Can we get engaged again?

That's what Mark said to me when we saw how much fun our local friends had at a friend's son's engagement party last night!

We missed the beginning of the evening because our neighbor told us a different time - oh well! But we saw the effects of what they did. At the engagement party (which is almost as big a deal as the wedding itself) the couple exchange their wedding rings. There is a red ribbon tied (notice a red theme?) between the two rings and once they are place on their fingers, someone in the family cuts the ribbon. From there, there is dancing, dancing, and more dancing. It starts with the bride and groom. (The bride-to-be was dressed in a stunning red evening gown and the groom-to-be was dressed in a black tux with a red tie.) Then their close relatives join. Then their not as close relatives join. And eventually the guests are invited to join in. The bride and groom just sort of float around the dance floor, mingling with all the other people, but it's clear that THEY are the stars of the evening.

After LOTS of dancing, the parents and relatives give their gifts of gold - necklaces, bracelets, coins that are pinned to sashes that the couple wears, and medallions. The couple will receive even more gold at the wedding from other guests. And all of this gold is seen as a sort of an insurance for the couple. Once they are married, they will exchange the gold for cash money as needed. Some of it will be stored away for a difficult time (thus, the idea of insurance). After the gold is presented, cake and other sweets were served. Then there was MORE dancing. A few people sang songs dedicated to the couple. Then there was more . . . you got it . . . dancing!!!

Unfortunately, at this party, we didn't get to join in the dancing . . . this mommy-to-be has started feeling pretty pregnant, and trying to follow the steps of all the traditional dances they've all known how to do since they started walking would have surely ended in disaster! But it was really beautiful to watch the two families celebrating the future of this soon to be established home. It did make us look back with fondness over our 10 years together (10 1/2 really) and thank our Father for all the ways He's blessed us, even if we didn't throw an engagement party quite like this one!

Community Service

Well, as you've been reading over the past year on our blog, we've tried in many ways to truly become part of the community in which we are now living. Going to coffees and teas with neighbors, attending special get togethers to celebrate holidays and such, trading plates of sweet treats with our neighbors, etc. This week we are getting to be good community members in a whole new way.

There have been a couple of litters of puppies in a field directly behind our apartment building. Oh my, are they cute!!! Slowly, slowly the puppies have been weaned, and now the mommies are gone, as are all but three of the puppies. These puppies have sort of become community pets. While Mark was out watching and talking to them yesterday morning, a lady with a bunch of raw chicken and other treats for the puppies told him that she would not be here for the next week and asked if we would be willing to make sure they get fed and watered. Of course, he said yes immediately! You know we're dog lovers, so there's no way we could refuse!! We've already named the cutest puppy Hershey.

This afternoon we decided it was about time to take some food and water out to them before it got too dark. When we got to their little make-shift shelter (built by an anonymous member of our neighborhood) no one was home . . . just a stray cat looking for some food, no doubt. We put the food and water in the bowls inside the shelter and started walking away. As we started up the hill, we heard some grumbling and yipping. We looked over to the other side of the field and saw the three of them playing or something. Mark walked over to them to see what was going on because only one of them ran over to us when we called. He found that our dear, sweet Hershey was hogging a leg of lamb! No matter how much the other two dogs pounced and yipped he wasn't going to let them have any of it!! We finally got the attention of one of the dogs and got her over to the food bowl. She started chowing down immediately.

So we know that at least two of the dogs had something to eat today. Maybe the poor dog that had Hershey and the leg of lamb treed finally realized his other friend had made her way home to find a bowl full of delicious treats. If so, I hope she hadn't eaten all of it herself!

The Doctor Says . . . . . .

. . . . . we're having a boy!

He even "smiled" for the camera for this still rather alien/skeleton looking picture:

And as for the blurs to the right of his chin . . . those are his fairly wiggly arms, hands, legs, and feet. He did a little jig for us and doctor last night.

Now to choose that elusive "just right" name. In the meantime, our local friends affectionately refer to him as Mark Jr. and Mustafa II (long story). I think we can do better than that!

From shopping to shots . . .

Here's a few tid bits of what's been happening since our last post . . .

We hear that one of favorite shopping places here will be opening a new store this week! And it's only 1 1/2 hours away. We can't wait to check it out!!!

There are two litters of puppies that have taken up outside our apartment (with the mommies, of course) and they are sooooo cute! I keep asking Mark if we can bring one inside, but no luck yet! One of the mommy dogs does the funniest thing sometimes . . . when the call to prayer sounds from the nearby mosque she "sings" along with it! Wish we could capture that on a recording for you!!

We got to meet some new neighbors upstairs in our apartment building. They are newly married (just a few weeks, in fact). We had both wanted to go say hello together, but we never found an evening that worked for us to both go. So I decided to go alone one evening. I had geared myself up for the worst case scenario - meaning, "What if they don't understand me? What if I look like a complete fool trying to introduce ourselves to them?" We've been here a year, right? So you would think that fear would be long gone, huh?! No way!! I made my way upstairs, took a deep breath, rang the door bell, and waited. A young, attractive, friendly looking lady appeared at the door. In almost one huge run on sentence I blurted out everything I had been rehearsing to say to her and "shoved" my plate of food through her doorway! "My name is Melissa. We live on the first floor. Thank you for the sweets you sent last week." Before I could get anything else out, she said "I don't understand." I took another deep breath and one sentence at a time repeated the above information, making sure she understood me. About that time her husband appeared at the door and said "Are you a foreigner?" Funny question!!! I politely said yes and waited for the inevitable next few questions to be asked. "Where are you from? What are you doing here?" etc. He then explained that he knows a little English but that since I was speaking his native language, we'd just skip the English! It ended up being a pleasant exchange with an invitation to come again for coffee and a chat. Then she showed up at our door a couple of nights later at 10:00PM with a plate of fresh grapes from somewhere. Thank goodness the most awkward part of building this friendship is over! Now that they know we're "not from 'round these here parts" our next meeting will be much less awkward hopefully!

I'm tutoring a friend's teenage son in English one evening each week.

We've begun the winter battle with mold on our closed in balconies.

We had a little get together with a few ex-pat friends and the kids did some trick or treating behind the doors inside our apartment. What a hoot! We had two cheetahs, a batman, a superman, a fairy princess, and a pirate. Complete with candy corn, orange pumpkin napkins, hot apple cider, and bobbing for apples.

Mark has taken up Chess. It's fairly popular here among folks of all ages, so he has some good teachers/challengers. The only thing is that it seems people here like to change the rules around. Maybe it's like this at home, too, but here, it seems different families might have different rules. Or else, they just make them up as they go to see if it will help them win! I must say though, he's been a very gracious sport about their "rules" and keeps trying to outwit them.

I made my first Boston Cream Pie over the weekend. And boy is that a bear of a cake to make completely from scratch! But, oh, so yummy!!!

