A you tube video

We are working on adding photos to Jerica's blog and it's looking great.  We are going to make a lot of additions and changes to it before we post it. Meanwhile, one of the students made this you tube video and Jerica is in it for a couple seconds.  Haha. Her role may not be a major one but it shows what went on a little bit in the church and classes. The second half of the video is of his outreach to Madascar which Jerica did not go on. She went on a different outreach that you will read about when the blog is ready.  Here is a link to the video.  Look for her at 58 seconds standing in a circle praying. You can see her back and she is wearing a green shirt.  Then at 2:20 she is dancing enthusiastically wearing black. Enjoy!

                                             http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVA6CXe9WDg&sns=fb

Emails from Jadie in London

7/26 This morning we made the sack lunches for the picnic and outing to Eastbourne, we had to make around 75. At 1pm we set up the coffee bar,and prayed. Today I served drinks the whole time. It is a busy job, they can have as many cups of coffee, tea or juice that they want and I think some people have around 10 cups during the 2 hours we are open. We are pretty much constantly serving someone a drink. Some people want to hang out and talk to you but it is hard to talk to some one and continue to serve drinks. I did get to have a few short conversations. A lot of people are surprised that I am from America, I have been told that I do not look like, talk like or act like an American. Some people say they thought I was from Spain, some thought I was from somewhere in Europe like Slovakia,or somewhere around there. I have been told that I do not have an American accent. And others say they have never met an American that listens to people, that all the Americans they have met just want to talk, and never listen.

7/27 Today we went to Eastbourne, it is a small town near the coast. Mostly retired people live there and tourist visit. It is an hour and a half train ride away. During the train ride I talked a little bit with one of the homeless guys he was really excited about going to the beach and kept telling me he was going to go paddling and asking me if I was going to go paddling. I did not know what he meant at first, I thought maybe he meant swimming and since it was kind of a cold day I told him it was to cold to get in the water. Then he would say no it won't be that cold I will check it out for you. I told him okay. I found out after a bit that when he said paddling he meant wadding. When we got to Eastbourne we split up into groups and went different places, some went straight to the beach and stayed there all day. Some went shopping. and the group I was with had some of the oldest and slowest people in it so we got about 2 blocks from the train station and they wanted to stop for coffee. We sat at a coffee shop for about an hour. While I was there I talked with someone else who told me all he believes about God and all the evangelism stuff he does. It was all good except that he believes that when we die we do not go straight to heaven but that we fall asleep until Jesus comes back and takes us to heaven. He says that it says this in the bible. I told him that I had never seen that in the bible but that I would look into it.When we left the coffee shop we got fish and chips and took it down to the beach to eat. It was not very good, it was to oily and did not have much flavor, and the beach is mostly rocks. I decided to go for a walk along the beach. I took about a 2 hour walk, and waded in the water some and looked in a few gift shops, then met up with my group back at the coffee shop where we started- it was time to go home.

7/28Today was the woman’s friendship club ministry, this time we had a clothes store for them. They get donations of clothes that they keep in a small room and give out to the coffee bar people. But mostly men come to the coffee bar so they save up the woman’s clothes and once a month bring them to the friendship club to give to the women. The woman’s ministry is at a different church so we had to bring all the clothes from that church to this church and then fold them nicely and lay them out for the women to look at. This took awhile to do. When the women came we served them coffee, or tea, and cookies, and socialized for a for about45 minutes. Then we let them look through the clothes. They had a lot fun.As they looked through them if they found something they liked but it didn't fit them they would give to one of the other ladies, or give it to one of us. When they where finished looking through the clothes we served them lunch,and talked some more. When the meeting is over we clean, and debrief and pray for the women. When we where done with this I came home and did my work duty for the week which is vacuuming the house where I stay. I have to vacuum 3 flights of stairs, and the landings/hallways, the living room, the guest room, and I did my room as well.It is a lot of work vacuuming the stairs.

