Sad and HAPPY...Birthday Time!!

The day after Kylie took her graduation photos, our landlord told Doug that we needed to move.  

He wanted to sell the house so that he could have money for his son who was getting married.  Selling the house would help them pay the bride price and get the new couple started in life.

Doug tried to convince him it would be hard to sell, and that if we kept paying rent, at least he would have some income.  No go.

On a side note, I'm writing this blog on April 7, 2021, and he STILL hasn't sold the house.  I was just over there last week!

The news about moving was also the same time that our language helper's mother died, so we went to her funeral. Death is an especially sad thing here for me. 

But a happy thing is celebrating one of our children's birthdays, and at the end of that sad week, we got to celebrate Karis turning 16!

She woke up to art that Kylie and I had made her for her room.  Knowing that after Kylie left for college, Karis would have her own room for the first time in her life, we wanted her to have pictures for her walls of things that she loved.

Kylie also designed a special piece for Karis, printed it, and had it framed.

Since Karis is lactose intolerant, the best cookie cake for her was a tahin cookie.

Tahin is made from ground up sesame seeds, and for some reason, it tastes better over here than the jars you can buy in the grocery store in America.  Kylie and Karis have perfected tahin cookies over the last couple of years, and this just happened to be a giant one.

Karis is a lot of fun to be around.  She keeps people laughing and has a great sense of humor.

She is so smart and works hard at everything she does. She is dedicated, independent, a very loyal friend.

As I write this, she only has one more year at home, so I'm trying to take advantage of the time I have left.

Happy birthday, Karis!

The DAY AFTER these pictures were taken, we had to go into a 72 mandatory lockdown.

It was the end of Ramadan, and numbers were rising. 

We had a graduation party planned for Kylie that was supposed to take place in 6 days, so we held our breath!

Getting Help from Friends

I can't find evidence that I've ever written about these pictures either.  They're from last year, but they've been sitting in my list of posts saying "draft" for a long time, so I'll assume I never posted it.

Growing up, when someone in my town passed away, all the stores would receive a piece of paper with the information on the viewing and service of the individual.  That way, no matter where you went in town, and even if you didn't read the small town paper that came out once a week, you would still get information on the deceased in a timely manner.

In this country, a piece of black cloth is tacked to the wall in the neighborhood of the deceased.  It includes their name and some other stuff, but your guess as to what the "other stuff" is is as good as mine.

I do well to read this language when it's printed in a book, but if it's handwritten, I feel like a teacher all over again trying to decipher my students' handwriting.

And even if I could read it, I might not know all of the vocabulary.

I've shown you a funeral tent from somewhere else in town before, but this was one was on my street last year.  It blocks the entire road and stays up for three days.

My neighbor who used to live by me asked if I'd like to go with her to the funeral tent.  She let me borrow a black head scarf, and off we went.  We sat down, made some small talk with those around us and head nods to other people around the tent, and then after about 10-15 minutes, we told the family "bye," and left.  

I haven't learned all the funeral protocol yet, but sadly, there are enough around, that I'm sure I'll learn enough before I wish too.

After we walked back, my neighbor invited me in her house to help make dolma, but first I went across the street and got Keira to come back with me.

Little kids were playing in a swimming pool on my neighbor's front porch, and I knew she would like that.

I took this picture from inside the kitchen, looking out at Keira who was decided how wet she wanted to get while being fully dressed.

I've shown you dolma before, but here is a new picture.  As a reminder, it's a tomato/rice/spice mixture stuffed into different vegetables that have been hollowed out.  

Here, they are using zucchini and eggplant as bottoms and tops.

It's quite a process, and you can see how much rice they still have left in this picture.  

They are making a pot of white dolma (pink bowl) and red dolma (blue bowl).

Keira decided getting wet fully dressed was worth it.

But then my little miser brain had a problem when they decided to pour the water out after only an hour or so of swimming.  

At this point in the summer, our city was only sending water to the houses occasionally.  I remember having trouble getting all of our clothes washed, and sometimes, we all couldn't take showers on the same day.

And now, I see all this water just going out the gate into the street.  

Ouch!

Well, at least the gutters got clean ;)

Of course, after a couple of hours, I forgot about the water when the delicious dolma was served.  

Everyone here just uses their fingers or a spoon to scoop out of the dishes, and sometimes they don't even use individual plates or bowls and eat right out of the dishes.

I am so grateful for these neighbors and all they taught me.

Even though they have moved away, they often come back to see some family that is still here, and it's nice to catch up.  

I really need to plan a trip out to their new home because I still have some of their dishes from the last time they brought me food.

Talk about your bad neighbors....me :)

Things I see (Vol 4)

Welcome to "Things I See."  If you want to see the previous installments, you can click here:

 Volume 1 , Volume 2, Volume 3

This first picture is what a funeral generally looks like.  

One or two large squares of black cloth will be painted with information about the deceased and hung up in the neighborhood.  

Generally, the women are the ones who sit in the tents, and many times, there are no chairs.  Family of the deceased brings out water and food at different times of the day for all the visitors who come to sit and pray.

Men, generally go to the mosque.

I've only ever walked into a tent once with my neighbor, so I only have one experience to draw from. I've also never actually seen a coffin or a burial, so my information for you is limited.

When a tent like this is in your neighborhood, parking and driving become almost impossible.  Many people come, and the tent generally takes up the entire road, so there is no passage way through.  This one was set up near the kids' school on a rather large road, so I was able to pass by on the left.

This person is driving a "CHOEVRLET."

I know real "CHEVROLET's" exist because I've seen them.

For my Texas friends, I thought this was pretty funny.

Here I am all the way across the world, and inside a plexiglass box filled with stuffed animals is a penguin from "Schlitterbahn."

This is a meal we have sometimes with large groups of people.  It's kebab served with grilled tomatoes, sumac-covered onions, hot peppers, and cucumbers.  It's quite tasty rolled up in some tortilla-like bread.  We all like this.

It gets cold around here in the winter.  One morning before school, I found two of my children snuggling up to the gas heater in a most interesting way.

In addition to the chickens, turkeys, and pigeons in the neighborhood (not to mention, my landlord has a bird collection that numbers in the 100's), there are also some neighborly baby ducks as well.

I'm living in the Twilight Poultry Zone.

The government provides flour and oil for its people.  There are distribution "centers" in each neighborhood.  

This one is across the street from me.  A man sits in here with his checklist of people in the neighborhood and they come in and out collecting their flour and oil.

You can sort of make out the bags of flour in the low-lying sunlight.