26 March 2008
Duct Tape
What does it mean when you think that using duct tape to fix your computer is an acceptable solution to a problem? Just wondering. Feel free to leave comments!!!
Pregnant Friends
At the moment I have about 6 pregnant friends...it's strange. It was 7 but yesterday one of them had her baby so back to six.
I was at Hailey's house this week with one of my white friends who is pregnant. We were talking about it and Hailey was like...well I'll just put the whole conversation:
Hailey: 'I'm pregnant too'
Me: 'How many months are you?'
Hailey: 'Oh, I don't know, maybe 2?'
Friend: 'I am 2 1/2 and your stomach is way bigger than mine. Why don't you just count back the months?'
Hailey: 'I can't'
Me: 'Well how did you know you were pregnant?'
Hailey: 'My body has just been really tired and my stomach has been hurting for a while so I went to the clinic to get some medicine and they made me take a test. I told them it wasn't possible but they said 'malesh b/c you're pregnant'.
Friend: 'They didn't tell you how far along you were?'
Hailey: 'No, but it's probably just 2 months.'
Friend: 'Lay down on that bed and I'll tell you.' (friend is a doctor)....Hailey, you're at least 5 months along!'
Hailey: 'really? You think? I was sure it was just like 2 months'
Friend: 'well, it's about 5 so get ready.'
Anyways, I just thought it was a little strange. Hailey has 6 kids already so you'd think she would know what being pregnant felt like. But she didn't and 5 months later she goes to the clinic thinking she needs stomach medicine.
But what really gets me is that she goes to the clinic, they tell her she's pregnant and she just leaves. Like being pregnant is a yes or no question...she didn't even ask how far along and she didn't have an exam or anything!! So she's just been going through life without knowing anything. Maybe when you're pregnant you know that the baby is coming eventually so what does the date matter, I've just never known someone who didn't know or care to know their due date but I guess that's Africa for you!!
I was at Hailey's house this week with one of my white friends who is pregnant. We were talking about it and Hailey was like...well I'll just put the whole conversation:
Hailey: 'I'm pregnant too'
Me: 'How many months are you?'
Hailey: 'Oh, I don't know, maybe 2?'
Friend: 'I am 2 1/2 and your stomach is way bigger than mine. Why don't you just count back the months?'
Hailey: 'I can't'
Me: 'Well how did you know you were pregnant?'
Hailey: 'My body has just been really tired and my stomach has been hurting for a while so I went to the clinic to get some medicine and they made me take a test. I told them it wasn't possible but they said 'malesh b/c you're pregnant'.
Friend: 'They didn't tell you how far along you were?'
Hailey: 'No, but it's probably just 2 months.'
Friend: 'Lay down on that bed and I'll tell you.' (friend is a doctor)....Hailey, you're at least 5 months along!'
Hailey: 'really? You think? I was sure it was just like 2 months'
Friend: 'well, it's about 5 so get ready.'
Anyways, I just thought it was a little strange. Hailey has 6 kids already so you'd think she would know what being pregnant felt like. But she didn't and 5 months later she goes to the clinic thinking she needs stomach medicine.
But what really gets me is that she goes to the clinic, they tell her she's pregnant and she just leaves. Like being pregnant is a yes or no question...she didn't even ask how far along and she didn't have an exam or anything!! So she's just been going through life without knowing anything. Maybe when you're pregnant you know that the baby is coming eventually so what does the date matter, I've just never known someone who didn't know or care to know their due date but I guess that's Africa for you!!
24 March 2008
They're Eating Me!!!
Fun things happen when you live in Africa...really more like weird things happen without explanation. Lately my hands have been itching. For the past 2 months I've woken up just about every night due to this ridiculous itching thing. Don't judge me, it's not my fault. I even went to the dermatologist in Egypt and she had no answers. What do I do now?
Today in my language class we were discussing this newfound trouble and I learned that the word for itching is 'teakelnee'. Literally translated 'it is eating me'. Kind of strange. In my Arabic learning I've tried to not learn things through literal translation but to just hear the word and apply it.
Now I'm wondering how many weird things I say b/c I didn't take the time to care about the literal translation. I only figured this one out b/c I know the word for 'to eat'. If I didn't know the word for 'to eat' I would have gone around saying that my hands were eating me without even knowing it. Not that it changes anything. I mean, that's how they say something itches. So if I ever want to say something is itching I'll have to say it's eating me or they won't understand. But I'll be laughing on the inside!
Today in my language class we were discussing this newfound trouble and I learned that the word for itching is 'teakelnee'. Literally translated 'it is eating me'. Kind of strange. In my Arabic learning I've tried to not learn things through literal translation but to just hear the word and apply it.