7/29Today five of us went to a park to worship. 3 of the people that came could play guitar, and all three of them brought there guitars,and played together. We where at the park for about 2 1/2 hours, it was a nice day and we all enjoyed sitting in the park worshiping. One of the guys was from India, and one is from Norway and they tried to teach us a worship song in their languages. As we where getting ready to leave a couple people came over and asked if they could play one of our guitars. They had a group of children with them and said that they needed to entertain the children. This group is from Congo, I do not know what they are doing here. It was a group of 4 adults and around20 children. They had been playing soccer in the park the whole time we where worshiping and I think the adults where tired and needed a rest. They called all of the children to come over to us, and bring a drum that they had, then they had all the kids to sit in a circle and sing some songs in there language. It was really fun to listen to.They sang 3 songs and the last song 4 of the girls sang by themselves.They said that they are Christians and the songs they sang where christian songs. After they sang they asked us to sing a song, then all of the children wanted to go play soccer again.

More on Life in The Wardrobe

We went to Lucy's bosses boat house which is just one of those little houses where people are supposed to keep their boats. But the people here fix them up and use them as little houses so they have another place to go. It was really nice and a cute little house and they say in the summer they can swim. That part would be nice since the water is only a couple of feet outside the back door and in a nice little harbor. The people who own these houses just spend the weekend and stuff in them it is kind of like having a cabin in the woods except it is a lot closer and not as cool. They had electricity and everything.

He had invited us over for diner. It was just him and his wife. His wife is really nice and knew a bit of English. I learned that they catch little wild birds for pets or to feed to their hawks, by using a bird they already own and a net. Actually that is about all I got out of the explanation but some how the people who own hawks catch little wild birds. They say that if they put out a bird they already own in a cage it calls out to other birds and they fly down and then some how they use a net to catch them.
Diner was baked potatoes but they put different things on them than we would. We ate them with olives (the fresh kind that still have the pit in them and a lot more flavor) cheese (it is a white cheese that is too soft to cut but not quite cream cheese) and hazelnut honey (which looks like normal honey but isn't sweet it is more sour). We also drank tea and ate these weird chewy stick things that are hard to describe. I was not a fan of the stick things at first but have grown to like them. They are almost flavorless and kinda a weird consistency/texture that takes some getting used to.
We had a good Thanksgiving meal even though it was a vegetarian meal. I made pretzels while Lucy made Kofte (Don't know how to say what this is I will send a picture) and Peynirli Borek (cheese pastry things). Then we made a carrot salad and a potato salad. That along with the pudding dish we made yesterday and tea was our thanks giving meal.
Lucy likes to visit people and has a lot of friends. A lot of the people we visit have kids so she gets the chance to do crafts with them or tell them B-book stories. The more people she meets and talks with, the more chances there are to see lives changed.
We just don't like it if we go out they are watching trashy TV and don't want to talk because then it would be rude to leave and a waste of time to stay.
It is normal to visit people a lot here, we only go out a little more often than most people. We have the advantage of being single girls so we don't have to ask our husbands if we can go out. But most people either go out or have visitors 3-4 times a week. Even if they do just watch TV together.

We would rather go out then have people over. The whole thing of having to serve tea and food and that once people come it is up to them when they leave makes it nicer to go out than to be the host. Other people don't seem to mind and actually seem to prefer us coming to there house. Part of it might be that women wouldn't go out alone and cant leave without their husbands permission, while if we come over the husbands can do whatever and they don't have to ask permission to receive guests.
11/27

I amused myself playing with a little boy today. He must of been around 4 or 5. I am not sure why he was not in school and he did not realize I didn't speak the language. When he realized that I was watching him he started to shop for a new sweater and would pick up a shirt check the size then hold it up himself to check and see if it was the right size. If the shirt was to large he would tell me it was to big and put it back. When he finally found one that fit he would then look at me to see if I approved. I know enough of the language to discus the color of his choice or say if I thought it was to big or small. He was so cute! and would ask me to zip and unzip the shirts if they had zippers. As we where leaving he decided his next method of entertainment would be to yell and guys as they passed by to see if he could annoy them. I am not sure what all he was yelling about but it involved lions and dogs and he was successful in annoying some guys walking by.

