Having "tea" without tea.

My neighbor invited a friend of mine and me to her sister-in-law's house for "tea."  The lady's son had recently gotten married, and she wanted us to watch the wedding video.  My kids and I missed the wedding, but Doug and my friend (with her family) had attended.

This is the third wedding video that I have watched since I've arrived in country.  I think they like re-living the beauty of the reception, the dancing, and the pretty dresses.

Who doesn't, right?

In reality, the wedding is small and takes place in the home or somewhere small in front of a religious official.  In this couple's case, it happened a year ago, but my understanding is that that "wedding" only meant that they could be seen in public together.  The reception that they plan is the place they invite family and friends, the bride wears white, there is dancing and cake, and when they leave they can consummate their marriage.

Of course, when I understand language more, I can ask more questions, but that's the best explanation I can do for you right now.

This was the bride and groom, being treated like royalty at the reception, seated on thrones, waiting to take pictures with everyone who came, while cake (with one fork) was being passed around.

This is the bride and groom on TV at the groom's mother's house.  The bride is sitting in the chair in the flower dress.  It was kind of weird because the "tea party" was very chatty except for the new bride.  She didn't speak and no one spoke to her (except for me...I asked her name).



They brought out this wonderful food.  A cake made with cookies and chocolate pudding on the left and pastries deep fried with either cheese or meat inside on the right.

On my plate, they added their special date cookie that almost all people make here, plus two other types of cookies.

It was WAY too hot for tea, so ice cold Cokes were an awesome substitute!

Food disappeared pretty quickly, but they kept adding food to my plate. 

I had to sneak it back when they weren't looking.

We made quite a mess.

After more visiting and more video, they brought out the fruit.

They served me and my friend so much (and first) that there was hardly any left on the tray for all the other ladies and kids.  Americans will NEVER be able to out-do this people's hospitality.  They win no matter which way you slice it (no pun intended).

Thankfully, again, I was able to return some to the fruit tray without being noticed.

After staying about three hours, our driver (my neighbor's husband who had been visiting more of his family in the house next door) announced it was time to go.

This is a bad picture, but I was trying to give you an idea about the driving situations here most of the time.

Riding in cars here reminds me of Africa a little (except in Africa it's generally on a motorcycle or in the back of a truck).  We were in a double cab Toyota truck with two kids in the back end and 8 people up front (one was an infant being held in her mother's arms - no car seats here).  You can tell that my neighbor is basically on half of my lap. 

It makes for an interesting ride when everyone is talking a once, music is blaring, and they start bouncing up and down to the beat.

I imagine that this whole adventure must be very similar to having tea with the Queen.
NOT!

(but more fun, though)

Behind the wall

Doug bought some pallets in July, and he's been busy crafting some needed furniture items for us.

I love this piece, and Doug found baskets to go on the bottom shelf that fit perfectly.  They hold our games and movies and keep things looking nice.

Didn't he do a great job?!

With all the hammering and sawing going on every evening on our porch, the men at the chicken dukan were very interested in what was going on behind the wall. 

They asked to peek in a couple of times, but when it was finally finished and inside, they moved quickly to come in our living room and see the finished project.  I'm guessing they don't get many opportunities for working with wood.

Granted, they have TV stands and shelves here, but they are pretty expensive considering they are made from particle board.

I've been collecting some books for the kids to read and I had our visitors bring some more from the States, so I am really excited about this shelf getting finished, too.

Something I saw on the other side of the wall was this neighborhood delivery of flour.  I think I mentioned before how families can pick up rations of flour and rice from the government.  I recently heard they were given many more food items before the country's government was overthrown.

It's crazy to think that they got better treatment, in some ways, when a dictator was in charge.

The world is a funny place.

As promised

You know how I always forget to take pictures when we go to all the "office" stores on the street we call "Stationary Street."

Well, I forgot again.

But we had visitors that came for a week, and when we got to the stores, my friend pulled out her camera, and I said, "Thank you for reminding me!"

She said, "Reminding you of what?"

I said, "I get in a fog when I come to these stores, and every time I have forgotten to take pictures, so thanks for reminding me."

There's just something about office supplies stacked floor to ceiling that keeps me from thinking straight.

