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A Dear Friend's Wedding

My dear friend and former language teacher, Jamie, just got married a few days ago.  Here are some of the pictures from her wedding events.  And I know most of you are about to ask whether or not I did her hair and make up for her wedding. No, I did not (as you will soon see that she had little need of a hair dresser because of what she wore.)

BUT, I did do her highlights 3 weeks before her wedding.  See???

This is Jamie and my roommate L on Jamie's Night of Henna (the evening before her wedding).  You will soon see where the henna is involved.

 Some of the bride's relatives on their rooftop:

When the groom's family arrives, it becomes, well, chaotic to say the least.  There's a lot of dancing and yelling, but only from the groom's side of the family.  All the bride's side stands back and just watches.

The groom's family only stays about a half hour, but, besides the dancing, they cover the bride's pinky finger in henna and wrap it up with money (and then a pretty cloth so the henna doesn't get everywhere).  

 PS.  All that gold is real!

After about an hour, the bride (and other guests that chose to put henna on their pinkies) will wash off the henna and her finger will look something like this:

Now we move on to the actual wedding day: The bride, one of her sisters, and two of her sister-in-laws headed to the salon around 1pm where she and they got their hair and makeup done, got dressed, and arranged Jamie's head scarf (called a dersuk) so that it wouldn't budge.  L and I accompanied them for this, and I watched closely to see some of the techniques that the stylists use.  Then L and I headed back to the bride's house to hang out with her family members:

 For many wedding events, they love to dress the small girls to look like brides too.  Hence the two sisters below had almost matching bride outfits.  They (and their brother) LOVED getting their picture taken.  I probably have 5 or 6 photos that look almost exactly like this one:

And finally, the main event:  The Wedding itself.  The groom came to the bride's house about 7:30pm with some of his family.  They tied a ribbon around her waist and danced and yelled some more as they escorted her out of her home.  Meanwhile, she and her family break down sobbing as they are "losing" their sister (never mind the fact they'll probably get to see her next week.)  The groom, bride, and all of the groom's family head to the wedding hall and spend the rest of the night taking pictures with the hundreds of friends and family members (of the groom's family, not the bride's) that come to celebrate.

I always remember Jamie and I hope that her new family will be kind to her and that they would be a group of people beneficial to her well-being.  I also am remembering L as she will be continuing language lessons with Jamie in a few weeks.  I hope that her language lessons will be profitable and truthful and that L would make some good relationships with the members of the groom's family.

The life of a woman in K-land

Well, as you might expect in a country like this, the lives of the women here are different than in the US.  It is very true that their lives tend to revolve around cooking and cleaning.  What you might not know is how much of a communal activity those things can be:

 We helped this family make special cookies for their upcoming holiday.  It is truly a family and neighbors event.  They started making these cookies around 8pm that night and didn't finish til 1 or 2 in the morning.  But they were okay with that.  During that particular time of the year, they were pretty much staying up all night and sleeping all day anyways.  Plus, it's much more pleasant to do hard work in the cool night air than it is to do it during the day.

Take regular household chores, for instance:

I hope you're glad you have a good vacuum cleaner!  A few times a year, we have to wash our rugs, and we do it by hand.  Recently, we hauled the heavy rugs and cleaning supplies up to the roof in the early evening and used a little elbow grease.  We finished when the moon was high in the sky.  Then we hung the rugs over the railing for a day until they all dried out.  (However, they were too heavy to lift back up, so we had to drop them down into our courtyard and carry them back up the steps to our living room.)

The nice thing about all of our work is this:  it almost always has to be a community activity.  And if it's a community activity, it means we get more involved in the lives of the nationals around us.  They like to offer help and assistance most of the time, and it shows them that we want to learn about the way that they do things in their society.  It also gives us opportunities to share about our own society.  Sometimes that means looking like we don't know how to do anything right, like a child that's never done a chore before:

But sometimes it shows them that we care about their lives and the way that they do things, that we could have tried to fend for ourselves, in our own ways, and we might have turned out fine, but we chose to involve them anyways.

Fortunately, when we chose to do things their way, it often earns us some merit for when we might want  to talk about a few of the things that we do differently.  We helped our national friends get ready for their holiday and we participated in visits for it and helped them ooh and aah over their new clothes and all the candy that the children got to eat.  At the close of one evening, I told one of our sisters about some of the differences between her and our main holidays, because we have a lot of things in common but many times, the point of the holiday is different.  Of course, our main holidays are based on what we have read, so that we can remember.  I think that it's always important that the point of the holiday is more important than the tradition of the holiday.  I like to remember what happened on the event for which the holiday is based so that I can better celebrate it.

Hopefully, when our holidays roll around again, we'll be able to be good representations of the main points of our holiday so that we don't confuse others based on some of our traditions that may not be in keeping with the reasons.