This morning two lovely ladies showed up at our door to register me (an expectant mom) for the local health/shot clinic. They "interview" expectant moms to make sure they're eating properly, avoiding unhealthy things, have up to date vaccinations, and not experiencing any emotional problems during the pregnancy. We had a nice little visit! One really great thing is that one of the nurses that works at the clinic is our neighbor, so she'll be a great resource in months to come!!! She's always asking how I'm feeling and if I'm drinking milk, eating yogurt, etc. Here's a funny thing . . . they were asking about when I had my last Tetanus shot. I told them I couldn't remember but it was written down and they could look at the form for themselves. I brought the form out to them and listened to them discuss all the vaccines I've received over the years. They were going down the list . . . measles, polio, tetanus, hepatitis . . . when all of a sudden they said something I didn't understand. When they pointed to it on the paper, I realized they were asking about rabies. Before coming overseas we were given a three series booster of the rabies vaccination as a preventive measure because of the numbers of undomesticated animals that roam the streets in foreign countries. They had no idea what rabies is, and I did a pathetic job of explaining it! All I could get out was that it is a disease that comes from wild animals. They told me they would do a search for it but that it didn't seem to be a major issue concerning pregnancy. Once they figure out what rabies is, they'll probably want to know why in the world I got that shot to start with!

Well, it's time to get my nose in the books for a little while. We're going back to the doctor for a monthly checkup this week and hoping to find out if this growing baby is a boy or girl. We'll keep you posted!

Grits as a dessert?

So in the last post I forgot to describe the dessert I tasted for the first time today. I thought you might be interested.

Think grits (or something very similar) mixed in a sweet slightly custardy pudding. Oh yeah, did I mention that it also has chunks of cheese in it? And it's served warm. Our friend served ours with chopped hazelnuts sprinkled on top with a little scoop of vanilla ice cream.

The first bite was not too bad. On the second bite, it was helpful to have a little ice cream with it. But by the third bite and so on, I started to gag. My wonderful husband picked up on the fact that I was struggling to eat it, but no way could we leave so much uneaten (it was a sweet treat "for the baby"). Somehow he managed to make a little joke out of how he ate his so fast and I was eating mine so slowly. And he scooped up the last few bits of mine for me!

Grand Opening

Last week I (Melissa) was visiting a friend, and while I was there, she stepped out for a few minutes to walk to a nearby furniture store to buy a set of table and chairs for her apartment. When she came back, she gave me an invitation (the card kind) to a furniture store's grand opening and explained that we could go together and eat there. Well, free food sounds good anytime, right? Other than knowing I would be with my friend and that we would be eating food, I didn't know much else.

Today was the big day, and while I wasn't sure what the proper dress code for such a gathering might be, I decided to go with a little more than casual look. Mark decided he was up for the adventure, too, and off we went.

When we got to our friend's studio, I was really thankful that I had gone with a little dressed up look because my friend was the most dressed up I think I've ever seen her. Then she told us that she and her sister had to go to a florist to look at some flowers to present to the new store's owners. At this point we still weren't sure what we were getting into. I was thinking, "What kind of gathering is this going to be? Small, intimate, and rather formal? Large, impersonal, and casual?" And I couldn't quite figure out if this was the kind of thing fellow business owners, good customers, or just anyone off the street got invitations to.

After our friends came back with a pretty (but somewhat different) arrangement of flowers, we walked around the corner and waited for the service "bus" to pick us up. We then learned that the new store was on the road that heads out of town - which means it was too far to walk - AND that because the same people that opened the new store have a smaller store around the corner from our friends - which makes them "work neighbors" - they got the invitation. And we just got to tag along as their friends from America.

When we arrived at the store, I couldn't believe my eyes . . . the parking lot was full of tables, plastic chairs/stools, and people! There was someone speaking into a microphone, and behind him was a steady stream of people entering the store. Our friends called someone they knew on the inside and got the OK to bypass the sitting and listening so we could go on into the store. We walked around 3 floors of furniture, appliances, rugs, linens, etc. All along the way, we kept meeting other store keepers/owners we know - who had all come to celebrate with this store owner. Can you imagine celebrating with your competition?!

We wound our way to the chocolate table and then ventured outside for the meal. Rice, stewed beef (kind of), a yogurt drink, and a dessert that I was fortunate enough to have tasted for the first time earlier in the day (that means, it made me gag once already today and I knew better than to push my luck a second time!). The rice, meat, and drink was rather filling, to say the least. Of course, after all of that, hot tea was served (in clear plastic party cups) and we just sat and chatted.

To get back into town we had to wait for the service "bus" again. We lined up on the side of the street and waited. The van drove up and rolled just past us in front of a group of about 6 other women. We jogged over to the van, hoping to get a seat. We were almost too late, but based on the "rules" regarding packing a vehicle here, we all managed to get in, with no room to spare. Mark ended up in the front seat between the driver and his gear shift on one side and a little old lady on the other side. I was the last one to get in the van, and thankfully, our friends made sure everyone else knew I'm pregnant and made a place for me on the corner of a seat. It was a wee bit crowded, but we all got home safely!

I don't think I'll ever think of grand openings in the same way again!

Soul Food

In the year that we've been overseas, food has been the topic of LOTS of conversations and has been center stage in quite a few of our blog posts. Well, I must say that since my appetite has returned, food is once again something I'm spending lots of time thinking about. So I thought I would share with you some of the All-American favorites we've savored in recent days.

Vegetable soup and cornbread ("straight out of the oven" hot with butter).

"Pulled" (more like chicken in a pot that just fell apart) BBQ chicken sandwiches. (I even made coleslaw to go with!)

Spaghetti with a really meaty sauce. (Here, what they call spaghetti sauce is a watered down very bland tomato sauce - not even marinara.)

No-bake Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

Some of you may remember that in a previous post I mentioned really wanting a Big Mac. I was hoping to stop at the closest McD's on a recent trip, but since we had to travel by bus, I could only wave (and maybe drool a little) as we bumped past it. No worries, though . . . one of our local grocery stores has started selling Thousand Island Dressing!!! I've decided to make my own version of the Big Mac - the Melissa Mini Mac! I'll have to let you know how that goes.

We got a special care package this week from some folks that we've never even met, and you wouldn't believe all the goodies they packed for us to enjoy!!! The most exciting treats were candy corn, a can of pumpkin, and a gingerbread scented candle. We got a little taste of fall in a bag!!!

Well, now with all that talk of food, I just might have to go find a snack (if I can keep my eyelids open long enough - it's Sun. afternoon nap time here!). Happy snacking to you, too!!!

