a change is coming...

So we have big news! Anyone care to venture a guess? :) For those of you who get our newsletter, we'll elaborate in the new one, which should be emailed out on Monday...

guess who's coming to dinner

Last week, my landlord's wife and I made plans that their family would come to our house for dinner. That day arrived yesterday, and husband and I were very anxious. The people in our area tend to be quite ethnocentric about their food. The most adventurous food the average South Asian eats is food from the other side of the country. Sometimes they enjoy Chinese food, but since China is a neighboring country, that's like an American calling Mexican food "exotic". Now, their food is very tasty, so I don't blame them, but it is humorous to watch their faces grow tense when we ask them over to dinner. We've been here over a year now, and although people show up at all times of the day except meal time, this is the first family to agree to come to our house for dinner. We have seen many times firsthand how word gets around about us white folks. For example, I've met people on the road who already know my husband's name, know where I live, and know how much I pay for rent. Husband and I realized if this dinner was a failure, everyone in town would know it, and we could forget having any future guests over. This is why we were a bit nervous.

Since my landlord's wife is strictly vegetarian, meaning she doesn't eat meat nor eggs, we decided to make vegetable fajitas, rice, refried beans, and ranch potatoes. In the middle of making the tortilla dough, I asked husband if he could call and make sure they remembered they were coming for dinner. I'm glad he called, because the wife had apparently never told our landlord, and they probably wouldn't have shown up! The wife was probably hoping I would forget I ever invited them over. Luckily they did arrive, albeit very apprehensive. We told them this was our own homestate's variation on Mexican food, and we taught them how to roll the food up in the tortillas. Surprise was etched on all of their faces at how much they liked the food. They exclaimed over and over again how delicious it was, and even my landlord's wife, who speaks little English, told me it was "very tasty." I think part of why they liked it so much was because their expectations had been so low that Chini's mutton and oatmeal would've tasted good.

We forgot to take any pictures of our time with them, but since last night was a success, I'm hoping we'll have more opportunities. Do you think they're ready for fried okra yet??

new friends

I have begun to understand why so many people in Seattle commit suicide from the rain. It really is depressing, and I was getting pretty homesick for awhile there. But this past week, some great things have been happening, starting with that bright light in the sky. I think it's the sun, but since I've forgotten what it looks like, I'll just have to assume. It's been there for about 5 days in a row now, and wow, what a difference.

Also, ever since Priya got married and moved away, I've been a bit lonely, thinking I had no friends in town. But I went over to hang out with my landlord's wife a week ago, and the next day she sent husband and me some delicious lunch. I was so happy to be reminded that the boss still cares for me that I took a picture. Seriously, food here is not photogenic in any way, but it sure tastes good. Our landlord and his family are coming over tomorrow night for dinner, and we are cooking them a mexican fiesta! I hope we can start to build a relationship with them, especially since in the winter, they will be moving below us.

Then, we met Kristof and Katarina, a new couple who have come here for the same reason as us. They are from Slovakia and are close to our age, and we have a lot in common. Kristof is even just as much into Macs as husband, and Katarina and I share a love/hate relationship towards the computer. (mine stems from that I love our Mac but hate to tell husband that he was right :) Katarina and I spent all day drinking coffee and shopping for things for their new flat, and Kristof and husband spent all day getting their internet set up. We are hoping to partner with them in our work, and it'll be great to have a female to work with.

take a bite out of monkeys

You may have noticed that we haven't had many posts about monkeys in a long time. The main reason for this is Chini, our super monkey crime fighting dog. Here is our Super Dog by day, relaxing before her moments of monkey madness. But don't let her peaceful facade fool you. She has learned early on the dangers of the primate, and thinks constantly of how she can fight them off. In what must be one of the many differences between Chini and dogs raised in the States, all we have to say is, "Go get 'em, Chini!" and she darts up to the roof barking and growling, ready to fight off not cats, not strangers, but monkeys.

Today for some reason, the gray monkeys have been going nuts on our roof, and I had the chance to catch Chini in action. Here are some pics of her in between her manic running from one side of the roof to the next.

And here are a few pics of Chini training for her role as Super Dog...

if at first you don't succeed...

