The Queen of Hearts Needed Tulle

The kids' school had a Halloween dance the Friday before Halloween.  It was for all students 7th thru 12th grade, so both girls got to attend.

I showed you a picture in an earlier post of Kylie's face with hearts on her cheeks (I've put it below, too).  That was her make-up "practice" day.  There is a girl who lives near us who loves to play with hair and make-up, and she came to "practice" on Kylie.  That's why her eye shadow is two different colors.

The day of the affair, the hair and make-up girl and her sister came over, plus a couple of others.

I have no idea what went on upstairs, but for some reason, it took over FOUR hours to do hair and make-up for the three that were actually attending the party.

Must be a girl thing.

Just not THIS girl.

The one time I did go up there, the room itself looked pretty "made over."

Here's a shoe picture from outside.  I always love these.

It's a simplified picture of the 6 girls that were at the house.



Karis got her outfit together in under an hour.

Kylie had been working on her skirt and collar for the previous two weeks.





Allow me a minute to fill you in on the skirt. 

I bought the elastic in the market and the cards at the store, but Kylie still needed black and red tulle.  I didn't know the word for "tulle" in this language, so we went on a hunt.

We walked to a street that had a lot of fabric stores, hoping we could find tulle somewhere, and then ask, "What is 'this' in your language?"

We found some tulle with beads all over it.  We asked, "What is this called?"

He said, "Chulle."

I smiled. 

Easy enough.

He had no "chulle" without beads and said that no one sold "chulle."

I had seen a bridal store before on our way to the city center (On July 2nd, I showed you a picture of their dirty gown outside their store), and I decided to take a chance there.

It was 7:30pm, and I knew it might be closed, so we hurried.

We had a good chuckle walking down "butcher row" as we observed all the sheep bladders and intestines laid out for some blessed patron.  Eew!

We walked up to the wedding gown store just as a lady was locking the door.  We asked her in broken language if she had any "chulle" for sale.

She kindly unlocked the door and let us in.

Instantly, the smell of sewage slapped us in our face.

It was awful!

And the floor from front to back was covered in water.

Something must have broken, and what an unfortunate pipe it must have been.  Ugh!

All the mannequins had been put on tables.  Dresses had been pinned up off the ground.  But I couldn't help but think how the smell was seeping into the material of each and every dress in the building (including any tulle we wanted to buy).

We told her we would like some red and black tulle.  She said she might have red and white, and we said that was fine. 

At the same time, another lady entered, and they talked about what we wanted.

We stood in the water, trying to breathe through our mouths while we waited for them to come back from their treasure hunt.

They came back with a lovely red prom dress.

One lady held it high so it wouldn't touch the water, and the other lady lifted up the skirt and started cutting off a layer of tulle under the skirt of the dress!!

I protested, but she insisted.

Interesting, to say the least.

Red tulle down.  Now for the white...

Please tell me she wasn't going to cut tulle off a wedding gown!!

She didn't.  She came back with what must have been left-over scraps from veils.  They weren't straight or clean.

We took the "whiter" of the two piles she was offering, and then we discussed the matter of cost.

I asked her how much, and she said, "Whatever you think."

I said around $15 dollars in their currency.  They laughed.

I pulled out the equivalent of $25 and made it seem like that was pretty much all they were going to get, and they took it, albeit reluctantly.

I thought they were kind of upset about the transaction, but nope...

They both pulled out their cell phones and asked if they could take selfies with us. 

Then we waded to the front of the store where there was better light and took some more selfies.

After our mini photo session, we left wondering what had just happened, and at the same time, hurried home to wash the sewage smell not only out of the tulle, but also out of our hair and clothes.

Otherwise, this picture is what other people might have looked like after they got a whiff of us.

The Feeling of Fall

Several children play on our street.

Several children play on EVERY street.

Most days, since the weather has gotten cooler, it sounds like I live next to an amusement park.  There is yelling, whistles blowing, water bottles being thrown, bicycles being ridden, and lots of junk food being consumed.

These kids live on junk food.

A LOT of junk food.

The local schools don't feed students lunch, and they don't have enough room for all of the kids, so half of the kids go from 8am-12pm, and then another half goes from 1pm - 5pm.

They go on Saturday, too.

AND remember, that the teachers are still not getting paid.

Because of the school schedule, it means there are always kids at home.

And when I say "home," I mean "out in the street."  Mommas shoo them out the door constantly.

Fall is a great time for all of this outdoor activity.

Adults are out enjoying the cooler air, too.  Most people (as in, thousands) go to the parks at night, but as I was walking the other day, I saw this lady sitting on her special plot of green grass in the middle of the afternoon.

They spied me, so I had to take the picture while I was walking, so that accounts for the blurry-ness.

Many houses have a "garden" plot out front about this big, and they might have three chairs and a small table set in it so they can sit and enjoy the "outdoors."

It reminds me of New York City where grass is so scarce.

Walking from place to place has been so much nicer, too, with the weather turning cooler.

It's amazing how the weather can really affect my attitude.

Fall also means "football," as you well know.

Caleb has started soccer (which they call "football" here), and the girls have also begun dancing again.  Kylie is even helping to teach a dance class of little 3 and 4-year olds.

Caleb comes home filthy after every practice.  It's assurance for me that he is making lots of contact with the black rubber, which lies under the turf.

 And as a shout-out to our American roots, he dressed up like an American football player for a dress-up party at school.  I thought he looked great, but he took the toilet paper rolls out of his shirt very soon after this picture.

Keira got in the fall spirit with a pumpkin and a set of watercolors.

Kylie got in the fall spirit by...

 

 I'll let you decide.

(But I will fill you in later.  Today is Doug's birthday, so we need to go celebrate him in this Fall season).