The Holiday Rush

So after 30 days of fasting (explained in a previous post), our neighbors enjoy a 3 day holiday full of sweets, chocolates, coffee, and visits. We kept hearing about the holiday rush (similar in nature to the rush you are familiar with the week before Christmas). Last year we arrived just as this holiday started so we missed the days just prior to it. This year, we got to experience it first hand. Honestly, it lived up to its reputation! Normally, official offices, most businesses, and schools are closed for the 3 days. This year, because the holiday fell in the middle of the week, schools and official offices are closed all week. That means a 9 day holiday!

In preparation for the holiday, families buy brand new outfits that will be worn as they visit family and friends. Pans and pans of sweet treats are made to serve to guests. Vendors line the streets with tables overflowing with individually wrapped chocolates and other candy to serve to guests and children who come ringing your doorbell in search for sugar. Folks stock up on necessary supplies that they may not be able to get while shops as closed. And, of course, people wait until the last minute to get a lot of this done! What that means is super crowded streets and check out lines that wind through the aisles - a real holiday hustle and bustle. (Can you guess what holiday song I'm thinking of?)

Well, I, too, waited until the last minute to make a few purchases. Monday was considered the "eve" of the holiday, which means "last chance to get your shopping done because tomorrow your guests arrive!" Mark had to travel to a nearby city for work, and although he had invited me to ride along, I politely declined saying I didn't want to be rushed. Well, Monday morning we woke up to buckets of rain pouring from the sky. He again politely suggested I go with him so I could shop indoors, and that time I agreed!

I, myself, hardly ever, maybe even never, shopped at home on Christmas Eve, but I'm guessing I know what it's like after seeing the mall on Monday! Boy was I glad we got there before the big rush and got my shopping done before the check out lines stretched into eternity!!

Well, I got all the shopping done - gifts, chocolates, coffee. Mark swept and vacuumed the whole house Monday evening. I spent most of the day Tuesday baking so we would have something sweet to serve to all the guests we were expecting and something to take (as a gift) to the people we were expecting to visit. It's now Thursday and we've been able to visit one person and no one has been to visit us. You can imagine Mark's excitement over being able to eat all that food that hasn't been served to others!!

It turns out that all the people we were hoping to visit are all traveling - taking advantage of the extra long holiday. And we've ended up with a few extra days of R&R - a delightful surprise!
Other than a handful of children who have rung our doorbell, holding the plastic grocery bags that hold their sugary loot, and a couple of garbage collectors who go door to door asking for tips, it's been really quiet.

So it appears that (at least for this year) the holiday rush was the storm before the calm! And we may never pass this way again!!

Just Bouncing Around

Well, we had another trip to the doctor this week (expecting to have lots of blood drawn) and after waiting a while to see the doctor, all he did was another ultrasound and ask a couple of questions. He said to come back in two more weeks for the blood tests.

Our ultrasound this week was a really cool one. We got to hear the heartbeat in the first ultrasound, but in this second one we got to hear the heartbeat AND watch this little baby bounce around like a pin ball!! He was kicking his legs and bouncing back and forth so much that the doctor had a hard time getting a "still" picture for us. What a blessing to see our little (teeny tiny) one already enjoying life! We've giggled about it for the last few days because it appears our baby is showing early signs of being as energetic as his/her daddy!!! Those moments made the continuing nausea totally worthwhile!

It's been a lot of fun to share this news with our local friends - they LOVE babies and have already started calling themselves "aunt," "uncle," and other terms of endearment used in this culture. Yesterday when I told one of my dearest local friends, she suggested that we go get something to eat to celebrate (she's not fasting this month). I explained that I'm not eating much at all because I feel so nauseous, and she was quick to say, "No, I'm talking about something sweet!" with a twinkle in her eyes. Sweet sounded do-able, so off we went. She bought me the biggest piece of tiramisu I'd ever seen and it was DELICIOUS!!! I ate every bite and practically scraped the plate clean! When I thanked her for it she quickly explained she wanted the baby to have something sweet. (Not to mention tiramisu was something she really craved when she was pregnant with her daughter.) Unfortunately, it's a rather expensive craving to have, so I'm hoping not to make a habit out of it! Oh yeah, another friend gave me a huge bowl of chocolate pudding topped with chopped nuts "for the baby" one day this week, too. I can already tell, they're going to make it hard to resist the sweets!!

Speaking of food . . . I've hardly eaten anything substantial for nearly 5 weeks. My dream meal . . . Big Mac! Yep, you see, in a couple of weeks we'll be headed to a nearby city that has a McDonald's, and I'm hoping that by the time we pass by there, I'll be up to eating my Big Mac!!! As of the way I'm still feeling right now . . . not happening, but I suppose since the nausea started overnight, I can hold out hope that it will stop overnight, too, huh?!

We've laughed at our home for the last few weeks becuase I'm thanking the Father literally for every bite of food I can manage to get down, and Mark is just as thankful for ANY cooked food he can get that isn't cooked by himself!!! He's doing a GREAT job of feeding himself these days - what a blessing to have a husband that can and will get his hands dirty in the kitchen and do his best to protect my sensitive nose/stomach from things he knows will make me sick. He'll even walk with me the long way downtown to avoid the fish market - what a great guy!!!

Well, it's time to put on PJ's and start winding down for bed. Mark's at a friend's house watching an NFL football game - a special treat! And I'm hoping for an early bedtime myself!!

Hope you all have a blessed week!!!

A Breath of Fresh Air

Well, there's nothing like a brisk fall day to lift your spirits! We had been seeing in the weather forecasts that yesterday and today might bring some rain showers and considerably cooler temps, but we weren't convinced it would really happen.

Surprise, surprise . . . last night, about the time it got dark, it started thundering and lightning. Then the wind started howling, and before we knew it, it was raining buckets and buckets!!! After having the same weather since April and May, this was really refreshing and rather exciting. Our power went out, and it was great just sitting in our candle lit living room, listening to the storm. And what an excellent excuse it made for going to bed an hour early!

Then we woke up this morning to a blue fall sky with a brisk, cool breeze, with those big puffy clouds rolling away. I'm telling you, it was a lift to our spirits! We opened our windows, put on our sweatshirts, and even took a little nap (after we worked on homework for about 2 hours). It made us think of our college days . . . walking across campus on a cool fall day, sitting outside on the grass with a good book or chatting with friends. And, of course, who can forget fall football games?! With a cup of hot chocolate from the concession stand. Actually, I had one of those this morning, too!! However, what I really wanted was one of those Starbucks caramel apple ciders, but those haven't made their debut over here yet!

Fall has always been my favorite season, and this year it has proven to me again why that is! The clear, blue sky (after seeing it hazy and dirty all summer and before all the coal smoke starts polluting it for the winter), the cool, not-humid breeze (after stifling hot, humid days and before the freezing cold days of winter), and that spring in my step that comes with comfortably wearing a pair of jeans and tennis shoes.

For those of you in places where fall brings such distinct changes in the air, by all means, don't forget to take a breath of fresh air and check out that bright blue sky!!!