Today was my first ballet class, but I don't know if you can call it a class since no one showed up. I didn't take it as a good sign when I arrived and not only was the director not there, but the room where the classes were supposed to be in had two big ping pong tables in it. Technically, someone did show up - a Russian girl staying at the Y sat in the room, and chatting with her helped me pass the 30 minutes I waited to see if I would have any students. There's still hope though. A few headmasters have expressed interest in me possibly teaching ballet at their schools, so as soon as I can get in for an interview, I'm going to try again.

Something funny did happen from the experience at the Y though. I had to change back out of my dance clothes, and a worker there pointed me towards a bathroom. Apparently he pointed me to the men's room, because after changing in the shower area, I looked for a bathroom to use, and a guy was in a stall, using the urinal with the door open! I could have walked out unnoticed, but I couldn't help blurting out, "Oh my gosh!" and he laughed, and I said sorry and giggled on my way out. Fun times at the Y.

silly American

I'm a sucker for anything remotely American, especially patriotic songs. In 2004, our home office had the Imperials come for 4th of July, and when they sang Lee Greenwood's biggest hit, I cried the whole way through it. At our last baseball game before leaving the country, I cried during the national anthem. Actually, there's usually a 50% chance I'll cry during any rendition of The Star-Spangled Banner, leaving the country or not. And when an American Olympiad wins a gold medal, that percentage jumps to about 90%. I'm an emotional cheesefest when it comes to America.

So I shouldn't have been surprised at my actions in the Dubai airport, but oh, I was. Before leaving South Asia, we had changed our local currency into US$. During our layover in Dubai on our way to Tanzania, I saw that they had a Starbucks. (that word is always followed by a choir of angels in my head) Not having a single Starbucks in our country, I of course had to get some, and realized to my dismay that we only had dollars, not dirhams. "No problem, we take US$," the cashier told me. I laid the $20 on the counter (they've changed since we've been gone!), and something came over me. I hadn't even looked at American money in a year, not to mention bought anything with it. So as I looked at Andrew Jackson, my eyes filled up with tears. I am not exaggerating, I started crying over a stinking piece of currency!

I think I've taken patriotism to a new level.

the ironies of monsoon

We have no water in our house pipes. Never mind that it rained for 3 days straight after we got back from vacation. Somehow, our house has the only drought in all of South Asia. The city hasn't pumped water in our tank for 3 days, with no explanation. I was only able to do 2 loads of laundry (and that's coming-back-from-vacation laundry) before we ran out.

So today, of all days, was the first day since probably mid-July that we've had a sunny day. I immediately thought, Finally! My clothes can dry on the line and not next to a heater. But of course, on our one day of sun, we have no water to wash clothes with. Ah, the irony.

the vacation of a lifetime

We're back! It was the trip of a lifetime, and I think we'll never have such a cool vacation again. I mean, Tanzania and Dubai! So here are some of our highlights, with pics, and of course words, because I'm a Babbling Brook (Dr. Chapman, anyone?:).

TANZANIA
We arrived in Dar es Salaam on the east coast of Africa, ready to see our friends and explore! The very next day, they whisked us off to a secluded beach to join the retreat of some of their (and our) coworkers. It was kind of hard to swim with all the rocks, but who cared with such a beautiful view?