Back in Country

Before I left K-land, I was seeing temperatures like this:

But while on vacation, temperatures occasionally allowed me to dress like this:

I suppose I mean that temperatures allowed me to dress like this and like it (as opposed to dress like this even when it is like the temperature in the first picture.)

Anyways, I'm back and temperatures are slightly less insane.  And Rmdn is in full swing.  The city looks a lot like this most nights:

We are seeing a lot of people in the habit now of sleeping nearly all day and staying up all night.  Did you know that, for some reason, after 11pm many in this people group just love to have more interesting conversations?  While this month of fasting and feasting certainly changes the daily routine, it can often lead to good opportunities to spend quality time with others.  We have definitely seen 11pm bring some great conversations.  Sometimes we talk about what we have been studying or working on, either for ourselves or for our work.  And sometimes we talk about what they have been studying or working on.  Our ways of life can be different from one another, but it's neat to learn and also neat to share about the differences.

Recent Events

We had a few recent events here in K-land that were a lot of fun.  First off, my US friends had a 4th of July party.  It was a blast.  We had:

cheeseburgers

(which was exciting, because meat in general can be expensive here, but especially beef),

grilled chicken,

baked beans (but no bacon flavor.  Oh well.),

Italian goulash soup,

tomato, cucumber, and onion salad,

deviled eggs (which I made and shared with K people beforehand and they liked them!),

plum pie,

peach crisp,

and ice cream. 

 The kids had fun with some party poppers (they were the closest thing we could find to fireworks):

We then finished up the day with a game of baseball.  I’ve no idea who won.  I just know that K managed to hit our “baseball” (tennis ball) with her “bat” (a piece of wood) out of our “field” (T and S’s garden), and it ended up in a drainage area in the street, which, believe me, it’s really nasty.  You don’t want to go sticking your hands in there.  Anyways, the game was a success, as was the overall party.

Look at that wind-up.  She's gonna be a pro!

On Thursday, we finished our English lessons at our institute, and are done until September.  But beforehand, we had dinner at a local restaurant with all the teachers, managers, bus drivers, and extra personnel we worked with this summer.

For my K family, they had an especially important event this summer.  Our oldest “sister,” Ellen, graduated from college.  She now has a degree in Forestry.  We went to her graduation a few weeks ago.  The graduation here in my city included not only her college but all the colleges in the entire city and neighboring suburbs.  It was held in a large soccer stadium.

Ellen's in green and black somewhere in that sea of people.

 It was here that I got to see some fire works!

The word for fireworks in K land is actually translated for them as “fire play” which I think is a better representation of what fireworks actually are.

The graduation was carried on for the most part like US graduations that I have attended, except that everyone in the stands talks, takes pictures, eats dinner, and then storms the field as soon as their graduate has walked across the stage, never mind the fact that there are 1000 other graduates behind her.  Then, once everyone has made it onto the field, you take even more pictures.

 Ellen, holding her diploma, is surrounded by her family members and a few good friends.

The night after Ellen’s graduation, the whole family went out for dinner.  We had rooster, which is a local delicacy.  To me, the only difference is that there’s more dark meat than light meat.

Ellen and her next oldest sister, Erin.

All in all, I’d say it’s been a very busy but a very good summer.

Up next, the month of fasting and feasting, but first, I’m gonna take a side trip to eastern Europe to visit my friend Cari.

I hope the month of August finds you all well.  Please remember my co-workers and my travels during the first half of that month, and remember the people here in K land that we leave behind while we travel, that they would be satisfied with us and without us.  And that, during their month long holiday, even though they hunger and thirst, that they would find satisfaction.

K land is Interesting!

I'd like to acquaint you all with some of the more interesting aspects of K land.  You already know about the food, but let's say that the food doesn't sit well with you one day.  This is where you would go:

Also, because the electricity comes and goes, sometimes we occasionally have to break out our headlamps:

Every visitor to K-land has to go get their blood tested.  While I sat outside the office at the health department waiting for the paper with my test results so that I could then take them to the residency office, I noticed a lovely cotton ball on the chair next to me.  It had a splash of red on it.  Then I looked next to the chair and this is what I saw:

 All of these cotton balls have been used for blood tests.  Bloodborne pathogens, what are those?  What makes this even more ironic is that not 6 feet from this photo is a poster talking about not smoking.

Wild animals roam free in K land.  Yes, our streets are full of the most fearsome creatures: Cats.

Actually, cats are about the only wild animals K land has, unless you go into the most remote areas or one of the couple of places where they have animal protection laws.  Other animals (non-wild) that they have include sheep, goats, donkeys, cows, and the occasional horse.  But if you count insects, we've got quite a bit that you've heard of and one in particular that I have yet to see: Scorpions.  (Incidentally, did you know that if a scorpion is surrounded by fire, it will kill itself rather than burn to death?)

Here is another interesting thing I've learned in K land: Kids are kids.  All over the world they are the same.  This is Belinda.  She's 4 years old and she lives at my house.  Looks like the sweetest child ever, huh?  If that smile doesn't give you a clue as to what she's thinking, just wait... 