There's No News Like Good News

In case you haven't heard our news yet . . . we're having a baby! Needless to say, we are very excited!! We've been waiting and praying for this for quite some time.

We've been to the doctor, and so far we really like him. He delivered two of our ex-pat friends' babies in the past 6 months. He doesn't really know English, but we were able to understand most of what he said to us (Thankfully, we've had almost a year of language learning under our belts!), and if we didn't understand, he did his best to help us understand. He was very nice with a great bedside manner!

Here we'll have an ultrasound done at every visit. Right now we don't have any way to scan the pictures we get from him, but maybe if we get that new printer we've been looking at we'll be able to send some photos along eventually. According to the ultrasound from our first visit, my due date is April 16 (one day before my Papa's birthday).

OK, we'll keep you posted. We'd love to hear from you, too!

Wake-up call anyone?

Yesterday marked the beginning of the holiest month (according to the majority belief) in this country. Over the course of this month our friends and neighbors will fast from sunup to sundown and abstain from other worldly pleasures as a sign of their submission to God and in the hopes of earning His favor. Because of the nature of their fast, most families eat 2 and sometimes 3 meals between sundown and sunup. The first is their "breaking fast" meal. Then they may eat again around midnight. Then breakfast is served super early in the morning to provide some nourishment for the rest of the day. Well, in order for no one to miss this early morning breakfast, there is a unique wake up call given around the city. We, for the past two mornings, have been exposed to this wake up call and wonder if any of you might be interested in something similar.

Around 3:30 in the morning, a man with a drum walks the streets of our neighborhood beating out an interesting little rhythm. There is no singing, no shouting, only drum beating.

If any of you is interested in a wake-up call like that please let us know. We'll try to get something worked out for your neighborhood so you at least won't miss the sunrise!

All joking aside, this is a very serious month for our friends and neighbors. We are trying to learn as much as possible about the significance of each tradition. If you have any questions about this month-long fast/celebration, please send them our way! We'll do our best to teach you as we learn.

We're back!

Well, it's been a long, dry spell with the blog, but we are hopefully back on track. We have been computerless for a number of weeks. Sorry for the delays between posts!

This past week we had the opportunity to spend a week at a mountaintop hotel with some of our friends from the States. We had a great time singing, talking, studying, laughing, learning, eating, playing, climbing steep mountain roads, and of course we can't fail to mention the much cooler temps! There wasn't much sunshine because we were literally "in the clouds" everyday. The one day it was clear, we decided to climb up one of those steep roads so we could get some pictures of the city at the foot of the mountain. What do you know? As soon as we reached the top, the clouds rolled in. That means all of our pictures are really foggy looking. Wish you could have seen the view!

The downside of our week away was that we came home with a stomach virus. At least 85, maybe 90, percent of the folks with us got sick with it. We thought we had made it without getting sick, but the night we got home, Mark was down for the count. He's doing better, and thankfully, I've been well so far. We've had other reports of folks getting sick in other families after getting home, too. What a yucky souvenir to bring home from such a great week!

Today, we started back to language class. We've had the whole summer off. Well, we still did some studying and practicing with our local friends. We just didn't have to go to class and keep learning new things. Boy, did we get a mental workout today!!!

Also, today, we had some men come to our apartment to make some outdoor improvements to our windows. Little did we know that Mark was going to get the opportunity to try out his best acrobatic moves! While the worker guys were working on some of the other windows, our landlord and Mark tackled this water pipe thing that runs along the outside of our apartment around one of the windows. Here's what "tackled" means . . . Our landlord was on a stepstool and Mark was hanging out of the window with me holding onto his pant's waist so he didn't fall out of the window. The had to take all the pipe pieces apart, clean them, figure out a different way to put them back together so the angle would be different, and then put them back together so that it wouldn't fall apart.

Here are some observations I made during this event (which made me nervous to say the least) . . .
You can reach higher from a stepstool than I thought you could.
Mark really can defy gravity (when I'm clutching his belt).
Handsoap does more than clean dirty hands. It also doubles as a lubricant for drain pipes.
Some people just shouldn't be standing on a stepstool and using a huge hammer drill at the same time.
Handsaws apparently don't require special safety precautions. Just hold it in one hand with the pipe you're cutting in the other hand and do it all with both hands hanging in mid-air. Oh, yeah, no safety goggles are needed either!

Well, after all that, the work was completed. No one cut off any appendages, no one fell out of any windows, and no one lost their eyesight because of flying drill/saw debris. I can't tell you how many times I've thanked the Father for that!!!

Happy Labor Day to all of you! Hope there's more rest than labor for you and yours today!!

Kings for a day . . . or two

This weekend, we had the privilege of helping a family in our apartment building celebrate the circumcision of their 2 sons. Here, families wait until their sons reach about primary school age to have it done (as a coming-of-age, religious rite). And when it's done, the celebrations begin!

Mom and dad had been preparing for this occasion for months! I don't know all the preparations that have to be done, but I'll tell you what I know happened over the past couple of days. I think you'll see for yourself what a task it is.

First, all the relatives came. And when I say relatives I'm talking probably at least 1/3 of their small family village! They all came in a bus together. Some of the relatives came earlier than others. I went by to say hello on Fri. and there were a couple of women sitting on the floor preparing some kind of food. No, the food wasn't on the floor. They sit cross-legged on the floor with a big round work surface raised about 2 feet from the floor (portable). I couldn't tell what they were making, but there was a lot of it. When I stopped by, the mom ushered me inside to show me her son's bedroom. The bed had a sheer piece of bridal veil-like material draped around it. It was all decorated with different colors of tinsel-like stuff. And neatly laid out on the bed were the special outfits the boys would wear to the festivities, along with a few other special items the mother had been preparing as gifts for family members who came.

So, the relatives start trickling in, and the kids are all running around playing. The adults are all greeting one another, talking, trying to get things set up for the party later on in the night, getting themselves and the kids dressed up, etc. Keep in mind that most of what we saw we saw from our window. After a while, all the women come out of the building: sparkley head scarves, make-up, fancy dresses, heels. And finally the guests of honor . . . the two boys. Let me take a moment to describe what they looked like . . . An entire outfit is tailored for this special day: white pants and shirt, white shoes, cape, regal hat, scepter, sash with a special message printed on it. On top of the white satin like material is a crimson design bordered by gold embroidery thread. And, yes, they do carry the scepter around the whole time!

Once mom, dad, and the boys were dressed and ready to greet their guests, everyone arrived to start eating. It was catered, much like we would do a big family get together at home. The food served was rice, bread, a soup-like dish, beans, and cherry juice. After eating, folks just kind of wandered around talking, listening to the live music, keeping their eyes peeled to the rain shower we could see coming over a mountain in the distance. Of course, the kids (and especially the two sons) were running around playing without a care in the world - as if they didn't realize they were dressed up for a really special occasion.