Safari The next day, we drove 4 hours to Mikumi National Park for a safari! We stayed in these awesome mud-type huts, and rode around late afternoon to check out the wild animals. We saw zebras, hippos, impalas, baboons, a warthog, buffalo, a baby croc, and my favorite, the giraffes! The place we stayed included a delicious dinner (consisting of course of beef!) and after dinner, we played Hand and Foot until the electricity went out. But what was so cool was there was a feeding pond within viewing distance of the cafe where we played cards, and we could hear some animal dying, and then a lion roared! So even though we saw no lions, we did get to hear them! The next morning, before dawn, we went out on a prebreakfast safari, and saw animals as the sun rose over the plains.
Zanzibar After the safari, we went to Zanzibar, an island off the coast of Tanzania. We shopped in Stonetown, a really cool old town in Zanzibar. The streets were narrow, the alleys were full of shops selling all sorts of things, and the buildings were white with red-painted tin roofs. It was scenic to say the least. That night, they took us to a place to eat, which I'm not calling it a restaurant, because as Brad and Alison said, that would be using the term a bit loosely. In actuality, it was tables and tables of fishermen selling their days' wares. The swordfish, red snapper, baracuda, octopus, squid, lobster, and more, were precooked and on kebabs, and you just walked up to a table, told them what you wanted, and they grilled it for a few minutes. They placed the fish on paper plates and then we sat on a rickety table on the shore a few meters away. Definitely one of the coolest eating experiences of my life! Not to mention the most tasty fish I've ever had. The next day we went to the most beautiful beach I've ever seen. I've been to Hawaii, which is stunning, but overcrowded. Zanzibar is secluded, and just as beautiful. We also got to fly back to Dar es Salaam in a little 12 seater plane!
Dar es Salaam They also took us shopping! There are such cool markets in Africa, where you can find wood carvings, tinga tinga paintings, and more modern things as well. There are many more restaurants to choose from in Dar as well. I loved this city and country, because it had some modern conveniences but seemed untouched by the technicologically booming world around it. With the exception of their fancy cell phones, of course! The people were always smiling and the women still walked around with buckets and baskets on their heads. What a cool place!

DUBAI
Dubai is a booming city in the desert of the United Arab Emirates. Not that we've ever been to Vegas, but it reminded us of that desert city. There are 1.1 million people living in Dubai, and 80% of them are expats looking for a tax free, crime free modern city to live in. Not to mention that these people must be all millionaires, because that city is the richest I've ever been to, and everything costs an arm and a leg. Just check out all the Armani and Gucci and other haute couture shops in the malls! And speaking of the malls, they all seemed to have a theme. One we went to was done in different countries of the world, and done lavishly at that. Another one has a snow-skiing place inside of it, and if they didn't have an official theme, they still had an unofficial theme of We All Have Money. It was insane. We also got to swim in the Persian Gulf, eat a Middle Eastern feast, check out the gold souk, and the best part, go on a Desert Safari.
Desert Safari I was highly nervous of the desert safari, namely because of the dune bashing. The rest of it I was extremely excited about, but unfortunately, I had to endure the dune bashing first. What exactly is dune bashing? you may be thinking. Well I'll tell you. Husband and I picked up at our hotel in a Land Cruiser, complete with rollover bars, which he thought would reassure me, but all I could think of was, so there is a reason to have these? We drove about an hour out of Dubai to the desert, and they deflated our tires before we drove off the road into the dunes. There was a caravan of Land Cruisers, full of crazy people like ourselves, ready to subject themselves to this rollercoaster on sand. We flew over dunes, and slid down them at crazy speeds, bumping all the way. More than once found me yelling, "Omigoshomigoshomigosh" and "We're sideways! We're sideways!", and everytime we stopped to take a pic of the otherwise serene desert, I hoped we were done.
After the dune bashing, they drove us to a bedouin camp where we rode camels, went sand surfing, ate a bbq, and I got henna done. After the bbq, a belly dancer came out, and at one point, pulled husband up on the Persian-carpeted stage, and made him belly dance with her too! I was sad when it was time to leave.

ballet, anniversaries, and travel

A very quick post with a few things:

1. The ballet class has been approved! I'm so excited. However, the director warned me that the class may be very small since not many people here even know what ballet is, so I'm sending money that the right girls that the boss has prepared will come to class, and it will still be fun, even if it's small.

2. As of today, we've been in country for exactly one year! Wow, time has flown! And, we're celebrating by...leaving the country. It's time for a vacation! Although we live a life that to some may seem like it's vacation already, we still need a physical and mental break. We're flying out to Africa to go visit our good friends and coworkers tomorrow. That leads me to the third point...

3. Please send money for our safety. This isn't the best week to be flying, but we know all of life is in the boss's hands, and how could I get through life without that fact? Please ask that he'll keep us safe through our travels for the next 2 weeks.