For example, every time I walk in, I'm almost 100% sure that I don't have any notebooks and I didn't buy one the last time, so I always end up buying a new one.

You can never have too many notebooks, right?

So, there you go. This was the first store we went in and the only one I remembered to take pictures in.

THEN, we went to a book store we had heard about!  We were so excited!

They had a wide array of classics in ENGLISH.

We'll definitely return!

This young man was walking door to door, selling tea to store owners.  I just thought it was an interesting concept...

We walked on to the center of the city right before sundown.

This is the original city.  It was built on a hill with high walls.

In the last 90 years, the city has spread out in a circle around the mountain/city-center, and now there are over 2 million people here.

This is the busy bazaar around the city center on ground-level.

We decided to walk in and have some ice cream.


Then we walked with our ice cream to the fountains (which were not turned on), and we just watched people and visited.

However, it was a hot night, so we didn't stick around long

So, there you go.

As promised.

A picture of Stationary Street, plus a little extra.

I'm blaming it on the heat

What happened!!?

How has it been since August 4th since I posted!!?

Well, let's blame it on the heat, and move on.  Shall we?

The high temperatures have only gotten up to 100 lately, and it makes SUCH a difference.  The 115-120 degrees were pretty unbearable.  We moved as little as possible, and we only went out in the morning and evening, if we could help it.

As you can imagine, in the over-a-month that I haven't written, I've taken a few pictures and had a few thoughts, so I'll slowly try to recount them for you.

However, I will say that today is probably not the best day for you to hear from me, because I've had an exhausting morning, and I'm not sure I'm thinking clearly.

Today is Eid al-Adha, and just like the last celebration that we had after Ramadan/Ramazan, we went out visiting today in our traditional clothing.  We stayed at one particular house four hours because they graciously invited us to lunch.  After stumbling through the language for four hours, my brain is pretty much toast.

I'll write about our experiences later, but lift up these people today as they remember Abraham’s almost sacrifice of Ishmael from their book.  I read somewhere that over 100 million animals will be slaughtered today and tomorrow.  Cows, sheep, goat, rams, even camels.

Eid Al Adha is one of the holiest celebrations on the Islamic calendar. The holiday known as the Feast of Sacrifice represents the end of Hajj, an annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia that lasts three to four days. The Koran recommends all Muslims make the journey at least once in their lifetime.

This is the largest mosque in our city.  People travel here on tour buses all the time to see it.  Doug is going to tour it next week, so I'm excited for him to bring home pictures of the inside.

I think I'll go rest my eyes now.

Arts in the Middle East

Since my girls can't go out in the street and play like boys can, I've encouraged them to try some new things.  They have been pretty creative.

Above, you can see that Kylie taped a trash bag to the floor of her room and created a painting center for herself.

After seeing someone else personalize some canvases for other people, both of my girls decided to give it a try.

Kylie had mixed the paint to make a light brown and written a person's name in the local language on the canvas.  Since it looked like it needed something else, her dad helped by creating a stencil for her.  It was a short stencil so she would paint a section and then wait a while for it to dry before painting the next section.  I think they turned out great (even though I forgot to get pictures of the final, final products).

She also painted some canvases to look like our country's flag, and then she painted individual names across the middle.

Karis painted some ballerinas and scriptures on canvases, and they turned out beautifully, too.

Reading, painting, coloring, journaling, and "Just Dance" aren't always the best replacements for getting to play outside, but my girls are handling their new life with grace, even if it isn't always fun.

They do, however, get to dance at a studio a couple of times a week, and their teacher wanted to let them have a mini-performance for us since they didn't get to participate in the Spring recital.

It was very thoughtful of her.

The teacher held a mock-practice/performance for us for about one hour while she explained what they were doing at the barre and in center.

It was good for me, because I don't know much about ballet.

The lady in the middle is from Japan, and she is also in their class.  The other 6 people from their class had already left for the summer.

After the practice part, all the dancers left and put on pink tutus and came back to perform a dance en pointe for us.

And look who danced in front of my chair the whole time, imitating her sisters.

Ta-da!

Final Photo Session of the Season

We visited one more house before noon.  After that, neighborhood families ate together, and then spent the rest of the day visiting family or...graveyards.

