Money

Last week myself and three girlfriends went to the Hilton for dinner. That’s right…we have a Hilton, although, I would have to say that it’s not up to Hilton standards at all (besides the fact that it’s extremely pricy). However, it’s air conditioned and they have regular hamburgers so it’s a special treat. This is only my second time to go there since I arrived in April, so I was pretty excited. We got there and had a lot of fun together. We’ve found that we can laugh at pretty much anything, which makes for a good self-entertaining evening. Our waiter brought us our bills when we were finished and we got everything together, then he came back to ‘check’ on us. He went around the table in order, so he started with my friend on the left of me. She had left an extra little bit for a tip which is perfectly acceptable. The waiter counted her money in front of her, handed her back the extra, a little confused as to why she’d given extra, but without giving her a chance to explain. We all picked up on the fact that he didn’t understand the tip, but my bill was actually underneath hers on the table, meaning that I didn’t get the chance to take mine back and pull out the tip. So he gets to mine and again hands the extra money back. The girl to my right was next, but she caught on quickly and took out the tip she had. The waiter counted her money and said ‘you really know our money well. How long have you been here?’ She said ‘8 months’. And He says (to her) ‘you really know your money well. (to us ‘tippers’) You don’t know our money. You should really learn our money. It’s not that hard’. The last girl handed him the correct amount but then handed him the extra and specified to him that it was a tip, for which he was most grateful. However, he NEVER picked up on the fact that we were all trying to tip. We just left it on the table and figured that maybe, at some point, he might realize that we didn’t just forget it but left it for him. Anyways, so apparently it takes 8 months to ‘learn’ the money here so I still have 3 months before I can be self sufficient…oh how sad! Too bad that the money is printed in Arabic on one side but in English on the other side, so, logically, it wouldn’t be hard for anyone to ‘understand’ the money. But that’s using logic and, as I’ve mentioned before, it’s a logic-free world out here.

Amjad Rides

I had 2 interesting Amjad rides this week (amjads are the minivan type things). First was on Thursday. I was on my way home from language and my driver actually spoke perfect English. So we chatted it up for a while in English, found out that he was a University professor in London for 10 years and speaks 4 different languages. Eventually we got to the inevitable question of 'where are you from?' and I answered 'America'. The guy actually looked at me and said 'No, you are not and American, you can't be'. I couldn't help but ask 'why not?' and his answer was 'Americans always say yeah or yep instead of yes, and when you ask an American where they are from they always say 'the states' and never say 'America'. Therefore, you can NOT be an American. You're from Britain. You're British.' This from the guy who lived in Britain for 10 years!!! My thought was why in the world, given the current political situation between the Sandbox and the US, would anyone EVER claim to be an American when they really weren't?!?!? I couldn't even argue with him, I didn't know what to say!

My second interesting ride was on Friday. I was on my way home from downtown and I always find it difficult to find transportation home, so I usually take whatever I can. This week it was an Amjad. He stopped on the right side corner of a one way street and I told him where I wanted to go and negotiated the price in Arabic. I got in and, obviously, he couldn't turn left across a 5 lane road, so he just went straight through the intersection. I expected him to just go up and turn on a different street, but, oh no, this guy cuts left across all of those lanes, putting us a good 50 yards past the street he needed. So he stops in the left lane, throws it in reverse, and proceedes to back up into oncoming traffic!!! We get to our street safely, but after a stunt like that, you pretty much just learn to expect a wild ride. (this isn't the first time I've had a ride like this and I'm sure it won't be the last!) This time my driver was pretty chatty and the first thing he asked me was if my husband was in the Sandbox. Instead of answering/lying, I just told him that I don't understand and I don't speak Arabic. (Keep in mind that this guy spoke absolutely no English, so EVERY word of this converstaion was in Arabic). He was amazed that I don't speak Arabic and asks me, in Arabic, if I only know how to say where I want to go. So I say yes, that and 'one, two, three, etc...' He just couldn't believe it and asked me how long I've been here, so I answered '5 months'. He responded, 'And you don't know Arabic? This is so sad. You should go to a school to learn the Arabic...this is so sad. You Americans, you come here and then you don't even try to learn our language.' To this I said 'Malesh' (or the all encompassing word for sorry). He goes on and on about how he just can't believe that I don't speak Arabic and I proceed to give him directions to my house in Arabic. For some reason I guess it never clicked to him that I was actually speaking Arabic to him that entire time...all the convincing that he needed was for me to say that I don't speak it...I think I might try this again the next time my driver asks me, first thing, if I'm married. Apparently it works!!!

