Balloons and Stickers!!

So that's it. Today was my last day in the camp. More than likely I will never see those women ever again although they will always hold a very special place in my heart.

I found some random balloons and stickers while I was cleaning out my room and so I took them out today and handed them around to all the kids. They loved it!

Funeral

Today I had to go to a funeral for a little baby. It was somehow happy and depressing but at the same time.
Every time I go visit the lady with the blind kids her sister comes over. Her sister, Nancy, had a little baby who was always sick. He was 8 months old but looked about 3 months. A friend of mine bought them formula for a while but he never grew or got healthy. We never could figure out what he was sick with, I'm not sure if they also didn't know what it was or if we just never understood what they were telling us. Either way, he's been sick since he was born.

In local medicine they will cut or burn people thinking that it will help the disease leave their body. This little baby had scars all over his stomach and arms and legs, I felt so bad for him. I really don't understand how if that didn't work after a few months they still kept on doing it and didn't take the baby to the doctor. Really there are a lot of things that I will never understand.

A normal funeral around here lasts 3 days and all kinds of people come and drop by but the family is responsible for feeding all their guests and for giving them tea and coffee. It's a huge financial burden, especially for refugees living in camps who already can't handle a normal day's expenses. The guests bring sugar or random small things but the family really bears the brunt of it. Today while I was there we drank tea, then coffee, then tea again, then ate lunch, then had tea once more and there were still quite a few people around when I left.

I had come straight from the office and I had my computer in my purse, I hate it when that happens. I've been here a long time but I don't think I will ever get used to the fact that I always have more money or valuables in my purse than they will ever own in their entire life. Today I had my camera, cell phone, computer, and quite a bit of cash on me...We're talking over $2,000 worth of things just in my purse. Probably not the best idea to be carrying all that around with me, but still, that's how it works out sometimes. Anyways, the entire expense of that 3 day funeral was probably no more than $75...A huge burden for the family and yet I could have paid for it out of my wallet and not even miss the money.

This week I heard a statement that really hit me. More of a question...'have you ever truly needed something that you didn't get?' And I ask myself, 'have I ever even wanted something that I didn't get?' Here I am experiencing extreme poverty every day and yet in my entire life have I ever actually gone without something I needed? I don't know if any of what I just said makes sense but if it does I encourage you to think on that for a while.

Here we are eating lunch. That green slime stuff is one of my favorite dishes. It looks like snot and the texture is pretty much just like that except for that it tastes exactly like fried okra and it's sooo good. You just have to get over the fact that when you lift your bread you have to flip your wrist around to get the stringy stuff to not make a mess.
Anyways, the most depressing thing for me about this funeral is that they weren't sad. The lady already has 7 kids that she can't provide for and this one was sick anyways. It's like he was just a statistic. I don't know if I've posted or not about how children dying here seems like such a normal thing. When you ask a woman how many kids she has she will tell you '5 but one died' and it's just such a matter of fact, totally unemotional kind of thing. I guess this is just my personal experience with a high infant mortality rate.

So today there was lots of laughter and gossip going on and I'm just not certain how I feel about that.

2 Airplanes

So there is this field at the end of the airport runway in the middle of a residential area. I've driven by it several times this week and have noticed that there is a burned out airplane in the field. Every time I go by I just keep thinking 'why would they move only part of that crashed airplane to this empty field but leave part of it at the end of the runway? That is so random...I will never understand why these people do what they do.'

Today I found out that there were 2 airplanes. The first at the end of the runway and the next one actually took off and crashed close to a high-class residential part of town that just happens to be very very close to my neighborhood. Somehow I missed the fact that a second plane crashed. Maybe I was in Drf when it happened, but I'm not sure. But still I feel like such an idiot.

And the other day when I was at thate really fancy compound, the richest family in the Sandbox owns it and I didn't know who he was. It would be the equivalent to being invited to Bill Gates's house, getting there and then asking 'who is Bill Gates again?'.

I guess the sun is really getting to me. I just hope that my brain cells return soon after I get back to the States, otherwise I'll be making a fool of myself quite often.

More Coffee

Here I am making more coffee. Before I came to the Sandbox I didn't really care for coffee. I really only drank frapuccinos and I always had extra flavors added so I couldn't really taste that coffee flavor. After 2 1/2 years of drinking a ton of really, really strong coffee I can honestly say that I still really just don't like it and I think I can do without it for a while...I get excited just thinking about fountain dr peppers and slurpees. Yah, I definitely think I can do without coffee for a while.