11/30

Today we went to teach the little girl. She is so sweet and likes Lucy so much. Today she suddenly interrupted the lesson to say that teachers do not get married. Then waited to see what Lucy would say. She knows that her other teachers are married but wanted to see if Lucy was planning on getting married. Lucy said that she was not planning on getting married to which the little girl smiled and went back to her lesson happy to learn that there was no fear of Lucy not being able to teach her any more. Then later we took a break to eat some oranges and the girl kept eating the peels. She has done this before but Lucy decided to ask her why she was eating them. She replied that Lucy liked to eat them right?? When Lucy said no, that she only ate apple peels, the girl stopped eating the orange peels. She has warmed up to me a bit but is still a little unsure if she should be friendly or not. I think she realizes that I am not a threat to her friendship with Lucy but now has to decide if we should be friends or not.
Our neighbor has not been as friendly since she learned how old Lucy is. We have decided that she thought Lucy was younger then she is and would of made a great match for her son. Ever since she learned Lucy’s real age we have not been invited over. So that is kinda sad since she was a nice lady and we really enjoyed spending time with her. There is another lady who is trying to marry Lucy off to her nephew we don't know her real name so we call her the annoying lady. She called 8 times today before noon to try and set up a time to drink tea with Lucy.

12/1

The neighbor girls insisted we come in and drink tea so our 5 minute visit turned into a 2 hour visit. We had a good time though and got to hear all the horror stories about having an operation here. They failed to numb her hand even though they gave her 5 painful shots. So she felt them cut into her hand and everything. It didn't sound pleasant at all. She was feeling OK though and was up and about helping serve the tea and everything so she should be fine.
Today we went and visited the lady who had a baby recently he is just 25 days old so she still has 15 days before she can leave the house. She is a good mother and nice to talk to. She is different than most of the women here. She is breast feeding even though every one here uses formula and insists it is better. She seems like she is actually researching what is best and ignoring a lot of bad advice from the people here, which is rare and very good. They think that if you breast feed that the only way to have enough milk is to eat sweet things so the few women who breast feed are super over weight. But she says this is stupid and is eating healthy things. We stayed and talked with her for quite awhile and we had made fresh apple muffins to take over to her so that took up a lot of our morning. The girls last night gave us a big bowl full of fruit which is nice since the fruit here is good but we rarely buy any since it is only cheap from the market and we don't usually shop from the market. They had picked all the fruit from their village and had more than they could eat. They have several kinds of pears here that we do not have, but not all are good. I tried a new kind of pear yesterday that was a sour pear and tasted a lot like a lemon but it did look like a pear and had the same crunchy pear texture so it was just weird. They also have another pear that is called the pear that killed the donkey or something like that. Apparently it is is poisonous unless it turns brown.

People here are very surprised when Lucy tells them about how cold it is in America and then they say that must be why I am still wearing flip flops and t-shirts.

Today we haven't done much besides go to teach the little girl. She had a friend over so we taught them both. She does a lot better when she has competitions and her friend was pretty quick. They had a lot of fun and we had a lot of laughs. We taught them for over and hour and at one point they got wiggly so Lucy tried to teach them how to do some of the jumps she does on skates. The one girl can jump in the air and spin in a circle super fast. She barely gets off the ground and moves so quick it is almost hard to tell if she actually spun or not. We where super impressed and she would make an amazing skater except she had pretty bad balance. We had them see how long they could stand on one foot and they had horrible balance but that could of been in part that they where wearing 3 pairs of pants! The house was warm enough to be in t-shirts and that is how they where dressed.
Tonight we have at least one private lesson maybe more. Lucy is going to start two new groups and then got a phone call during the little girls lesson and I am not sure if it was another group or not. Our evenings are going to be busy though. She will now teach from 3 until 8 with almost no breaks 4 nights a week and then from 8-5 on the weekends. Which isn't really that much during the week but we still plan on visiting people and that doesn't count the time we spend with the little girl and we told 2 other girls that we would stop by the store where the work and teach them some in the afternoons.