Surprise!!!

While my friends were here last week, one of them celebrated his 5oth birthday. We had a surprise party all planned, the cake was made, the streamers were ready to be hung, all we were waiting for was for him to leave so we could do it.

One of the kids here is absolutely one of the cutest kids I've ever seen in my life. He's3 and is so hilarious. Anyways, he (J) and his brothers had already made signs that said 'happy birthday' etc to hang outside of the door.

So while we were sitting there eating lunch, J comes in from school and he has this bear necklace that he's made that morning with his name on it. So he flips the necklace around behind him (so that we couldn't see) and comes up to the table and says 'do you want to see my bare nakedness?' He got a pretty good laugh and an explanation that what he had to show was a 'necklace'.

Next, he says 'Uncle Scott, is it your birthday today? No, no, it is. Happy Birthday. Mom, is it his birthday today? yeah, happy birthday uncle Scott. I want to tell you what I made. Yesterday, I drew this big sign that says 'Happy Birthday Uncle Scott' in very big letters. And...' At this point his mom interrupts him and calls him over and whispers in his ear that the party is a surprise and so we don't want to talk about it in front of Scott or we might ruin the surprise, to which J replies out loud, 'No mom, I'm not going to ruin the surprise. I'm just gonna tell him what I made for him'. There was no stopping him. He goes back to Scott and says 'so I made this sign that says 'Happy Birthday Uncle Scott' and then this afternoon while you are gone, we are going to hang it up outside of the door and when you come back we will be waiting and we will jump out and yell 'Happy Birthday!!'' I think we were all pretty much laughing hysterically at this point, but to make it worse, J goes back to his mother and with the most innocent little blue eyes says 'see, I didn't ruin the surprise' and then he walked off. Guess 3 years old isn't quite old enough to understand the idea behind the surprise party!

Usually, pitcures take forever to load, so I haven't been able to post many. But lately, my Internet connection has been improving. These are all old but fun to look at.

This is the pre-school that was right outside the door of one of our many apartments.

A Friday afternoon pre-service in front of the Mahdi's tomb. (He's the guy who brought the majority religion to the Sandbox)

A couple of camels. Some of their legs were tied up like this to keep them from running away. Some of them had their 2 front legs tied together, and then there were some that didn't have anything and could roam as they pleased. We just figured that maybe those were the bad ones that no one wanted and maybe they were hoping that they'd run away.

These are the dervishes, also known as the 'whirling dervishes'. Basically they are a sect of Islam. Every Friday night, hundreds gather in this huge cemetery to have their worship ceremony. They make this huge circle, the guys in the middle lead the service and the ones in the circle participate. They use drums to get a beat and then just chant for hours. Eventually the ones in the middle will get so worked up that they start to spin and they can spin for long periods of time without falling over. It's really one of the wierdest things. Their white outfits are called jalabiyas and are the typical outfit for men here. They're not required to wear them, but they're pretty much like pajamas, so who wouldn't? Even if they don't wear a jalabiya all week long, they will definitely wear one on Friday. Also, notice the little kid in the middle of the circle...

This guy is one of their main leaders. The color of green that he's wearing is an identifying symbol. Most of the men in the Sandbox wear all white, but when you see one with any type of green on with his jalabiya you know that he's a part of the dervishes.

So they aren't all that exciting, but these are the kinds of things that I see on regular basis and, at some point, they just became normal. I've been here over 5 months now. I can't say that I don't miss the comforts of the states (like central a/c, walmart, English), but I wouldn't trade this experience for anything.

Two Things

Two very random things happened to me today.

First: I haven't been in the office for about 2 weeks because my friends were here. Today was my first day back and I was warmly welcomed...apparently they missed me. I guess I should have figured that since one of the guys called me last week to make sure that I was ok and to ask where I was, but I didn't think anything of it. This afternoon they were so excited to see me. One guy (a national) actually said 'by this office, you are like the sun. When you are here things are very nice and we are all very happy. But the sun has not been here by this office and we have been very sad. But today, praise the lord, the sun has returned.' Woah. I really never thought that I would ever be compared to the sun and I really didn't know what to say to that...so I said thanks.

