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!)

My K family

I'd like to show you all some pictures of my family here in K land:

 From left to right:

Mary(age 17), Life, Belinda(4), Erin(21), K (from the US), Brianna(11), L (from the US), Me (from the US), and Esther(7)

This is Ellen, who took the first picture.

Here in K land, K, L, and I live with a national K family that includes the mother (Life) and father (Edmund), and 6 daughters.  They are very kind people and have even taken us with them on their picnics, one of which included over 500 people.  The younger children are often up in our part of the house, just wanting to hang out and see what we are doing.  Ew, the 7 year old, helped me write a children's song the other day in K-ish.

They are all very sweet and kind to us, although we sometimes get a little frustrated that they don't seem to understand or care that we live a different way of life, even though we live in their house. Even though Mary is one of the younger ones, she seems a little more understanding and more willing to talk to us about this with us.  I think maybe she's kind of bored and lonely.  L has been able to have some good conversations with her recently.  We especially like talking about the history of this region, because we've read a particular ancient story about this area that's pretty cool.  You've probably read it too.  I mean, a story about someone who survives being swallowed whole is pretty cool.  His story was even a lesson for later generations of people.  I really hope that the people of this land learn about all the cool things that have happened here in history, because it seems like a lot of them just don't care to know anything outside of what they do in daily life.

On a completely different topic, I would like to leave you all with a picture my language teacher drew me.  She saw pictures of a prank pulled on my mom for my mom's 50th birthday and wanted to know what "Over the hill" meant.  This picture is what resulted:

Mom, you are the stick figure on the right.

Actually, she told me that you are really beautiful (hence the "gelek can" written on the right) and that you and I look a lot alike.

P.S. Prz Gd, my name is no longer Mud.  Now, I have a forecast for warm (sometimes hot) weather, sunny skies, and occasional dust.

P.P.S.  The meal in the first picture was rice wrapped in lamb brains and lamb intestines.  I kid you not!

Dust + Water = Mud

This being K-land and all, dust wasn't too surprising to me, but the reality is that the dust in K-land isn't always from here.  It gets blown here from the south of us.  The following picture is of a very abnormal dust storm:

That's not a sunset.  That's allllllll dust.

Dust in K-land is not orange, it's tan.  This was definitely from the south of us.  It was pretty gross.  But Dad has actually created a unique way to take care of the dust in K-land.  It's called rain.  BUT rain can also lead to some gross stuff.  You see, when you have the air filled with dust and it rains, what do you get?

Answer: Raining Mud!

I truly didn't understand mud until I moved here.  Mud, what can i say?  I never knew you until now.  You now fill my life with so many new experiences.

When it rains mud, you make sure to wear dark colored clothes so your light colored stuff doesn't get tie-dyed in dirt swirls.  It's incredibly ironic, but cleanliness is truly next to gdliness for this culture.  One must be clean in order to be close to Dad.  Also, it is very inappropriate to have a dirty car if you are offering a ride to any acquaintance.  So that means you should try to find a way to clean your car after it gets all muddy.  Unfortunately for me, it's culturally inappropriate for girls to wash cars, or even to take them to the car wash.  We have to get a guy to do it.  Also, our neighborhood isn't paved and our street never dries out, so our car is always dirty.  Because our street is nearly always muddy, it leads to our beautiful feet sometimes looking like this:

(However, this was an extreme circumstance.)

Normally, mud would never be this bad in our neighborhood, but we thought we knew mud well enough and chose to drive through some in a nearby area.  This is what resulted:

L and I and our little red Kia spent almost 2 hours in that mud pit, until finally the police came with a large truck and pulled us out (our friend in the green truck would have pulled us out, but his 4-wheel drive wasn't working that day.)

Recently, I've been conversing with a new acquaintance (that we picked up for lunch in our dirty car, by the way).  K and I talked a lot with this receptive lady, but one thing we ended up talking about is that it's more important to clean the inside of a cup and a dish, so that the outside of it may become clean also. (Mt 23)  I mean, I can't drink out of a water bottle filled with muddy water, but if the water inside is clean, and there's some dirt on the outside, I can still drink it.  Plus, it's a heck of a lot easier to wipe off the outside once the inside is already clean.  Cleaning the inside of a water bottle is a heck of a lot harder than the outside.  Well, for many people here, they seem to care much more about their reputations and their outward cleanliness than what they are really like on the inside.  I really hope they can see that what's on the inside is what truly matters in the long run.

Anyways, at least until summertime, my name is mud.

Sincerely yours,

Mud

Beauty is Pain

This would be one of my coworkers and a new national I've met.  We were hanging out at her house, and I decided to ask questions about beauty, especially related to what I've learned about in a book I recently read called The Beauty School of Kabul.  Although I am nowhere near Kabul, I learned a lot about women there, their beauty techniques based on what is available to them, but also their life stories. These people have a lot of life stories to tell, and sometimes they will really open up and educate us about themselves while they participate in beautification techniques.  My coworker and I learned that almost all of the beauty techniques practiced in Kabul are also regularly practiced here, especially when it comes to brides and grooms and their guests at wedding events.

I loved this national's local dress.  They call it a kras and I have recently had 2 kras made but I will hopefully pick them up from the seamstress in a couple of days.  I hope to post a picture of them in the near future.

Hair removal here is a big deal, especially for the face.  Many people here tend to be on the hairy side.  Many girls have some significant unibrowsn and some of the women's hairlines extend almost all the way down to their eyebrows.  They often get threading (called hefaf) done to remove the hair, although when it is being removed from large areas, they will use different types of wax to get it done.  My coworker, S, and I got demonstrations of both hefaf and waxing on our arms this particular day.  Kind of painful.

In a town two hours southeast of us, it is considered stylishly unacceptable if you do not wax your arms.  In our town it is common to have it done, but not 100% unacceptable, so I plan to avoid it if I can.  However, I could not avoid my new friend, Z, threading my face.  I told her "Okay, but I'm going to cry."  She said, "Okay, cry."  So now, after I did indeed shed tears, I have a "clean" face.  And then afterwards, we talked about her own pain, as she has premature arthritis and back problems, and I remembered her pain for her.  Would you also remember Z, that she would find healing?