. Finally we called his boss on Saturday morning and he assured us that he would come 'after one hour'. Stupid us, we waited around. He showed up today while we were at the vet. The guard let him in but he didn't fix a thing. Wonderful.
Traffic
This is a picture of one of the main intersections on one of the busiest roads in the capitol city in the Sandbox. Don't be misled...the majority of the streets here are NOT paved, most of the billboards we have (which is not many) just happen to be on this street and the stoplight you see is one of 7 that I can think of. So I guess the picture isn't very representative of this place, but the guy pushing the cart is. He's just strolling through one of the busiest intersections in town like it's nothing and the weirdest part is that it is so normal for donkey carts, push carts, really any kind of slow moving vehicle, to just be in the middle of the busiest roads like they belong there.Throw in people walking, big rocks in random places, holes big enough for your entire car to fall into, assorted unmanned animals, unmarked road construction, broken down cars, piles of bricks, forklifts (saw one today, not a thing around that would need a forklift but it was right there in the middle of everything) and buses that do whatever they want no matter who is in their way and it definitely makes for an interesting ride. THEN factor in that it's Ramadan and everyone is hungry and thristy and angry and in a rush to get anywhere and everywhere no matter what time of day it is...things can get prettyy bad. I spent quite a bit of time on the road today and, honestly, I'm a little surprised to have made it to 8pm.