Second:My roommate and I went to the souq this afternoon to do a little stress-relief shopping. Out of nowhere, this woman comes up and says something to me. I thought that she just wanted to look at something behind me, so I tried to move out of her way. Instead, she just followed me and we did a little dance until she introduced herself to me. It's not uncommon to meet women in the souq, but normally random people don't just stop you, so I though it was a little wierd. Then, she points to the henna on my foot and starts going on about how beautiful it is and how I'm a local since I have it. (all of this is in Arabic, by the way) She asked me where I had it done and I told her the place, then she pulls out her phone and asks me for my phone number, at least that's what I understand. While I don't mind meeting people in the souq I would never ever give my phone number to them, so I politely asked her for her number. She looked at me like I was pretty strange and goes off in Arabic and, again, asked me for, what I thought, was a phone number. So I'm thinking that maybe she wants the phone number for the place where I had it done, so I politely explained that I didn't have the phone number for the place and, instead, gave her detailed directions. Again, she looked at me like I was just the wierdest thing she'd ever seen and goes into the same Arabic she'd done before, only this time her friend makes the universal sign for taking a picture (you know, where you put your hands in front of your face and make a click noise). That's when I finally understood that she had a camera on her phone and she wanted to take a picture of my foot. I felt really stupid, but in my defense, she was waving her cell phone around the whole time! So then the store owner had to leave and we all went into the back so that I could hike up my skirt to mid-calf and she could take a picture that, she assured me, would only be shown to women.

Hope ya'll enjoy the stupidity and embarrassment that comes along with language learning!

Yesterday we went to the wood souq... at least that's what we like to call it. Really it's just a bunch of guys with tables set up on the side of the road and they're selling the animals and stuff that are carved out of wood. Really it's more the kind of stuff that you would think of from places like Kenya or Tanzania, but I can vouch that this stuff is made here. They actually sit underneath their tables for shade whil they carve and stain stuff right in front of you.

It's really cool because right behind this picture you can see the Nile. Actually, it's not supposed to be the Nile but right now the river is the highest that it's been since before 1900. If you look way back in the left side of the picture you can barely see a line of trees..that's where the river is supposed to be.

Here you can see that their 'tables' consist of broken car windshields held up by broken pieces of wood. Very practical. Also, this can give you a pretty good idea of what they sell. Mainly the animals, but also some tribal stuff, like these really tall guys with the spears. They also have a lot of other traditional tribal things likes masks.

Here's a situation that I never thought I would be in...in the Sandbox, standing between one of the busiest roads in town and the Nile, speaking in Arabic but jamming to Barry White and Amy Grant (of all people). That's right! Even though these guys don't speak any English, they still have some 'special tapes' just for when the khawajas come shopping! I must say that this did the trick because we hung out at this guys table just so that we could hear some clean English music and we ended up buying stuff from him.

the phone bill

It's hard to describe the amazement and excitement that I initially felt when the phone bill arrived at my door this month. You see, usually how it works is when they cut off your phone service, you go to pay the bill, but you never actually see a bill, you just give them however much they ask for (within reason). Now, apparently, the phone company has decided that they are going to be a little bit more modern and cater to their customers by delivering the bills to your doorstep.

We've had some trouble with the phone company in the past few months. The line is actually not in my name, nor is it in my current roommate's name, but in the name of another girl 'R' who lived with us when it was set up, which means that she is the only person who can go and pay the bill. When R goes to pay they really give her a hard time, asking to see her passport and then saying 'this can't be you, this is a boy's name' and when she says 'no, this is my picture' they say 'this doesn't look anything like you...this isn't you'. Right now, she doesn't live with us, so when we get close to where we think the company might cut off our phone, we have to call her and ask her to go and pay the bill, which I hate doing b/c it's such a hassle to pay bills around here, but we have no choice.

It started on a Saturday night, we got a random phone call from the phone company wanting to know our exact address. We didn't understand why he needed it and we don't even know our exact address. Around here they don't even have an address system...since there's no mail or any other reason to need it. Usually you just give the name of the area of town you're in, maybe the name of the nearest street that has a name, but this guy wanted the exact house number and everything, so we dug through some stuff and found it. The next day some random guy showed up at our front door looking for my friend. R doesn't live with us so she wasn't here and the guy almost didn't even give us our bill since 'he' (R) wasn't here, but I talked him into it. The next day I gave her the bill and she went to pay it. Turns out, they were delivering the bills for June, which we already paid last month when it was due...however, conveniently enough, we had one more day to pay our July bill before they turned off our phone, so she paid us up through July. I'm looking forward to next month when we can get our July bill just in time for the August one to be due!

I understand that the phone company wants to do the customer service thing and actually get your bill to you, but an entire month late....really?!? And who cares who is paying the bill? Seems like they would just be glad to be getting their money no matter who it's coming from.

So that was our phone bill experience this month. Not too exciting but another example of how backwards and illogical just about everything is in my life in the Sandbox!