12/5
Today I had a lot of fun. I went with a family to a nearby water fall. Lucy didn't know what would happen but she knew that a lot of people get together and go to this water fall every year and this one family invited us to come along. Lucy of course had to work but said I could go if I wanted to.

First we wandered around town and I could not figure out why but eventually we found a car to throw some stuff they had brought from their house into. Then we headed to the town square where about a hundred people with bikes where standing around waiting to leave. Lucy assumed we would be walking to the water fall and back and that we would spend most of the day just walking slowly there and back. I didn't think the lady who had invited me could walk to the water fall let along there and back. I was told to have a seat so I just sat down to see what would happen.

A lot of people had gathered and I didn't think half of them would actually be able to make it. In about half an hour the bikers finally took off with a police car leading them and an ambulance following behind. I guess I wasn't the only one with doubts about people making it. I was then relieved to discover we would be driving most of the way to the water fall and piled into a car with 6 other people.

The lady who was driving us decided that she was in a big hurry so she sped up and got right behind the bikers who where all in a big pack. Then she started to weave into and out of the pack of bikers, switching between driving at head on traffic and nearly killing bikers as she forced her way back into the right lane. Luckily we all survived- even if it was a close call for a few of the bikers. Then the lady slowed down and drove at just over 10 miles an hour! I am not sure what the point of this was as she had just been in such a hurry. But she not only chose to drive at this place but also took a long scenic side track so that it took us well over an hour to get to where we would park the car before walking to the water fall.

Once we parked the car we all got out and took some pictures and then sat around for awhile. I again have no idea why we did this but was entertained by the two kids who where part of the group I was with. We had our own fun while the other adults just sat around. Finally, we started up towards the water fall. About half way to it there is kind of a flat meadow and everyone stopped here and other people where already there. It turned that most of the adults would be staying here to cook food for a picnic.
The kids and I headed off to the water fall and spent some time climbing around on the rocks and taking pictures before heading back down the trail to see if the food was done. It was so we ate lunch which was fish sandwiches. Well that is what Americans would say we ate. But what really happened was that they threw down a tarp and then put a pan in the middle of it which they then dumped a bunch of little cooked fish into. Then they put a bag of quartered onions out and passed around loaves of bread and said dig in. So I and about 10 other people grabbed hunks of bread and started eating. The guys would just break open the bread put a hand full of fish in and eat it. But that means they were eating all the bones. So most of us women would take the fish and remove the bones one little fish at a time and eat a bite of bread with each fish. It was a very good but very slow messy lunch. They did not eat any veggies and dessert was tangerines. Some of the other family groups ate other things but most people where eating fish like us. I have some pictures which will help make things more clear that I will post probably next week.
After lunch I played a type of charades with the kids for awhile and then when headed back up to the water fall. The kids thought it was great that I could watch them and liked to be out of sight of their parents so they could do things they would get yelled at for. At first they thought I would make them behave and behave myself and any time I tried to climb anything or get even kinda close to an edge they told me birdaka! which means be careful. And should I keep doing what ever it was they would tell me no! and then say “come” so they could lead me to a safe seat.

I found a lady who would take my picture and headed up the hill to climb part way up the water fall since it would make a great picture. The kids promptly started to yell that I needed to be careful and come back. I ignored them and while I think they where annoyed that I did not take their life saving advice they quickly got over it when they where allowed to come up after me. They quickly learned that as long as we where out of site of their parents that I would not only let them act like normal kids and climb on stuff but that I would do it too. So we had a great time and played a lot of follow the leader on the rocks surrounding the water fall. I never had to worry about either because they where horrible and climbing rocks and even in their bravest moments never got very close to the edge.
We eventually headed back to the parents and then home. I was invited to the home of the lady who invited me but decided that 6 hours of fun and trying to communicate was enough. It was a super nice day and nice to get out and have some fun with the kids.
I was asked by every adult though if I was cold since I was the only person in a t-shirt. I don't see how they survived since I was sweaty but I guess most of the adults just sat around still the poor kids where all wearing sweaters.