See you (with pics!) in 2 weeks.

love and the unloveables

South Asia, like most of Asia, has a 'shame' culture. Just as powerful as a jail sentence for a crime is for the person to also be shamed in public for his felony. So, it appears also when someone does something stupid, it is not ignored, but pointed out. Case in point: About a week ago, I was walking up one of our many narrow streets. There were two teenage girls walking near me, and an army truck (huh?) coming up the road. Now in South Asia, the pedestrian does not have the rightaway, no matter how much they claim to value life here. This truck was taking up almost the whole road, and these two girls weren't exactly paying attention. Though I'm still not sure how they managed to drown out its incessant honking. The driver, as he passed one of the girls, yelled at her to move. Of course he was going too fast for his yells to make a difference, and one of the many tires on this monster ended up scraping her arm, giving her a nasty road rash, bruise, and possible strain. I immediately went over to the girls to see if they needed help as dozens of people stared at this girl. Then a man walked by, stuck his finger in her face, and although I didn't understand what he was saying, I just knew from his tone of voice he was lecturing her about "her" mistake. So, in a moment of pure, unadulterated un-love, I stared at the man and said, "I think she knows!" Oops.

Also, last week when I was walking in the rain, I stepped on a slippery part of a hill, and I not only slipped, but fell. Everything in my hands went flying and I was sprawled on the ground. I gotta say, not my most dignified moment. As I was picking myself off the ground and dusting the mud off my clothes, a man walked up to me and said, "Why were you walking there? You should not walk there." Hey thanks, buddy, but I think the kerplat on the ground helped me figure that out without your help. Luckily this time I didn't say what I was thinking. Next time, I'll have to work on not even thinking it!

Something I'm learning is what the boss said about love. It's easy to love the loveable, he said. But can you love the unloveable? Not that South Asians are unloveable, but there are times when any foreigner is living in a new culture, those little nuances, like shaming an already repentant person, can drive them nuts. On the flipside, think of the typical overly hospitable South Asian family moving to America, and none of the neighbors ask them to dinner or come over to visit. It's hard, no matter where you live. So I'm learning, one mistake at a time, how to love the (sometimes) unloveable.

why monsoon season is no fun

I know, I know. I really shouldn't complain, because I could be in the capital right now, where it's monsoon season AND it's incredibly hot. We just have wet here. However, since our elevation is so high, we are literally in the clouds, and have been for about a month, and will be for about 2 more months. Couple that with no insulation and drafty windows, and you have a very wet house. Our sheets, towels, bedspread, clothes, everything, stay in a permanent wet state. We can fight this - a little - by turning on the heater in our room, but we still get into bed and within a few minutes are sticky from the moisture. I just took these pics, one on our terrace and one just outside the door. It wasn't raining at that moment, those are just the clouds.

Our clothes don't dry, either. These clothes have been hanging on the line since Monday morning. Today is Wednesday. They are still damp.

Yesterday I went to put on my leather sandals, which happen to be an expensive gift from generous friends in the States. As you can see, they are covered in mold. And they weren't even kept in a dark area, but in a room with a window!

But at least it's not hot. Capital (and plains area) folks, I don't know how you do it!

pre-emptive strike

The government in the country we live has banned blogs for now. So somehow I'm able to write blogs, but I can't read anyone's blogs. So I don't know if soon we won't be able to blog anymore, either. We have no clue when this ban will lift. This to say, just in case you don't hear from us for awhile, it's simply because we have lost our blogging privileges. :(

differences of hygiene

Swimming in South Asia opened our eyes to our bad hygiene in America. Who knew that sitting on the edge of the pool, dangling your feet in the water, was unhygienic?

One of our friends was doing just this, and was approached by a man and asked to remove his feet from the water. Now, if he wanted to put his entire body in the water (including the feet) that would have been perfectly clean.

Also, apparently a lot of South Asians don't own their own bathing suits, so when they go to water parks or swimming pools, they just rent their suit, or "costume" as they are called here.

I wish I had a pic of the costumes. The mens' is as little material as possible. Meaning, speedo or if we're lucky, boxer-brief type things. The womens', however, is the opposite. They include sleeves, knee length shorts, and a skirt. And that's usually still too little material for the women, who opt out of swimming for lounging poolside in their clothes in the stifling heat, or as I've seen a few times, they will swim in their saris or traditional suits.