Henna

I've had some friends here visiting me the past 2 weeks, but they are returning home soon and so we decided to go and do the traditional Sandbox thing and get henna done. It is customary to get it done just before you travel or when you are getting married...really just any time that you want to. For those of you who don't know what henna is, it's actually a hair dye that is extremely poisonous, but they use to stain their skin, sort of like a tattoo, and it wears away after about a month. I only had one foot done, but there are certain things that signify certain occasions. For instance, getting it done from the hands to the shoulders and from the bottom's of the feet to above the knees, plus dipping fingernails and toenails in it signifies that you are a brand new bride. Then after they are married, they keep their nails and the bottoms of their feet covered in it. It's normally just for women, however, men have it done for their own weddings as well, so you automatically know when you see someone who is a newlywed.

Check out the intricate details. You
would think that the lady would need a stencil but she didn'tuse one. She just used a bag, sort of like you would use a ziploc bag and then cut the corner of it to ice a cake. It took her less than 5 minutes to do mine. What's fun is that after she's finished you have to let it dry for 30 minutes without touching anything. So just imagine the 3 of us sprawled out in chairs and on couches in this 'beauty parlor' (if that's what you want to call it) for 30 minutes. One of my friends had it done all the way up both of her arms, so she had to hold them in the air for that long. And this stuff permanently stains anything that it touches, so it's pretty important that you keep it away from everything while it's drying. I'm sure that the ladies had quite a good laugh watching the white girls so uncomfortably and precariously perched! Overall it was a good experience and my friends got to do something totally cultural before they go home. Plus it's a great conversation starter since we're foreigners walking around with a Sandbox tradition painted on us.

Rain Day!!!

Yesterday morning was very interesting, but my story needs a little explanation first.

Usually when it rains here, it happens at night. The earliest that I've actually seen it start raining has been around 10 pm and it's always finished in a fairly short amount of time. (with the exception of the huge storm 3 weeks ago that went all night and left our soccer field underwater) So the weather is pretty predictable...hot all the time except when it rains, which is hardly ever.

So Saturday night it started raining about midnight, which wasn't anything out of the ordinary. But, it was still raining on Sunday morning, (well, not really raining but more like sprinkling) and people were freaking out! My supervisor's kids asked her if she thought they would cancel school (these are American kids!)...one of the girls on my team actually called around to get some opinions on whether she should cancel her language lesson with her tutor...my neighbor's daycare called to tell them that were going to be closed because it was raining and their national language tutor cancelled their lesson. Today, he told them that it was just too hard to be worrying about getting wet and walking around all the puddles, so he just stayed inside and went back to bed. People were driving like it was an ice storm in TX, 5 miles an hour but then almost running each other off the road to avoid even the smallest puddles. So rain in the day time is actually about as rare as snow in TX, I'm guessing. It was a lot of fun to just watch people...they all looked so confused!

What's really paradoxical about this is that it was just 3 weeks ago when we last got a heavy rain. (heavy for here, normal for home) There were puddles and water all over for at least a good week, but no one really thought anything of it then...life just went on as normal. But for some reason, the idea that the rain was actually falling out of the sky while the sun was out was enough to make people crazy.

Oh...and happy Labor Day. We don't actually celebrate that here, but I do fondly remember getting a day off from work for no reason...it was nice!

Special Treats

One of my recent assignments was to compile a list of every kind of grocery item that we have available in this part of the Sandbox and how much it cost. It was actually a really fun and interesting evening, but here are a few of the things that we can sometimes find here.

Ritz Crackers $7.50
Keebler Chocolate Chip Cookies $11.00
Marshmallows (walmart brand) $5.00
Philadelphia Cream Cheese $8.00
1/2 gallon Baskin Robbins ice cream $32.50
small whole frozen chicken $23.00
Cheetos 7oz bag $10.00
Brownie Mix $6.25
Kelloggs corn flakes $7.50
Old El Paso 8 flour tortillas $7.50
Old El Paso cheese dip $10.75
Campbells Cream of Chicken soup $8.00

I have friends who are living in places that have absolutely no western products available and I try not to take for granted that I actually (sometimes) have this stuff. When I came to the Sandbox I was told that we could get just about everything...what they didn't tell me was to bring my life savings!! So I've been learning to make a lot of things from scratch, which it's probably good that I know how to do that anyways, and, sometimes it actually tastes better, that is if I don't mess it up.

These are just a few examples of the things that I took for granted in the states and are now considered extra special treats in the Sandbox....and then some of them, like the ice cream, are just dreams.