I leave Thursday night/Friday morning which means I only have 3 more days in the Sandbox. It's crazy.

More Goodbye's

I went to Mary's house a few days ago. Remember that gross flour/paste drink that I avoided drinking by pouring it into my water bottle a few months ago? Well we had some more of that. Since I had dysentery in June my stomach just hasn't been the same. I've been trying to avoid certain things that I know will upset it and she was worried that I'm not eating. Apparently this madeeda drink is especially for people who are sick so, being the very sweet woman that she is, she made me some. I actually drank it this time and it wasn't so bad, I think maybe because it was warm this time and last time it was just lukewarm.

Annyways, then her friend came over with a bag of leaves. We pulled the leaves off the stems, snacked on a few of them, then rubbed the leaves between our fingers until they became more like a paste than leaves. That was an odd experience.

Then we drank tea and coffee and I played with the kids. We were tickling each other and they were really cute.

Just another typical day in my African life that will soon be coming to an end.

One Week

So I leave the Sandbox exactly one week from today...who would have ever thought that I would actually make it 2 years, decide to stay longer and now be sad to leave. It's crazy.

As I expected, these past few days have been crazy busy, just seeing lots of friends for the last time and doing the random things I want to do before I leave. What I did not expect was how emotional it has been.

Anyways, today was amazing and ridiculously hard at the same time. My volleyball friend is an agricultural engineer and works at this farm out of town. She has asked me several times to come and visit her at work but I just haven't ever really had the opportunity.

Today I made time to go and, to give those of you from Irving a reference point, this place made Cottonwood and Hackberry look like poor people houses. I NEVER imagined that a place so amazingly nice and beautiful and secluded existed in the Sandbox. We're talking a 10 house gated community (biggest houses I've seen in a long time) with a gym, tennis court, basketball court, full soccer field, horse track and stables, 2 pools, pool house, a mosque and a little river running through the entire compound. There are over 50 full-time employees just to keep the pools and the grounds nice, not to mention housekeepers, nannies, cooks, etc. Craziness.

After my short visit to 'America', accompanied by just a little culture shock, I went to work in the camp and was completely overwhelmed that a place so amazingly fancy could exist within 1,000 yards of what I personally consider one of the most desolate and desperate places on earth. Combine that with the fact that I was visiting Hailey for the last time and it was just a little much to handle.

I brought her some fancy coffee cups as a going away present and we cried when I gave them to her. Then she gave me some perfume and wooden incense which was a huge gesture, seeing as how I know they can't afford to just be giving away things that she would be able to sell otherwise and we cried again. We drank coffee, with milk (extra, extra special), from her new fancy cups and laughed and had lots of fun just talking. She is 8 months and 3 weeks pregnant and I am so disappointed I am going to miss her new baby by just a few days.

When I left we both cried. It's just so hard saying goodbye to the people that I have come to love. And to know that it's not a 'well, if I don't see you again I will still see you again' goodbye but a 'well, at this point we're not going to end up in the same place'. My heart just hurts to think about that.

Cold, Wet and Loving It!!!

So I may have made my last visit to the camp, I'm not really sure. Either way it was a pretty emotional day. Of course just the thought that I will more than likely never see these women again got mecrying, and then when my friends were crying too I just cried more. It really meant so much though. They have been so sweet to me and I know that they care but I didn't expect any tears...they have really touched my heart but I didn't realize how much I had touched theirs.

Here's just a few random pictures from what could become my last day out there.

Wearing his Dad's hat to go to the mosque for afternoon prayers.
Plenty of coffee (and kids) to go around.

These two are just so beautiful.

Y'all please just be thinking about us alot. Some of my friends are staying over at my house for a few days until we have a feel for what's going on. It was so great. Last night it rained and we just sat out on the balcony until 1am. It was probable 80 degrees but we were soaking wet and the wind was blowing so we were cold...you don't get much of that around the Sandbox and we take advantage whenever we can. We were cold, wet and loving every minute of it. Who cares what the neighbors think!!

Perspective

'Their dream is to just own their own pair of jeans'

Think about that for a minute.

Travels

This week I traveled out to D to see some friends and to experience a new town that could potentially be a future home. It was great!

I bought a lot of spices and other random things from this kid in the spice market. He had tons to choose from and I didn't even know what half of it was but I pretty much bought some of everything that I recognized.
Here are all his spices all lined up and stored.