I would have bet good money that it would have been renting a bathing suit that would be unhygienic, and dangling your feet in the water as perfectly normal. But that's just me.

medical day

After our time of debriefing with our students before they flew back to the States on Tuesday, we are now in the capital. We have spent today here as a medical day, since the quality of the medical facilities available in our city is, well, below average. (remember my story about the hospital?) But, here the culture is even more South Asian and less predictable than normal. I had called ahead about our immunizations we need to get for our vacation next month. The receptionist assured me that we didn't have to have an appointment, and yes, they did have both of the Hepatitis shots and the Yellow Fever shot. So we showed up last night to get our shots, and everyone seemed a bit confused about what to do with us. Finally, they decided that we had to go to the onsite pharmacy (called Chemists here) to get the vaccine. There was only one Yellow Fever vaccine, though, and unfortunately, that's not a two-for-one kind of thing. Husband laughed when I said, "But you said you had it," because, as he pointed out, they never told me they had 2. It didn't matter that the receptionist knew from the conversation that both my husband and I needed shots. Information is never volunteered here, unless of course it is unasked for advice.

So we went back today, and luckily, all shots were available and administered. Now we're waiting on the big welt that seems to follow the Yellow Fever vaccination. I told husband as we were getting our shots that maybe this is a different kind that doesn't have a reaction, and he whispered to me, "I just hope it's the American kind."

Next we went to the dentist and eye doctor; me to the former, husband to the latter. I didn't know what to expect, but it sure wasn't the pretty female dentist with the name of a famous Bollywood actress. I even said her name a few times because I was so proud of myself that I knew how to pronounce the 9 letter long name with 5 vowels in it. As I've long suspected, Bollywood makes you seem smarter. As she was cleaning my teeth, she seemed to be able to see everything in my past: "You brush too hard." "You have had braces." "You have all of your original teeth." etc. I wondered if she could see in there the embarrassing number of traffic tickets I've received. This dental experience was quite possible the easiest and least-painful time I've spent in a dentist's chair.

Husband's optical visit was easy too. He then went downstairs to make an appointment to see the dentist, but he had to make an appointment. He made it in person, and we walked back to the guest house to order a quick lunch. An hour later, the lunch still hadn't arrived, and husband had to leave empty-stomached to make his dentist appointment. He arrived and waited, and waited some more. But neither the receptionist nor the dentist was around, so he came back home. There's no point in complaining; we are positive this is normal, and we would get blank stares for our time.

visitors and lessons

Now that rainy season is here, we're starting to get quite a few new visitors to our home. This one came last night, and just for perspective, one of our MTs bravely put his hand next to the creature for the sake of posterity. This one is just one of the few we've had lately.Also, we have this little over hang in our living room, and it's hollow. For awhile we've had some kind of animal that likes to make noise in it. Our theories on this range from monkey to rats to flying foxes. (husband swears that he's seen them here) Well today, whatever this thing is, was going to town. I kept thinking any minute the plaster would break and this critter would fall into the living room, and both of us would freak out. Luckily it hasn't happened yet, but stay tuned.

Tonight we had a cooking lesson for our MTs. I taught them a couple of very simple dishes, along with rice and flatbread, so that they could cook them for their families when they get back in merely a week.They made me laugh with how much of perfectionists they were. The bread had to be perfectly round (except the last piece they did in the shape of our country), the onions had to be chopped just right, and the chicken had to be aligned perfectly in the dish. They were pretty proud of themselves afterwards!

just a few highlights from our recent trip

The view from our hotel room. To be fair, I deliberately didn't include in this picture the construction that was going on right outside our window. You would think I'd be pretty blase about mountains by now, but nope. I found these beautiful, too.

This a pic of the city I shot while cruising on a moped. Husband had the terrific idea to rent a moped for the entire week instead of having to take taxis and all that. It only cost us $20 to rent for the entire week! The city used to be completely surrounded by a moat. The moat is still there, but the city expands outside of it now.
This is just one of the many waterfalls there. Next time we go, I think we'll take a day to hike just to see all the waterfalls. I am not sure why this sentence is underlined, nor why the font won't turn blue...?

One night, our team had dinner on the Ping River.