Well, at this particular party, all of the musical equipment had been set up outside. Then it started raining, so they had to move it inside. Then the rain stopped and it got too hot inside for everyone. Plus it was getting crowded. All the musical equipment got moved back outside. After that, the men started stringing lights. That was a learning experience! I don't know if any of them were licensed electricians, but they were doing things with live wires I'd be scared to do even if they weren't live!

Meanwhile more and more people continued trickling in. Stools were set up on the street under the lights that had been strung - men were on one side and women/children were on the other side. The little old man we had been talking with told us that the women were going to dance later. Unfortunately, we didn't hang around to see who danced the night away. We left after a couple of hours, but from our apartment we could hear the music as if we were sitting right there in front of the speaker. It continued well into the night, but thankfully our apartment is on the opposite end of the building and our fan blocks a lot of noise. We didn't hear a thing!

This morning we woke up to quiet, but it didn't take long for all those people to begin stirring. (We still don't know where they all slept!) They set up their musical equipment right outside our living room window and started playing about 10:30 in the morning - that's early for these folks on a Sun. morning. Not long after they started, the police showed up - no doubt someone complained that their sleep had been disturbed! And at some point in time this morning, there probably was a special religious leader who came to recite some words and prayers over the two sons.

All the hustle and bustle of feeding all of them started again. Our doorbell rang, and they invited us to eat with them. We had friends over for lunch, so we declined.

This afternoon, things have been quiet. The bus from the village is gone, and there's no one stirring outside. Typically, the boys are paraded around town in a caravan of horn-honking vehicles, accompanied sometimes by a drum and flute, and sometimes accompanied sometimes by a horse, on which the son is placed - as king for the day. We never saw a horse, never heard a drum, but we did hear some horns honking. It's possible they paraded around all the way back to their village 3 hours away. Who knows!

So you may be asking how in the world could those two little boys enjoy so much fun while enduring such a shocking experience. Well, in the past, the son was king for the day, and at the end of the day he got a big (not so fun) surprise. Now, it seems, the circumcision is done a week or so early, so that by the time the party rolls around, they can really enjoy themselves.

On top of all of that, the family receives gifts of gold from family and friends in honor of the special occasion. It turns out to be as much of a party for the parents and family as it is for the boys.

Recent Discoveries

Some of our family will be coming to visit later this year. Because of that we have been making a list of things we would like for them to bring to us when they come. Things like pancake syrup, chili powder, reese's pieces, etc. I recently (yesterday and today) discovered that I can get two of the items on my list here. I may not be able to find them all the time or at every grocery store, but I know at least one place to look for them.

So what are those two things . . . black-eyed peas and cornmeal! I've been craving black-eyed peas, so I was incredibly surprised when I passed a bin at the grocery store with a random assortment of beans and saw black-eyed peas among them! And I recently learned from a friend that she uses cream of wheat (easily found here) as a substitute for cornmeal. We can get corn flour really easily, too, but the texture is just not the same. So yesterday when we were walking around this wholesale kind of place, I was delighted to find what appears to be cornmeal. I haven't cooked with it yet, so I'm anxious to find out what the texture is like in the finished product.

Now we can have a proper home-cooked southern meal of black-eyed peas and cornbread. (No, I'm not waiting until New Year's!) All that's missing is a little bit of ham!!

Was that what I thought it was?!

So today while sitting at the computer, like I'm doing right now, I began to feel a swaying motion. It was a little like being in slow motion, and there were three distinct "waves" of movement. At the first one, Mark and I turned simultaneously and looked at each other. As the second and third passed, we looked around the room to see what else was moving. Was it just us . . . or was it the building? Our hanging light fixture was swaying a bit, too. Well, we went to our trusty "most recent earthquake" website a few minutes later and found that there had been a decent sized earthquake in our general vicinity. Now don't let this scare you . . . there was no damage, no power outages, or any other really horrible thing you may be associating with an earthquake in your mind right now. This is the second one I've felt since we moved here 9 months ago, but they actually occur all around us on at least a weekly basis, some weeks on a daily basis. Typically they are very minor and undetected by people. The first one I felt (a few weeks ago) was so brief that I wasn't even sure I had really felt it. It was more like something I had imagined. In fact, I was so unsure of it, I didn't even mention it to Mark. Then, in our language class that night, our teacher asked us if we felt it.

It is quite an interesting sensation, feeling the building you're in sway. It kind of makes your insides feel like they're moving around a little, too. Strange!

Anyway . . . just thought I'd share about an experience we're learning to recognize in our new home.

Mixing it up . . .

So when a mason is hired to put down new tile around an older apartment building, where do you suppose he would mix his concrete for the base that goes under the tile? Why, of course, in front of the gate that every tenant in the apartment building has to use to enter the building!!! I'm just glad we saw the wet mixture there during daylight hours instead of finding out by stepping in it in the dark!!! The pile of " dirt" had been there for several days by the gate. We really didn't think it would be mixed right there where it had been dumped!

All jesting aside, the finished product has been remarkable, and we're grateful we have an apartment manager who wants things to look nice!

Thinking about food . . .

Well, maybe it was just wishful thinking when I told you that watermelons cost about 40cents here. I learned today that those signs don't mean 40cents for one watermelon - they mean 40cents for one kilogram. Still that's not too bad - that's 40cents for just over 2 pounds! Anyway . . . just wanted to clear that up. It seems that after going to the open bazaar so many times I would know how to read those silly cardboard signs!!

Oh yeah, on that same note . . . just thought I would tell you that I bought 1 kg (about 2 lbs) of tomatoes for about 50 cents. This time, my math is right, I'm sure!

I've also learned that seedless grapes aren't really seedless here. That was quite a surprise the first time I bit into a juicy round white grape that I bought in a package of "seedless" grapes! So here's my question for all of you . . . what's the best way to eat a grape with seeds? And what can you do with them besides eat and spit the seeds out? And if there are things that can be done with them, how do you remove the skins and seeds so that there's enough grape left to do something with??? Please pass along any ideas you have!

Here's a new summer recipe for all of you chefs: If you like salads like I do, maybe you'll like this variety of potato salad . . . Be forewarned, it's not very exact. I watched my friend here make it, and there was no measuring involved at all, so take the idea of it and experiment!!

a few potatoes (cooked and mashed - not whipped with a mixer, just mashed)
a couple (or 3 or 4) medium sized cucumbers (peeled and grated)
a couple (or more) cloves of garlic (crushed, mashed, grated - take your pick)
equal parts mayo and plain yogurt (however much you want to taste)

Add a little salt and pepper. Mix it all up. Chill it in the fridge for a little while. Voila! A new twist on potato salad!!! If you decide to try it, let me know how it goes!