I was told that for a couple of days at the end of Ramazan, some nationals visit cemeteries.  I didn't get the full story, but I'm assuming it's to pray for relatives.

By the way, I know I have been saying "Ramazan" instead of "Ramadan," but they are they same thing.  "Ramazan" is just how our people say it in their language.

This last house had a LOT of relatives.  In fact, the lady who lives here wasn't even here at the time.  These were all of her daughters, nieces, and granddaughters.

And they were a photo-taking group!

This is just a small example of the amount of photo-taking that went on.

When we were all good and hot and seated in the sun/shade, the hostesses started really feeling bad because we were sweating so much.

The men were in an outside room with a swamp cooler.

One brave lady leaned in the men's room and asked if the guests (we ladies) could come in.

The men said, "Yes."

I went to the back of the room where Doug and Caleb were seated, but I only stayed about 2 minutes.  I realized quickly that I needed to sit at the front of the room, near the door, with the rest of the ladies.

Besides the Americans, four or 5 of the national ladies joined us in the room as well.

It was a fun, lively time, and we had quite the conversation about how much things cost us.

They were horrified when they found out how much we spent on "this" or "that," specifically the amount we paid to the tailors for the outfits we were wearing.  I think it's hard for them to understand that we Americans don't get the same rates or prices for things that they do.

It's very common to talk about money matters publicly, and I've repeatedly been told I pay too much rent.

First of all, rent is way lower than I would be paying in America, and secondly, it would have been very difficult to bargain a rent price the first week in the country when we knew no language.

Anyway, they started getting food ready for their family, and we knew it was time to leave.

Our two American families went our separate ways to eat lunch at our own houses.

It was such a full and rewarding day.  What a blessing to be invited into so many homes and meet so many people.  And even though it was the only day we got to celebrate the end of Ramazan, because the other two days they spend with family, it was well worth it.

Caleb went home with pockets of chocolates.

Most everyone had eaten so many snacks throughout the day that they weren't hungry, and I didn't have to cook lunch.

And after a long Ramazan season, many late nights in the bazaar, good conversations with neighbors, and our final hoorah, I took a much-needed nap.

Bye, Baby Bunting

House number 6 also had a well-respected family.  In fact, the lady of the house told us she had lived there for 35 years.  That's a long time to hold a "respected" reputation.

The men and women were separated outside and ushered into two different rooms.

Chocolates came around.  Then came sodas and juice.

I don't know how some people keep up this pace.

I don't think I had anything after the first house.

Of course, the first house had homemade baklava, so I pretty much ended on a good note.

Keira went off to play with two little girls who were playing dolls.

There was also a sweet little 1 year old sitting in her mom's lap with her two hands completely bandaged.  The day before, she had laid both of her palms, face down, on a hot kitchen burner.  Ouch!

But she was sitting quietly.  No whining.  No moaning.

Another lady entered with a young baby.  She also carried our equivalent of a pack 'n' play with her.

I've shown you this pictures from the bazaar of baby beds, but I had never seen one in action.  I certainly didn't think they traveled around with them. 

At first, when I saw the beds, I thought they might be just baby beds for dolls.

Then, I thought if they were for real babies, could they be safe??

Then, I saw this...I wanted to show you all the parts they add to the bed.  The grandmother is holding the baby in her arms in the front left of the photo, but the bed, as you can see, has a series of ties and strips that they use to cleverly secure the baby.

I felt odd taking a picture of it "in action," but when I see a baby of a mother I know better, I'll be sure to snap a photo (if I have my phone).

This is usually how I have seen babies travel, especially in cars.

There are handles attached to the side for easy carrying (and much lighter than a car carrier).


This reminds me of another story I forgot to tell you.

I was at the vegetable stand one morning, about to weigh my goods, when a car pulled up right in front, close to the curb, and a man hopped out with a basket like this.

BUT, imagine the above picture with TWO babies in the carrier, laid like a yin & yang.

One with his head at the top, and one with his head at the bottom.

Twins.

He laid the basket on top of the veggie scale without asking the owners, and yelled back to the car the weight he saw on the digital reader.

Then, he laid the basket on the ground, took out one of his treasures and put it wrapped up like a burrito onto the cold, metal scale.