Now I'm wondering how many weird things I say b/c I didn't take the time to care about the literal translation. I only figured this one out b/c I know the word for 'to eat'. If I didn't know the word for 'to eat' I would have gone around saying that my hands were eating me without even knowing it. Not that it changes anything. I mean, that's how they say something itches. So if I ever want to say something is itching I'll have to say it's eating me or they won't understand. But I'll be laughing on the inside!
19 March 2008
Just Another Day
Another exciting day in the camp. My closest friends from the Sandbox are moving soon and they have all sorts of things they can't take with them including a lot of little girl clothes. Today I took a few things out to the blind kids that I work with. They were so so so excited to have new clothes!!
This is the little 2 year old girl who is blind. She was so happy to be putting on that cute little dress. It didn't matter that she couldn't see how cute it was because here mama told her it was new and that she was beautiful in it and that was all that mattered. It's not the best picture but I think if you click on the picture it will enlarge and you can see her beautiful smile.
The mom called all the kids inside the room with us. Then she went through each thing one by one and gave one thing to each kid no matter if it was her own kid or if it was just a kid from the street who knew the white people were at her house and came to look at us. One little girl specifically chose her shirt, put it on and then was like 'I have to go show my mom about this beautiful shirt!' and she ran off as fast as she could! They all put the clothes on right away and then ran around giggling and showing off their new things for each other. They asked me to take a picture of all of them together in their new clothes, then their moms made them take off the new stuff so they didn't get them dirty...I guess they'll save them for special occasions.
This little girl was too big for any of the clothes we had but that didn't matter. She was so excited for all the other kids who got new things.
Here I am carrying a baby around...seems like I do that all the time these days!
This is the little 2 year old girl who is blind. She was so happy to be putting on that cute little dress. It didn't matter that she couldn't see how cute it was because here mama told her it was new and that she was beautiful in it and that was all that mattered. It's not the best picture but I think if you click on the picture it will enlarge and you can see her beautiful smile.
The mom called all the kids inside the room with us. Then she went through each thing one by one and gave one thing to each kid no matter if it was her own kid or if it was just a kid from the street who knew the white people were at her house and came to look at us. One little girl specifically chose her shirt, put it on and then was like 'I have to go show my mom about this beautiful shirt!' and she ran off as fast as she could! They all put the clothes on right away and then ran around giggling and showing off their new things for each other. They asked me to take a picture of all of them together in their new clothes, then their moms made them take off the new stuff so they didn't get them dirty...I guess they'll save them for special occasions.
This little girl was too big for any of the clothes we had but that didn't matter. She was so excited for all the other kids who got new things.
Here I am carrying a baby around...seems like I do that all the time these days! This is the toy box and the toys that the 6 kids share. I don't know if you can see everything so I'll list them for you: an empty juice box, and empty tea bag box, a plastic bottle lid, glass bottle coke lids, and an empty cough drop box. BUT my two favorite things they play with...2 old corroded batteries and the 3 empty, mangled, sharp-edged tomato paste cans. Sometimes I wonder how these kids can just make it to the next day.
16 March 2008
The Flat Tire
This is why I never get anything done. We spent about 3 hours at a friend's house today and when we walked outside to go to the souq to go shopping we had a totally flat tire. No problem, right? I mean, my Dad taught me how to change a tire and I am an independent woman who can handle things on my own.
So first we have to find the jack and stuff. It only took about 10 minutes to figure out how to lift up the third row seat but we finally found the tiny little jack that came with the huge SUV. So I take the thing to loosen the lugnuts but it's really small too and I can't get any of the lugnuts to loosen...not one.
Now if we'd been in the bush we would have persisted and figured out a way, but we weren't in the bush and a guy friend lives about 4 minutes away so we called him. I figured I would take the spare tire off the back of the car while we were waiting, then figured I'd go back to trying to loosen the lugnuts.
Oh yah, let me also add that this entire time we had an audience of men. They would walk up, stand and watch for a while and then say something like 'that's a problem' or 'so sorry' and then laugh as they were walking off. Not one of them stepped up to help. Oh no, because why would you offer to help when you could stand there and watch the white girls trying to do something that they obviously couldn't.
Finally after I put on a very dramatic show of carrying this huge SUV tire around and getting my clothes all filthy and then sighing really heavily every time I couldn't get a lugnut loose one guy stepped up and offered to help. After about 5 minutes he had to go get some different tools and, even then, it took him a while to loosen them all. After that I didn't feel so bad about not being capable of doing it myself.
When our friend showed up the local guy left and we discovered that the jack that came with the car was a little 'insufficient'. Basically it didn't even lift the car high enough to get the flat tire off, much less get the new one on.
After a few experiments with the jack we broke down and called our boss who knows how to do everything and who owns a halfway decent jack. Of course we still had issues after that and for some reason had to use both jacks at the same time to get the problem taken care of.