Side note: To cook potatoes here for mashed potatoes or potato salad, the potatoes are cooked whole, peeling on, until soft. Then they cool the potatoes so that they can be handled, and the peeling is peeled off the potato. Although I've done it both ways, I haven't decided which is the fastest or easiest yet . . . peeling and cutting up by hand first or peeling by hand after cooking. What do you think?

It's just not fair!

Here's our beloved Titus' most recent discovery . . .

It's just not fair for him to enjoy such delicacies without us being able to share with him!!!

Happy 4th of July!

Well, it was a sunny day here for our 4th of July celebration. We had the opportunity to get together with some fellow ex-pats to celebrate the independence of our beloved America. The menu included hamburgers (and a few cheeseburgers with "cheddar" cheese), hot dogs (beef, of course), chili, potato salad, brownies, sugar cookies, a candy bar-pudding dessert, all the trimmings (a bag of real bacon bits even showed up), and the star of the show "Dr. Pepper" for everyone! No watermelon and no apple pie, but maybe next year. Watermelons are in abundance here, and we thought we would have them served by the facility that hosted our party, but they forgot to serve fruit as promised, and we forgot to ask. The guys enjoyed playing football, tennis, and frisbee, while the ladies played with the kids, walked around the park, and chatted about recent happenings. There was even a guest puppy dog there, which was a special treat for us, the dog-lovers!!

On the way to the park where we had our cookout (it was a little over an hour away) there were the most beautiful fields of sunflowers we've ever seen! The hills were covered with them!! Unfortunately we didn't have our camera with us, so we don't have any pictures to share. But maybe another day we'll be able to get some so you can see them, too.

We hope you also had an exciting day celebrating our nation's independence. Much love to you all!!

Summer's here!!!!!

Things here have certainly warmed up rather nicely over the past couple of weeks. We've consistently had temps in the 90's and the humidity is . . . well, humid! So far we've been able to get a good enough breeze in our apartment that we haven't installed an AC. We have windows directly across from each other at opposite ends of the apartment, and that helps keep air circulating rather steadily.

We've been busy continuing our language study and visiting with our friends so we can practice our steadily increasing skills. This week though we get a little break from class - yahoo!!! That means we are going to have the opportunity to do some different things with our friends. Tonight Mark is playing soccer. Tomorrow Melissa is meeting a friend to take some lessons in bead-jewelry making. Then we are both meeting at our artist friends' studio so Mark can model for one of their students. How about that?! She's getting ready for a drawing exam in the fall, and she told us she needs a "live" model instead of pictures. He has to sit still for an hour without talking (according to the student). It should be a hoot! Later in the week, we're hoping to meet our neighbors at their summer home for a visit, some friends from another city will be coming for a visit, another friend's mom and aunt will be coming from the States to help care for their new baby, and then to end the weekend, we hope to make another trip with some friends to a local favorite vacation spot. Whew!!! What a week it could turn out to be!!

Oh yeah . . . how much are watermelons selling for at home these days? Here they're selling for the equivalent of 40 cents a piece . . . can you believe that??? The most expensive we've seen is about 80 cents a piece. Unbelievable!!!

We hope you're getting some time to enjoy the arrival of summer, too! We'd love to hear about your adventures!!

Tea Time

Hi, everyone! I had the privilege of hosting 10 women in our home for tea last week. I thought I would take a few minutes to describe what that's like. Hope you enjoy! And maybe you'll be inspired to do something like this at your house, too!!

First, it is almost expected that before hosting a large group of women for a "proper" tea, your house is white-glove inspection clean. For me that meant the windows had to be cleaned, and I wasn't going to crawl onto the ledge to do it! My neighbor was kind enough to recommend someone and make the appointment for me, and on Mon. morning about 9:00 my new friend arrived. All she used were old t-shirts cut into rags and water in a bucket - no cleaner of any kind - and these windows nearly sparkled!! You see, we have LOTS of BIG windows in our apartment, and although we are on the first floor, it's technically the second floor. Thus, my fear of climbing on the ledge to clean them. We also have lots of wind in our city and lots of black dust - usually from burning coal and just dust from the ground. It doesn't take long for all of that coal and dust to stick to the windows. Anyway . . . let's continue.

Then comes cleaning the rest of the house. For me that wasn't so bad. I cleaned everything really well, and Mark vacuumed. We make a great cleaning team!!

Then the most time-consuming part . . . the cooking! For all of you moms, grandmas, and caterers who cook or have ever cooked for large crowds of people on a regular basis, let me just say I have a new found respect for you!!! Now usually at home, if someone is kind enough to host a large group of people, other folks help out and bring a dish or two when they come. Sometimes not, but generally speaking. There are a few of you out there who can whip up a meal for a crowd without a sweat! You know who you are!! Don't get me wrong . . . I enjoyed preparing the food for my friends, but it was a lot of work. As soon as I got one thing in the oven, I was on to the next thing. The other issue I faced was that my national cooking skills here are still rather limited. I tried to take a few favorites from home and re-create them with a local flare. It seemed to have worked out rather well. No one complained about the food, and there were quite a few empty plates.

The guests all arrive at different times. The hostess greets them at the door. Then they make their way into the sitting room where everyone is individually greeted with a two-cheek kiss and sometimes a hug. Everyone sits back down and the "how are you's" commence. Each person asks every other person how they're doing, how their families are doing, and such. It's not very orderly - everyone is asking one another at the same time. Guests continue to arrive during all of this, with lots more standing, kissing, hugging, and "how are you's."

Once everyone has arrived and has had a chance to chat a little, the hostess and usually a helper disappear into the kitchen to prepare everyone's plates. It is usually a full-sized dinner plate, filled up. And usually filled up with lots of bready things, always something salty and something sweet, and usually a salad of some kind. During this same time, someone in the sitting room passes out napkins to everyone and situates the little tables that get distributed around the room for tea glasses to be set upon. The plates are delivered to each person, and then following that, tea is served to each person.

As food is being consumed and everyone is talking, the sole job of the hostess is to make sure everyone has tea (empty glasses are not acceptable!) and to continue asking if anyone wants anything else to eat. Once people finish their plates, the hostess removes them and continues offering tea until the guests refuse or the tea runs out. Tea here is made a bit differently (more about that in another blog maybe), and each cup is made fresh and individually, sort of.

After the dishes have been removed, conversation continues for another 1-2 hours. And finally the hostess gets a little down time to eat a few bites.

As each guest gets ready to leave, they announce their leaving, head for the door, give a series of "goodbyes" to their friends, kiss and thank the hostess, and offer blessings to the hostess as they leave.

As my last 4 guests were leaving on Wed. another neighbor stopped in with her granddaughter for a quick visit. To show just how much she appreciated all the effort I had put into hosting my guests, she used their "get well soon" expression when she sat down in my sitting room! In other words, "You must be tired. I hope you can rest soon."