He yelled the weight back to the car of baby #1.  Then, he took out his second treasure and did the same thing.

Everyone laughed and smiled because one was so much smaller.

Then the proud dad grabbed his basket, slid in the passenger seat, put the basket on his lap, and the driver took off.

I was DYING that I didn't have my phone!

That will teach me to think that I'm going to have a normal experience when I go outside of my gate.

I had never seen a baby weighed on a flat, metal vegetable scale before; however, do you remember this proud dad?

Uganda had it's own unique way of weighing babies.

You can see it didn't affect her too badly...

She's just fine.

Sort of :)

Do You Suffer from Separation Anxiety?

The next two houses were pretty close to each other.  I pass by them daily, but I didn't know who lived there.

I was told that the men in these houses were VERY well-respected in our neighborhood.

These were good introductions for Doug.

However, I never saw what they looked like.

When we arrived at each one, this is what happened.

Women to the left.

Men to the right.

[Sorry for the awkward photos.  I normally always have you on my mind when I'm out and about because I'm always writing a story for you in my head.  The hard part is that I always want pictures to go with the story, and sometimes that is not possible. 

This one was snapped quickly as I stayed behind, trying to be the last one to take off my shoes.]

We walked into a small sitting room in which 15 women were already sitting. 

They all stood, and YES, I kissed each one in greeting several times.

When we finally sat down, we were offered chocolates and sodas.

Conversation started slowly because I didn't know any of them, and my friend Jennifer* had only met a few.

We ended up visiting with 3 or 4 ladies around us, until we started asking how everyone was related, and then it brought everyone into the conversation.

I really need to work on my language words for family members.  It's very confusing to me.

The ladies at this house were much more subdued, but it could also be because we didn't know them well.  The matriarch had 5 of her daughters in the room (all grown), plus nieces and grandchildren, and it was relatively quiet.

At one of the houses when we were told the men were ready to leave, we said we weren't ready, but I don't think it was this house.

Doug, however, said they had some interesting spiritual conversations at this house and the next. 

It's always good when you can hear personal stories about what they believe instead of getting information solely from a book.

Two more houses left...how sad, right?  The day of visiting is almost over :(

This is Not My Favorite Outfit

Onward to house number 4.

We walked to the house next to the chicken dukan, next to our house.  It's where the brother of our landlord lives with his wife and three kids, plus our landlord's sister, and the two boys she has taken in.  The two ladies that live there were the ones that came to greet me at my house at 7:30am (and three blog posts ago).   Our landlord was over there this morning, too, visiting, but his wife and son were not with him.

I really like this family.

They only had a few visitors when we arrived.

But, as you can see, even our shoes help fill up a courtyard :)

We were offered chocolates, sunflower seeds, and orange juice.

(I'm related to a few kids whose pockets were getting pretty full of chocolate.)  I was not in the least bit jealous of them.  Chocolate in your pocket when the temps are climbing over 100 degrees, is not my idea of a "treat."

We had a good visit, did a lot of laughing with the ladies and took pictures. Our four American tween/teenage girls were on the opposite wall, but they got in a few of the pictures too.

I did; however, get this picture, and it offers some detail about the culture.

Men and boys sit on couches, if there are any present.  If there is room, and the women happen to be included in the same room, like House number 3, women are invited to sit on the couch.

However, most of the time, women sit on the floor.


In fact, I have nice callouses on my ankles because of it. 


I think I've told you about this outfit I'm wearing, right?

The sleeves are long and drag the ground; therefore, as part of the style, they are tied behind the back in a low knot.

What this means is that every time I try to get up, my backside gets caught in my sleeves.  I have to re-situate myself, and then I end up stepping on the long dress and pulling it down in the front.  So then I have to re-situate my layers again.

Whenever new people come in the room, we all have to get up.  If it's a woman entering, I have to greet her with a kiss (and play the kiss-guessing game I referred to in my last post), and if it's a man, I just stand until he's seated.

I'm trying to think now (because I can't remember), if the men stand up if it's only a woman entering.

I'm not sure, but I doubt it.

Either way, I got up and down multiple times in most of the houses on this particular day, and I know for a fact...This is NOT my Favorite Outfit!

even though she's pretty stinkin' cute in it...