However, 2 hours and some sunburn later we finally got back on the road. And now I've learned that jacks only really work on pavement and when you live in a place where about 75% of the roads are NOT paved you have to find some flat rocks to help things out. I don't remember everything about the tire changing lesson I got when I was 16 but I'm fairly certain there was something in there about not putting anything under the jack, especially not rocks that break halfway through the tire-changing process.
I've also learned not to depend on any local man to do anything. I guess I just figured that finding someone who would help us out was a good fall-back plan...not so much. But that's alright. Once we get the car 'properly outfitted' with sufficient tire changing equipment we shouldn't need any help.
Sorry no pictures with this one. I should have broken out the camera to take pictures of the guys just standing around watching but I was a little busy trying to resolve the situation and didn't really have the opportunity.
So first we have to find the jack and stuff. It only took about 10 minutes to figure out how to lift up the third row seat but we finally found the tiny little jack that came with the huge SUV. So I take the thing to loosen the lugnuts but it's really small too and I can't get any of the lugnuts to loosen...not one.
Now if we'd been in the bush we would have persisted and figured out a way, but we weren't in the bush and a guy friend lives about 4 minutes away so we called him. I figured I would take the spare tire off the back of the car while we were waiting, then figured I'd go back to trying to loosen the lugnuts.
Oh yah, let me also add that this entire time we had an audience of men. They would walk up, stand and watch for a while and then say something like 'that's a problem' or 'so sorry' and then laugh as they were walking off. Not one of them stepped up to help. Oh no, because why would you offer to help when you could stand there and watch the white girls trying to do something that they obviously couldn't.
Finally after I put on a very dramatic show of carrying this huge SUV tire around and getting my clothes all filthy and then sighing really heavily every time I couldn't get a lugnut loose one guy stepped up and offered to help. After about 5 minutes he had to go get some different tools and, even then, it took him a while to loosen them all. After that I didn't feel so bad about not being capable of doing it myself.
When our friend showed up the local guy left and we discovered that the jack that came with the car was a little 'insufficient'. Basically it didn't even lift the car high enough to get the flat tire off, much less get the new one on.
After a few experiments with the jack we broke down and called our boss who knows how to do everything and who owns a halfway decent jack. Of course we still had issues after that and for some reason had to use both jacks at the same time to get the problem taken care of.
However, 2 hours and some sunburn later we finally got back on the road. And now I've learned that jacks only really work on pavement and when you live in a place where about 75% of the roads are NOT paved you have to find some flat rocks to help things out. I don't remember everything about the tire changing lesson I got when I was 16 but I'm fairly certain there was something in there about not putting anything under the jack, especially not rocks that break halfway through the tire-changing process.
I've also learned not to depend on any local man to do anything. I guess I just figured that finding someone who would help us out was a good fall-back plan...not so much. But that's alright. Once we get the car 'properly outfitted' with sufficient tire changing equipment we shouldn't need any help.
Sorry no pictures with this one. I should have broken out the camera to take pictures of the guys just standing around watching but I was a little busy trying to resolve the situation and didn't really have the opportunity.
12 March 2008
Favorite Emails
I love getting emails from all of you. I always feel so encouraged after reading them and I enjoy hearing about your lives. I also love getting warning emails from the embassy. We get them often, at least several times a month, and I make fun of them everytime...not really making fun of the email but just of how strange it is to hear all of the quirks about this country that drive me crazy in a written form. They can say it so much better than I can, so I'll just copy and paste my favorite part from this week's travel warning.
Road conditions throughout 'the Sandbox' are hazardous due to erratic driver behavior, pedestrians and animals in the roadways, and the lack of basic safety equipment on many vehicles. Only major highways and some streets in the cities are paved; many roads are narrow, rutted, and poorly maintained. Local drivers do not observe conventions for the right-of-way, stop in the road without warning, and frequently exceed safe speeds for road, traffic, and weather conditions. Driving at night is dangerous and should be avoided if possible; many vehicles operate without lights.
I read things like this and I think 'huh, they are a little erratic...and there are a lot of animals...and the roads aren't paved...pretty much everything they said is true. This guy has obviously been here before. No wonder going outside can get so annoying at times!!!' Seriously. Shanna experienced it and everyone else has 4 1/2 months to get over here and see it before I leave.
Road conditions throughout 'the Sandbox' are hazardous due to erratic driver behavior, pedestrians and animals in the roadways, and the lack of basic safety equipment on many vehicles. Only major highways and some streets in the cities are paved; many roads are narrow, rutted, and poorly maintained. Local drivers do not observe conventions for the right-of-way, stop in the road without warning, and frequently exceed safe speeds for road, traffic, and weather conditions. Driving at night is dangerous and should be avoided if possible; many vehicles operate without lights.