Then here is the onion market. I bought a bucket of onions for 2 pounds ($1) so that I could take a picture. Then I carried a large bag of onions around for a while. They'll never get used. I don't know why but I thought I needed a picture of all these onions.

Remember Mohammed, the old man who lives with me? Well this is his brother. He works in the market in N making cotton mattresses. He was so sweet. My friend and I went to visit him at work and we drank tea with him. It's always interesting because what are you supposed to say in those situations where you don't actually know the person but you visit them because of a mutual friend? Especially when he's an old man and you have absolutely nothing in common. It was a fun, awkward kind of time.
And here are some of Ahmed's friends in the market. They work right next to him doing the exact same thing that he does. I will never understand why all the mattress makers work in the same place, or why all the guys who sell onions sit together to sell them but they do.

War Zone

So you know you're in a war zone when:
**you get off the plane and there are only military jets and NGO/aid organization helicopters at the airport.
**fighter jets are waiting for your plane to get out of the way so they can take off
**you see more people wearing camouflage than you see wearing normal clothes
**every other car is either an NGO truck or a military truck
**you're not supposed to go out after dark
**you hear a wedding celebration outside and you automatically think that there's something dangerous going on
**you find yourself often thinking 'and here I am on the road where all the cars get hijacked' or 'and now I'm in the market where people get shot'
**no one looks twice at a caravan of military trucks full of camouflage soldiers and big guns
**you have to go to security meetings twice a week to be briefed on all the shootings, hijackings and evacuations going on

This is what most people think of when they hear 'Sandbox' but I really don't live in a war zone, I promise. My friends do but my town is peaceful...except for that one time...

Almost 4th of July in D

We tried, we really tried, to celebrate 4th of July in a traditional, American way but we somehow could not manage.

In the morning we went to the market and bought meat for steaks. The market was outdoor and consisted of about 15 men all selling various meats. There were entire animals hanging from hooks and flies and blood everywhere. I just tried to not throw up and to focus on how we were going to cook the meat really well later. We bought us a chunk (including skin, somehow) and then took it home to cut it into steaks ourselves. It was pretty much disgusting. Be thankful for packaged Grade A fresh meat.

When we finally got around to cooking it on our metal box of a grill (see pic above behind the table) we realized that we weren't really sure if it was beef or if it was something else. The guy told us it was beef but even now I just couldn't say for certain that it was but we had steak and that seems 4th of July-ish in a way.

The potato salad was...different. The ranch dressing looked and tasted a little funny. We did the best we could with the ingredients we had but nothing turned out quite the same as we remembered it should. But we tried, we had the ideas to make things and we gave it our best effort and that is what counts, right?

And then there was the cake. The oven out there doesn't really work. It turns on and off unless you turn it on high so I turned it on high and in about 10 minutes the entire bottom was charred. Here is my best effort to save what I could. Then the attempt at making icing failed. Normally we could have lived without icing but we needed something to cover up the charcoal taste. We had a cool whip powder mix but no blender so we did what we could with a spoon and it ended up ok. We each got a little cake which was better than no cake at all.
When we had just finished eating a huge storm came through and soaked the table. Since the kitchen and outdoor 'dining room' are not attached to the house we were stuck under the awning for about an hour playing the Kevin Bacon movie game. Then we watched Rambo 4, not the best but if you closed your eyes all the gunfire could have sounded like fireworks making it somehow celebratory. Then came Alvin and the Chipmunks in an attempt to make up for the wasted time watching Rambo and, again, I can't say that it was worth the time it took to watch.

But that was our 'almost' 4th of July in D. I can't believe I've now missed 3 years of Cyndi's 4th of July parties. Next year we'll have to make the party extra special to make up for all these years I missed!

More D Pictures

More cotton mattress makers from the market
You can't really see it all that well but this lady is holding her baby with one arm, riding that donkey side saddle, holding on and has just crossed the street in the middle of a busy intersection. Talk about multi-tasking. My friends and I went to visit Mohammed's brother's family on the outskirts of town. We probably met over 20 women and there was usually at least 8 in the room with us. They loved that I wanted to take pictures of them and decided that they wanted a group picture.

And here I am in front of my friend's house. Each day a herd of cows comes down the street and we just happened to run into them on this afternoon. Their herder thought we were crazy but he definitely gave me a big smile when I asked to take his picture with his cows.