Traveling to small villages

It is very unusual for women to travel alone, or travel really at all, so this was a very unique experience. This is a quote from Lucy about the trip.

From the time I have been very young I have wanted to go to far out places and reach children and young women and girls you can understand how important this trip was for me. There are countless small and tiny villages all across this country. I have always wondered, how will they hear? I have always thoughts this from the time I was very young as I watched hundreds of tiny hamlets drift by the car window as we drove to places all across This country. These small places are known for their ignorance, suspicion of outsiders, treatment of women and girls, and a stubborn holding fast to the only way of life they have ever known in just the day to day matters. I was going way east so I didn’t know if I would be harassed by men or stalked by gangs of teenage boys or what to expect. I had been praying about this idea for weeks maybe months, I can’t remember. There were so many things that could go wrong....

This is an account of the trip.
Today was a very good day we made it to six villages and hope to go to three more tomorrow. If we make it to three villages tomorrow we will have gone to ten total. We spent a lot of the time out walking about, talking with kids and taking pictures so it made for a tiring day. The area is amazing though and the villages are so cool. There are a lot of old buildings and historical sites in the area. The villages look like they haven’t changed much in the last hundred years. We stopped at several old buildings and also took some walks to see the area. There are lots of foxes and they are not afraid of people.
There really are no other wild animals around since the people have killed off all the deer and anything else. I didn’t even see a rabbit. We have had a really good time and would like to stay longer.