I read things like this and I think 'huh, they are a little erratic...and there are a lot of animals...and the roads aren't paved...pretty much everything they said is true. This guy has obviously been here before. No wonder going outside can get so annoying at times!!!' Seriously. Shanna experienced it and everyone else has 4 1/2 months to get over here and see it before I leave.
05 March 2008
Video!!!
With fast Internet comes the capability to post video. In the Sandbox I can't even watch any videos and I haven't made many since I can't post them. But here's one. After we gave out the Christmas bags the students gave us a big thank you and then sang a few songs.
None of them speak any English and I can't quite make sense of why they would make up this song but they're saying:
'Good morning, good morning. Teacher, teacher. We are happy to see our mother, mother.'
I think they're really cute and I love it because every time we come they want to impress us with their English singing skills.
03 March 2008
Mediterranean
I am loving this regular speed Internet!! I hope y'all are enjoying the pictures b/c once I'm back in the Sandbox I'll be back to the slow stuff.
On Shanna's last day we took the train up to Alexandria on the Mediterranean. It was freezing!
Here I am right on the water. When the waves came they would splash up really high, it was cool.
These boats were parked up on the sidewalk. I'm not sure why but they were all painted fun colors.
We also went to this really big mosque. We didn't go inside but the outside was beautiful.
I'm not sure what these jars were for but they were everywhere on the sides of the road. In the Sandbox they do water like this, just in a huge clay pot on the side of the road and there's usually a little cup attached to a string and anyone who wants water just comes and dips that cup in. It's really quite gross but that's how it works. Maybe these are the same kind of thing or maybe they're for sale.
We also walked through a small souq filled with fruits and vegetables and rabbits. I think they eat them, I don't know.
On Shanna's last day we took the train up to Alexandria on the Mediterranean. It was freezing!
Here I am right on the water. When the waves came they would splash up really high, it was cool. This is where they parked their boats and there were hundreds of them.
These boats were parked up on the sidewalk. I'm not sure why but they were all painted fun colors.We also went to this really big mosque. We didn't go inside but the outside was beautiful. There were oranges hanging everywhere but what I didn't understand was who buys that many oranges at one time?
I'm not sure what these jars were for but they were everywhere on the sides of the road. In the Sandbox they do water like this, just in a huge clay pot on the side of the road and there's usually a little cup attached to a string and anyone who wants water just comes and dips that cup in. It's really quite gross but that's how it works. Maybe these are the same kind of thing or maybe they're for sale. We also walked through a small souq filled with fruits and vegetables and rabbits. I think they eat them, I don't know.We walked past this box full of this odd shaped bread and decided to try it. It was not good.
At the end of a long day of wandering around we got back on the train and headed back to Cairo. Then Shanna had about 3 hours to sleep before she headed to the airport for the exciting adventure of catching her plane...you should ask her about it!
01 March 2008
Fountain Drinks
Have you ever noticed the difference between canned cokes, bottled cokes and fountain cokes? I haven't really, I mean before I came to the Sandbox I wasn't even drinking carbonated drinks. Then when I got to the Sandbox I realized I was going to have to indulge in something just to stay sane so I started drinking coke again.
But something weird happened on this trip out. Usually I'm really excited to have Dr. Pepper and I always make a point to drink one every day while I'm on vacations. Except this time I got to Egypt and only wanted a fountain coke. I bought a few Dr. Peppers just becuase I feel like you should buy them when you have the opportunity, but they're still sitting in the fridge and I'm still craving fountain coke.
I don't really know why I have this weird craving but I think my friends in Egypt thought I was crazy on the first day I got here and they were asking me what I wanted for dinner. They said the options were limitless and I should think of something that I had been missing, they even gave me a few examples and all I could come up with was that I really wanted a fountain drink. And every day since then I have made it a point to stop by McDonalds and get a coke, no food, just a coke...And now I've had so much coke in the past week that I think I'll give it up again when I get back to the Sandbox but for now I'm enjoying it immensely!
But something weird happened on this trip out. Usually I'm really excited to have Dr. Pepper and I always make a point to drink one every day while I'm on vacations. Except this time I got to Egypt and only wanted a fountain coke. I bought a few Dr. Peppers just becuase I feel like you should buy them when you have the opportunity, but they're still sitting in the fridge and I'm still craving fountain coke.
I don't really know why I have this weird craving but I think my friends in Egypt thought I was crazy on the first day I got here and they were asking me what I wanted for dinner. They said the options were limitless and I should think of something that I had been missing, they even gave me a few examples and all I could come up with was that I really wanted a fountain drink. And every day since then I have made it a point to stop by McDonalds and get a coke, no food, just a coke...And now I've had so much coke in the past week that I think I'll give it up again when I get back to the Sandbox but for now I'm enjoying it immensely!
