What Just Happened (Final Installment)

We ate lunch at 12:40, and shortly after clean up, a neighboring picnic wandered over.  They were apparent friends or maybe family.

The women sat and ate sunflower seeds

The men played a game

And somewhere in there, Doug was offered to shoot his first pistol ???

Bathrooms?  Thanks for asking.  It was a lot like Africa, without the availability of really good hiding bushes.  It took a long-distance walk.

Everyone packed up and left at 3:30.  Why?  You finish the picnic with fruit, and apparently, we needed to eat it in a new location ???

All the girls that had danced, wanted to ride in our van, so we crammed 17 people in there somehow.  The decibel level was crazy.  It reminded me, hands down, of any given youth trip.  They were very disappointed in the radio volume in the van, but they managed to dance and sing somehow anyway.  I wasn't going to video their faces - just the noise - but at the end, I let you see their smiling faces.

On the journey, the girls decided that the radio music did not suffice, and they wanted a CD out of another car.  When we passed that car, one girl leaned out of our window and grabbed a CD from a man in the other car, also leaning out his window.  Footloose, anyone?

This boy thought it was fun, and as you can see, so did his mother.































I couldn't help but take a picture of this on our way to find a new location.

What in the world is this doing here?  No one in Texas wanted them, so they had to ship them overseas?  :)

We stopped in various locations before we found the "perfect" place for fruit-eating.

Stop.  Look around.  Back in the car.  Stop.  Talk outside the cars.  Back in the car.  Stop.  Talk.

Drive 50 yards and get out.

Too cold to eat fruit.

Re-park cars to block wind, but it doesn't really help

I actually will say, it was extremely beautiful, but the wind was very cold and strong.

 Amazing, right?

Remember, I'm not the only one taking pictures...

There were at least three selfie sticks out there.

This was the first part of the food until they realized it was too little, and then they pulled more out of all the vehicles.

And there was more dancing...

And two more pictures to end the day after an hour and a half fruit stop ;)

We got in the car, and glowing, Kylie said, "I loved everything:  the picnic, the dancing, the people, and the food.  That was so much fun!!"

What Just Happened? (Part 2)

There really was hours of dancing.  I only recorded a few seconds here and there, but I hope you enjoyed it in the last post.  I'll add some more today.

After only a couple of hours, the plates and drinks were ready to be set out.





















Then the rice was ready to be served up.

The "river" vegetables were poured onto the plastic to be served up into individual salads for every place setting.

Large plates of every different entree were placed within reach of every person at the picnic.






And every person received salad, soup, naan, and a drink.








And to be sure, dancing was still going on while the "table" was being set.

 The food just kept coming. 

There were fresh veggies, beef, chicken, rice, dolma (minty/dill rice wrapped in grape leaves, onion skins, bell peppers, or potatoes), potato/tomato soup, and salad.  It was a delicious meal!

After it was all over, the table was rolled up and thrown away.

I thought it would be weird taking pictures the whole time, but so many people had camera phones and selfie sticks, that I wasn't out of place at all.  They love to record everything, so I just joined in.

Our dishes (yes, they brought real dishes to the picnic) were washed in the river.

Prayer rugs were also brought and used.

 I joined in the dancing once or twice.  Not only were the simple steps too difficult for me, dodging rocks while you are dancing in a circle, is not as easy as my girls make it look.

And as you can see, one of the girls and two of my kids have changed into more comfortable clothing.  However, the hostess for the day (not pictured here), changed from a blue to a red dress after lunch so she could have a different "look."

Even Doug jumped in a time or two (so did the bat kite).  And Karis is doing the obligatory twirling of the material on the end of the line.

 This was the first group picture we took, but since there were people still working, we took another one later.

 And the dancing continued.

 

There is still a part three, so I hope you'll stick around.

What Just Happened? (This is no April Fool's)

 The day after Nawroz, the picnics continued.

When we visited this country last year, we had the chance to eat in a home of a national named "B."

When our friends were invited to a Nawroz picnic with "B's" family, he invited us along, too.

We were ready to just wear "nice" clothes to the picnic, when one of our neighbors said she had national clothing we could all (except Doug) borrow.

I'll let Keira demonstrate what we wore.

First, the under-clothing.

 

 Next, you put a long, one-piece dress on with a belt and a small vest.  The sleeves hang to the ground, so we tied Keira's in a knot, and then, like all the other people here, we tied her sleeves behind her as well.

 

 And, I'm pretty sure everyone wear's Anna socks from the movie "Frozen."

 And then comes the crown.

In case you were wondering, the "theme" of her outfit is in honor of the soldiers that fight so valiantly for this country.  Everywhere we went, people LOVED her outfit and her.  She got her cheeks pinched a LOT on this day.

 Next, Caleb came downstairs after getting help from a friend who helped him put all the pieces together.

Here we all are.

 Usually picnics last all day, into the night, but we had to be back to the city by 6; therefore, we had to time ourselves going out so we would know when we would have to leave.

We had no idea where we were going.

We had a few nationals in the car with us, so we learned some language on the way out when they weren't singing and dancing.

Doug was in charge of the radio, and through an interpreter they told him, "Keep changing radio stations until you see our shoulders moving."

The view out my window kept changing.

Fifteen minutes outside of the city, I saw new apartments under construction.

After 30 minutes, pastures of green.

Everywhere we looked long the way, we could see other picnics taking place in the hillside.

After 55 minutes, we saw a village.

More picnics.

After an hour and 15 minutes, we pulled onto a dirt road, and drove along this river.  After 5 minutes we stopped.  Everyone said we were "here."

 We got out.  "B" fixed Caleb's waist tie, and then everyone decided we needed to keep driving.

Everyone got back in the cars (there were about 6 cars in our caravan with about 35 people).

 We finally stopped at 10:40, and everyone started doing "what they do."

 Which included setting up the cooking, eating, and visiting area.

 Feeding babies.

Braiding flowers to wear in the hair.



Taking a walk.
 
 

Fixing a flat tire.

 
Getting a fire started.

 
Lounging.

 
Washing vegetables in the river...The same river in which I saw them throw a dirty diaper.  Upriver, of course ;)

  
Cutting potatoes.

 

Cutting the vegetables washed in the river.

And dancing.  Always dancing.

 

 (You can see their sleeves tied in the back on these videos.)

Video 1 - just the beginning

Video 2 - I repeat.  This is just the beginning. 

 The picnic is just getting started, but I think I've given you enough to chew on today :)