Another night, we went with two other couples to a traditional dinner. It was really cool - they served us on trays and we lounged while we ate. We didn't know it before going, but it was all you can eat, and guess what they had - soul food! ;) We were so shocked when among other things, we were served fried chicken, pork rinds, and fried bananas! They also had a pork curry, sticky rice, fried cabbage, a chili sauce for the pork rinds, and soup.
After dinner, there was a performance of traditional dancers from different parts of the country. At first we were inside to catch such dances as the Fingernail Dance (we sure were relieved to find out those girls' nails were fake...they were several inches long!), they led us outside to watch more. This is the Rice Dance, where the girls put rice in their little baskets and swish it around. I liked them mainly for their cool hats.

There are many other highlights, such as our marriage seminars with Dr. Gary Chapman, the auction our group had for awesome American items, meeting and being taught by the new President of the SBC, and the 4th of July BBQ and celebration at the largest pool I've ever seen, but those all include pics of us and others, so I had to leave them out.

say what?

We're back! I can't believe how fast it all went. I've got lots to share, and pics will be on soon, but until then I want to write about something that makes me laugh everytime I think about it. The night before we flew out, we watched Memoirs of a Geisha (loved it!). However, somehow we ended up with a bootleg copy of it, something I realized as soon as I opened the case and saw that instead of an official DVD, there was just a normal silver DVD with "Geisha" written on the lines with a sharpie. Anyway, we didn't have the experience of being able to see people stand up in the movie theater like a lot of our friends have told us about, but we did have very entertaining subtitles. We had on the English subtitles because we thought at first it would be a Japanese film, but then we left them on because they were so funny...because of how erroneous they were! Here are just a fraction of the mistakes:

"the Orient" became "the oil land"
"the Chairman" became "the German" (and the Chairman is obviously Japanese) "these are the memoirs of an Empress" became "these are memories that are gonna impress"
...and our personal fave, "I've got a favor to ask you" became "I've got a famous truck"

Husband pointed out that a lot of our national friends have told us they learned English by watching movies. After watching this movie, their English mistakes make a lot more sense!

visa run!

Just a quick note to say that we are leaving in a few hours to begin our journey to fly out of the country. We have to, for Visa reasons, but we will be back the first half of July. I have to make this short because we are a bit rushed. Apparently the South Asian culture is getting to me. Not only did I not make my color coded packing list that I always look forward to creating, but we just started packing last night/this morning. And this is almost a 2 week trip! So I need to finish up, and spend some QT with Chini. She's going to be staying in the country and I don't want her to forget us. We are so excited! When I'm back on here, I'll be rested, refreshed, and full of beef.

mister car wash

We just got back from another trip to Ctown. While there, our friend Kyle was driving us around, and he was pulled over. Kyle told us that was the 6th time in 4 days he had been pulled over. Talk about racial profiling! Well the policeman pulled us over to tell Kyle that he needed to wash his car.

The next day we went to a car wash in a gas station. It was exactly like they are in the states - behind the shop with a little area that you drive into - except that there was nothing mechanical. It was a bunch of men that washed the car. The car in front of us got the deluxe wash, meaning the inside of the car was washed. And when I say washed, I mean fire-hosed down. They took out the seats of the car and just hosed the interior. Needless to say, we opted out of the deluxe wash.

villages

We just got back from going on another village trip today. It was much more successful than the last time. About the only info we came away with our last trip was that that particular village does not like Western women. As a lot of the towns around here are, it is a tourist town, and about the only women who would smile, much less talk to me, were tourists from the now sweltering capital. But today we went to a larger town south of us, and had a much better time. We first ate lunch in a local open air cafe (wow...that makes it sound a lot nicer than they typically are. Let's just say, while sitting there, I saw two roaches crawling on the walls) Since there's usually only a few places to sit in there, a man came and sat at our table with us, and husband struck up a conversation with him. He sat and lunched with us, and we made plans to meet up with him at his home next week when we return. This man even paid our bill for us when he left. Almost immediately two other men joined our table, and turns out, one man is Priya's first cousin. So he gave us his business card, and we left so others could sit. We finished off our trip by money walking, and left much more encouraged. At the moment, the MTs are in the village we went to last week, and hopefully since no women are with them, they are having better luck.

Also, a random thing happened. We stopped in a pharmacy on our money walking, and I looked on the shelf and saw husband's cologne! What are the chances? In the states, this cologne was tres expensive, as normal there, but at this obscure pharmacy, it was only $6! Ha! What a country.