It was a lot of work, but what a great experience!!! I hope that instead of scaring you away from hosting a few guests in your home, I've inspired you to try it sometime. What a fun way to bless others!

Now with all of that said . . . whoever invented potluck dinners was a genius!!

Silly Grin

Melissa's dad sent this picture to us a couple of weeks ago. He can't remember taking the picture, and he doesn't know how he happened to catch Titus making this face, but it's one for the funny pages!!!

As you can see, he's as happy as can be!!!

A few random tidbits

Mark is out playing soccer with some guys tonight, so I thought I would take a few minutes to tell you a few random things that we've experienced recently. Hope you enjoy!

On a recent trip, I learned that you really don't need a shower curtain to take a shower. You just pile all of your clothes as far away from the stream of the shower nozzle as possible (which is not usually amounted on the wall here) and get the whole room wet. Interestingly enough, this week our shower curtain rod at home fell down and couldn't be put back up. We've been taking showers without a curtain because we can't seem to locate a rod yet. I think we've become pretty good with our aim!

We've had the privilege of growing to like a national favorite . . . green, unripe plums. Instead of waiting to harvest all the plums when they ripen, they pick them from the time they are the least bit edible (which is still relative) and continue harvesting them until they are fully ripened.

Liver continues to sneak up on us in various situations. I recently ate half of plate of fried liver while eating out with some friends. This is how I did it . . . one bite of liver, one bite of bread, one sip of water . . . over and over and over again until the plate was half finished. Thankfully, I had already explained to my friends that I would only eat half a plate, so no one was offended. One of the ladies just had the other half packaged and took it home to her husband to eat.

Microwave popcorn made it on the menu of a recent BINGO gathering. It was a new concept for pretty much everyone.

What happens when we decide to eat dinner before language class? Our teacher feeds us! Yeah, our class was scheduled for an hour later than normal a few weeks ago. Because of that, we decided to eat our dinner before going to class. Our teacher and his wife, being the hospitable hosts that they are, had ordered dinner for us! So what did we do? You've got it . . . we ate every bite!! We were stuffed!

The following picture is of a tiny broom (about 4 in. long) that is believed to keep evil spirits away. There is a magnet on the back so that it can be hung on the fridge. And that diamond shaped thing in the middle is a mirror.


Have any of you ever been the ONE person in a group who was seriously underdressed? I have! And not that long ago. I (Melissa) recently traveled overnight with a group of women. I asked before packing what kinds of clothes to pack. My friend told me to bring comfortable clothes. So, what did I pack? Jeans, long sleeved t-shirts, and the only shoes I took were the ones I wore - tennis shoes. You'd think I would have learned by now that it goes without saying here that when a group of people eat dinner together away from home or with company, the dress code is far from comfortable. I went to dinner that night feeling a bit out of place! I was the only one in jeans and certainly the only ones in tennis shoes!! Either no one noticed, or everyone was just too nice to say anything, but it went unchallenged. Well, one of my roomies did ask me if I was going "like that" but it wasn't an insult, just a matter of fact question - I think! Next time, I'll be sure to pack some fancy clothes, even if it's not mentioned ahead of time!!

Our Second Honeymoon

Yep . . . we had the most relaxing week last week celebrating 10 years of marriage! I was telling a friend today that I didn't realize how tired I had been until we got home from our vacation and I suddenly realized how refreshed I feel!! I promised some pictures, so here you go . . . you can see for yourselves why it was such a great trip. What a creative artist our Father is!!!

It's hard to make out, but these are some thirsty cows trying to get water from an almost dry riverbed.

This one's also a little hard to make out, but those are really cool rock formations that were all over the mountains in this particular area.

A view from high in the mountains.

We have no idea why, but those little dots all lined up are little stuffed animals (goats, sheep, cows, horses) that people were selling along the road.

This was our view from the Chinese restaurant where we managed to find some sweet and sour pork!!!

a view of the beach

the lagoon behind the beach in the picture above

Anyone want to walk the plank?! We took an 8 hour (sail)boat trip around some local islands. This is looking over the water from the back of the boat.

a passage through several islands
(I barely got that sailboat in the picture!)

We were able to actually set sail for a little while once we got out to almost open sea.
It was amazing!

This picture was taken from the boat. Can you believe how clear the water is?!

another beach - and those are the same islands we wound our way through on the 8 hour boat tour

our hotel room - no AC, all tile floors, and a shower that wet everything in the bathroom BUT we had TV and a clean bed to sleep in!!

Plus we had this nice big pool to ourselves since the holiday rush hasn't yet started.

the rickety old bridge to cross the canal to get to the beach - it was a little scary!

Harman - the hotel owner's dog - after his morning beach swim

the beach as we saw it from our beach chairs

History Lesson

I've started reading a book about the history of this country, and recently I had the opportunity to travel to some of the early historical sites I've read about. It was spectacular!! Here are a few pictures . . .

a museum that was a medical research facility way back in the day

a very old mosque

a war memorial

a river that reminded me a lot of home - my friends were touched that these surroundings reminded me so much of home - you see, there are no trees or rivers like this in our city!

a really old bridge that used to have water running under it

inside a new mosque that was basically built across the road from the old one (the first pic)

New posts are on the way . . .

Well, I logged into the blog tonight and realized that it's been a whole month since we last posted anything. Sorry about that!! Between being away from home or away from our own computer for at least half of the month and trying to recuperate and prepare for traveling the other half of the month, there's been little time to do much else!

We've been blessed with good health, safe travels, the opportunity to reconnect with some friends we made prior to moving overseas, and the pleasure of making new friends this month. We also went on vacation for a week to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary. It was truly a dream vacation!! (Be looking for pictures in the near future.)

Here's a sneak peek!

Tomorrow we get back into the old grind with homework, grocery shopping, and language class. Nothing like re-entering the real world after a week of R&R, huh?!

Well, for now, we'll say good night. Please visit again soon, and we'll try to have some new pictures and stories posted for your viewing pleasure!

a few random pictures

Here's a few pictures from a recent trip we took.

The tulips were in full bloom . . . beautiful!!

The birds were enjoying a picnic of crumbs . . .
maybe a few sesame seeds that had fallen off of a couple of hamburger buns???

This kitty cat was taking a nap in a local transportation office.
Wonder where it was headed to. . . the land of zzz's?

Ignorance is bliss!

So it would seem that by now I would have learned not to eat something without first knowing what it's made of, right? Well, it seems I haven't quite learned that lesson.

A couple of weeks ago, while sitting in a local restaurant, trying to decide what we wanted to eat, I decided to ask what kinds of soup were available. I really like the soups served over here, so I figured I couldn't go wrong. I asked the waitress what kinds of soup were being served that day, and she gave me two names. I didn't really understand the first, so I asked for the second even though I had never heard of it before.