That's MY bed!  She decided that it was time for a nap and my bed was the perfect place.  Actually, she was pretending.  Kids do that a lot, in all countries.  I constantly see little ones pretending to clean like mom does, following older people around, even between rooms in our house, just to be close to someone that they think is interesting or someone they want to be like.  They also like to dress like their moms and sisters.  The often wear the shoes of older siblings and even the head coverings:

Little Debbie loves to dress like her older sisters and mother.  She is not even 2 years old yet!  While standing on that carpet two pictures above, she was pretending to participate in traditions like her family does.

It is a struggle for me to decide how to interact with children here in K-land.  Daily, I have many children in my life and, although they can occasionally be mischievious and annoying, their love and smiles remind me of some of the things I read about them.

I like Mt 18:3 and Mt 11:25-26.  It reminds me that I and others need to be like a child sometimes.

I think, overall, it's important for my friends and acquaintances to be adults of respect and responsibility because I think they can make a bigger difference in life, but it is very clear to me that children are so loving and accepting of everyone.  And they love people with wisdom, they love to learn new things, they hope and aspire to be just like the ones that care for them, they seek to have the attention of their elders, and most of all, they just want to be near the ones that they admire.

I like to remember Mt 18:4 too because I am reminded that, compared to my Dad, I am so small, but, even as small as I am, He considers me valuable.  and I think He considers everyone that way, not just me.  But I don't think we can be useful until we humble ourselves and realize that we are all just children in need of someone else's wisdom.

Food!

I'd like to show you some of the food that I eat here in K land.  You've already heard about the lamb brains and intestines, but that was an exceptional case.  I'd like to start off from the beginning:

First of all, almost all of our fruits and vegetables are fresh and they have no preservatives added.  That also means they go bad quickly, as in the case with these green beans:

 

I bought these green beans less than 24 hours before I took this picture.  The white stuff in the green beans in the bag almost looks like cotton, but it's mold that grew overnight.  Fun stuff.  They were probably grown in a garden that looks a lot like this one that's down the (dirt) road in my neighborhood:

Notice how the "fence" is made out of any lengthy piece of trash and left-over construction materials they could find.  But hey, I've eaten some decent tasting green onions from this garden.

The fruit here can be very tasty, but I love pretty much any fruit I've ever eaten  (and hate any vegetable I've ever tasted, but more on that in a minute).  We ate this yummy watermelon while on a picnic. 

 When I sit down to a meal with nationals in K land, most of them tend to look a lot like this:

 In the picture above, tershik is the dish that has the yellow patties of wheat in the tomato sauce (the patties have meat in them), iprok is the dish with rice wrapped in grape leaves and other vegetables, and briany is the rice dish in the pot (it includes rice, chicken, almonds, raisins, and spices.)  All of these foods were probably cooked with a bottle of sunflower seed oil each.  Sometimes that's tasty, but ohhhhh, how horrible it is for you.

I love the briany, and tershik is pretty good as long as the spices aren't too bitter.  Iprok is boring but edible, but notice just how many plates of vegetables there are on this picnic blanket!  Tomatoes and cucumbers galore!  The iprok is normally in grape leaves and cabbage leaves, but they also stuff it into peppers, potatoes, cucumbers, zuccini, eggplant, and tomatoes.  And as I said before, I hate most vegetables.  My teammates love watching me when I eat with nationals because they love to see my face when I eat something they know I don't like.  K especially enjoys cooking things at home that are chock full of vegetables, and basically is like my mom when it comes to food: "Eat it, it's good for you!"  Actually, she's very accommodating when she knows I don't like something, but she's good at cooking vegetables in a way that I'll eat them.  I think Dad is having a laugh with me here in K land.  Every time I eat a cucumber slice, I think he must be saying to me "Eat it, I made it, it's good for you!"

Bread is one food I really like here in K land and it's nothing like regular loaf bread.  It's flat bread, kind of like pita bread, and it's normally made in one of the many bread ovens here in our city.  We often make pizza on it.  (FYI, I made my own pizza sauce the other day.  It turned out pretty good too!)

The local families also make their own flat bread but it has a different name, and it is super duper flat, like a crepe.

This is Jy making some of it:

 This is Mw cooking it on their stove top.

 This is me eating some of it with teheen.

Teheen is something like peanut butter.  It's made from sesame seeds.  It's more liquid-like than peanut butter, but similar in taste.  We mix ours with a little bit of date syrup to make it sweeter and then dip our bread in it.  I think it's pretty good!  (By the way, the reason I'm so dressed up in that picture is that teheen and bread were our quick dinner before we went to a wedding.  This is akin to getting all dressed up to go out to a party and then scarfing down a PBJ in the US.  Our K family probably thought: those poor US girls, eating nothing but bread and teheen for dinner?  They don't know how to take care of themselves.  Ha, little do they know, I know how to make pizza sauce!)