As usual, my soup was brought out before our other food or drinks. I was going to wait until my sandwich came out to start eating, but the waitress came by and asked if there was something wrong with the soup since I hadn't started eating it yet. I explained that it was fine and started eating it.

My very first impression was that it was pretty bland. It lacked salt and any other flavor. It tasted starchy, like rice that had been cooked too long or stirred too much, and it had little bits of white stuff in it that also looked like rice. I added some salt and ate a little bread with it, and although it was still pretty bland, I managed to eat it all.

The next day, we were talking with some friends about our experience at the restaurant (as there had been a few misunderstandings with our order), and they asked me what kind of soup I had. When I told them the name of the soup, the first thing out of their mouths was, "Gross!! You know what you ate don't you?!" Well, of course, I had no idea. They went on to explain that the soup I had eaten is made of water and little bits of cooked cow stomach!!!!

Needless to say, I won't be ordering that soup anymore!! But who knows what I might end up ordering the next time my hungry stomach and inquisitive spirit outwit my better judgment!

Super what???

Yesterday during language class, in the middle of translating a really difficult reading passage, Mark came across a tongue twister of sorts. It was just a couple of words describing a water bottle, nothing extremely funny. Our language teacher, almost immediately grabbed a piece of paper and started writing something down. Our tired and somewhat focused minds thought he was about to expound on the grammar rule for making nouns possessive as a review for our feeble brains. However, what he wrote had noting to do with what we had just read, and it certainly wasn't a grammar rule. The longer he wrote, the bigger his smile became. There was also a slight twinkle in his eye, I think! He wrote three lines of words, and in the last line were the very two words Mark had stumbled across as he was reading aloud. It was a tongue twister - think "Sally sells seashells by the seashore" and you'll have the right idea. He menacingly asked Mark to read it aloud a couple of times. Then, of course, Mark couldn't let the opportunity pass without cornering me to try it!! We had some good laughs before he started writing again. This time he told us he was writing the longest word in the language - it has 36 characters! And do you think we were able to say it?! Not a chance!!

Well, we got back to business and finished our lesson, but I couldn't leave without telling him about the most mysterious word kids growing up in my generation loved to sing and attempt to spell. You got it . . . supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. (No, I never did learn how to spell it correctly by heart - I had to look it up on the internet!) I explained that it comes from a movie and that it's totally nonsensical. In fact, I don't know how many children watch good 'ol Mary Poppins anymore. He found it rather interesting.

Last night I made a point to write the word down for him so he could see it. Before we started class, I opened my notebook, pushed it toward him, and reminded him of the word we had discussed the evening before. He took a running start and made it almost to "expi" before he started giggling. He made a couple of attempts, read it to himself a time or two, and then got brave enough to try the whole thing out loud where we could hear him. It was really a hoot!! He gave a little sigh, like he was ready to start class, so I pulled my notebook back toward myself. Then I noticed him peeking back over to see it again, giggling to himself. Finally, he grabbed a pen, turned to a clean page in his book, and wrote it down.

I don't know what the longest word in the English language is, but between the two words we were comparing, his won out by 2 characters! And to top it all off, that one word equals a sentence made of 10-12 English words. Maybe one day, we'll have the guts to give it a try. Today, I think I would lose my breath trying to get through the whole thing!!

Hope you're able to expand your vocabulary a little today!

The Beauty of Spring

We had the opportunity to visit a historical site a couple of weeks ago, and it reminded me of the way God's beautiful creation does something to lift my spirits when spring arrives. The sky was so blue, the sun was so bright and warm, the grass was so green, the wild flowers were in full bloom, the air was full of the sound of shepherds ringing bells to gather their bleating sheep on the hillsides, and after a heavy spring rain, we saw a couple of rainbows that were set against the contrasting darkness of storm clouds and brightness of green pastures. Breathtaking!! Below are a few pictures we took. They don't really do justice, but maybe it will give a taste of the great outdoors we experienced.

This is some kind of unusual looking flower, weed, plant . . . don't know what it's called.

It's a little hard to see, but the little white specks (toward the middle of the picture) are sheep being herded by their shepherd. I spotted them after hearing the bell the shepherd was ringing.

The rest of the story . . . . .

Well, after asking for the THIRD time, I finally got the rest of the story about what happened to make all our neighbors come to our door at 12:30 at night. Here goes . . .

We had a candle lit in our bedroom in front of a window that faces the street. Apparently, sometime before we blew it out and went to bed, someone across the street saw the flame from the candle and thought there might be a fire. They called someone in our building, who in turn called our building manager, who just happens to be my closest neighbor's husband. It also seems that no one was sure if we were home or not. So first, they all (4 or 5 neighbors) gathered outside our bedroom window, trying to see if there was anything going on. Then they came to our door to see if we were home. When they saw that we were home and everything was OK, they were satisfied. When they asked if we were scared, they were asking if we were scared by them coming to our door. I explained to her that we weren't scared, but we didn't know who it would be or why.

There you go! Gotta love neighbors with a watchful eye!!

Who's there?!

Living in the first floor apartment that is located right beside the main entrance to our building can often be a little frustrating. Our bedroom is directly beside the door, so when our neighbors come in and go out after we've already gone to bed, we often hear the door slam, their hard bottomed shoes tapping on the marble steps, and/or their conversations with folks on the doorbell intercom. Sometimes taking a nap in the afternoon is impossible if there are a lot of people coming and going.

Well, last night we got into bed about midnight. We noticed shortly thereafter that our power blinked off and back on a couple of times. Then we started hearing all of these voices in the building lobby or just outside the door. We couldn't tell which. Mark was trying to peek out of our window (without being spotted) to see who it was. He couldn't tell who it was. He climbed back into bed, and just as we got settled back down to try to get to sleep, our doorbell started ringing. We ignored the first time, but then it rang again and again. Mark went to the window again to see who it was, and he saw that it was some of our neighbors. I thought maybe when the power blinked off the power to the door opener thing quit working and they needed to be let back in. So we decided to answer the door. When I got to the bathroom to get my robe, I heard my neighbor tapping our door saying my name. She sounded worried, so I, as quickly as possible, opened the door. I wish I could have captured the looks on their faces when they saw me in my pajamas and bathrobe!! (Apparently they didn't know we were already in the bed and seemed quite embarrassed about having disturbed us.) They asked if we were OK several times, and I assured them that we were fine. Then they asked if we were scared. I told them no, but I wasn't sure what they thought we would be scared of. I asked them what had happened, and they all started talking about the apartment building across the street. All I understood was the word for fire, but that word also has a few different meanings depending on how it's used. Again I assured them we were OK, and they told us (with looks of embarrassment on their faces) to go back inside.

Now, after all that, we still have NO idea what that was all about!! And we may never know. The good thing is that we have neighbors who care enough about us to ring our doorbell and knock on our door to make sure we're OK at 12:30 at night, even if something happened without our knowing it!