We left pretty early on Tuesday. People here are not big on traveling and lots of people haven't even seen the nearby cities let alone go as far as we where planning on going. We didn't want to have to try and explain why we where going. We drove for quite a ways past the city on the hill which is a cool city and then into the mountains.
After we got to the mountains the road got a lot more interesting so we would stop some to take pictures or look at the view. We also kept an eye out for fruit we could pick and did end up finding some of the orange fruits. We drove on again for a long time, up over the mountains onto the plains where we where going to be staying. The landscape really changed and it is a cool different kind of place where we went. It is kind of like a plateau but kind of like farm land, and the whole area is scattered with ruins and is a history filled place. When going over the mountains to this place we passed through a little snow and some woods but on the other side their were no trees and no snow. We thought we might have to use snow chains to get over the pass but the road was completely clear it was really nice.
After driving for a little longer we saw a small village and decided to stop and eat lunch while watching to see if there were any people. We spotted a group of kids playing. The game seem to involve 2 of the kids attempting to carry the third kid who they would drop after only a short distance. The kid who got dropped would then attempt to beat up and drag the other two kids to the ground before they all made up and did it again. When this got old they settled for throwing dirt and splashing water at each other from a nearby stream. We decided that these would be great kids to meet so we got out of the car and started to wander around. We knew we couldn't just walk up to the kids as this would be weird and freak them out. So we hoped they would think we where tourists and become curious and come over to us.
Having blond hair is very rare so even if we where just more tourists we hoped my hair would at least attract attention. However the kids did not go along with our plan. They did not come over to us and should we wander in their direction while ignoring them of course, they would wander off. We where just about to admit defeat and go back to the car when finally a lady showed up and greeted us. Lucy told her we where tourists and were just stretching our legs after a long drive then started complimenting the village and asking some questions about the weather and such. The lady was very friendly and proud of her village and happily told Lucy all about it and then mentioned that they had a school. Lucy was very surprised to hear this and asked the lady if she could see it. The lady agreed and called one of the children to come over to be our guide.
Two of the kids both young girls ran over and took us to the school. They warmed up to us pretty quick and started to tell Lucy all about the school and what grade they where in. Lucy had a good talk with them and got to share a story from the fathers book. She discussed the holiday with them also and asked if they had killed a sacrifice. We took their picture and they were delighted with being able to see themselves on the screen. Most the kids we would meet in the next couple of days would never of had their picture taken and be delighted with getting to see their picture on the screen of the camera. The kids walked with us back to our car, waved goodbye, and invited us to came back again.
The next day we headed out early. We first went to the tourist area of town to look at the ruins and castle. This served a double purpose we really wanted to see the ruins and be able to wander around in the off season and we hoped the street urchins which we fondly called beasties would come out and talk with us. We did have a good time wandering around and it was nice having the area to ourselves but that was also a problem... where were the beasties? We wandered more into the local neighborhood but no one was out! Not even adults. This was very odd but what could we do? We gave up and headed back to our car.
We then headed into the hills to find our first village and see if they had a school we could photograph. Our new plan was to find villages, tell them Lucy was a teacher and that we would like to see the local schools. We saw a village and pulled off the main road to check it out. As we drove through the village we saw a lot of guys! There were guys everywhere. At least 30 of them, most of them wandering the roads in packs. But we could not see a girl of any age anywhere. There were no girl babies, no little girls playing, no women in the yard, not even an old lady sitting in a doorway. There were boys playing and guys walking with boy babies but no girls!!! This was a rather surprising find and a little freaked out we drove through without stopping and now refer to that village as the man village.
We then headed further down the highway hoping that not all the villages would be this way. We saw a very small village, only a couple of houses really, a little way off the main road and decided to pull off the road and walk to it. If we had to walk we would not be able to chicken out. We started the walk and were delighted when we were greeted by a lady. She hurried over to tell us we where lucky we hadn't been attacked by the dogs!! We asked how many dogs she had and she said 5 !!! And that they would go straight for our throats. She turned out to be really nice and we had a good talk as she walked us back to our car so we wouldn't be attacked by the dogs.
We decided to press on even though things where not going as nicely as the day before. We had much better luck a little later as we stopped at a bigger village and asked about their school. They had a new big boarding school with all the grades 1-8. We had three girls as tour guides this time and they were so proud of the school. We got to see everything- the class rooms, the bathrooms, the laundry room, the cafeteria, the kitchen, even the basement! This was cool. We got to see just how it was for the kids and how big the classes our and stuff. The girls then asked if we wanted to see anything else. We asked what else they could show us and they promptly led us to the village pump! This is when we realized that the village pumps are very important and this would be the first of several pumps we would see. Then they showed us the village mosque. We even got head coverings and got to go inside. Lucy had lots of time to talk and share stories and stuff with the girls and they were good listeners and got the point of the stories.
After this village we ended up going to three more and meeting more kids then it was starting to get dark so we decided to take a walk and not try and visit any more villages since the few girls who had been out would be inside now. We hiked out into the nearby fields and walked and talked until it was too dark to walk without stumbling over rocks and then headed back to eat diner. We ate at the same place and watched the TV stories of peoples sacrifice bulls getting loose and running wild in the bigger towns. Luckily not to many people where injured but they did cause a lot of commotion and block traffic. Lucy says animals get loose every year.
Then we headed back to the hotel to shower and get ready for one more day of visiting villages and then a long drive home. We started out early but realized it might be too early to visit and that there was a sign for a museum. At first we where going to ignore the sign and I pointed out that the museum could be anywhere! Just look around... there is old stuff everywhere. I pointed to what looked like a normal old rock house with ancient looking rock things in the backyard. Wait! We thought that was a little unusual, even here. So we turned off and checked it out and we had found the museum. It was a small free museum but it had a lot of cool stuff. We enjoyed seeing what they had but doubted the informative little plaques they had telling us about stuff and dating it back to 6,000 BC or some other crazy date. While we doubted the information at times they really did have a lot of cool things.
After spending more then an hour enjoying the museum we again headed out to see what awaited us in the villages. We soon spotted a village and a school so we pulled over. Two lady's greeted us and agreed to show us the school. We quickly bored one of the lady's but the other invited us into her home for tea. We quickly agreed since we had been wanted to see the inside of the homes so we could better understand what the living conditions where. We enjoyed our visit and got to not only have tea and meet her two kids but were shown the pump and got to take lots of pictures. Lucy asked if she returned in the summer could she teach English to the kids? The lady was delighted and said of course they would love it if she could come back and teach for a few days. She then added that of course Lucy would stay with her.
From this village we went to two others, one of which we stopped at because all the housed were identical and in perfect straight rows. It made the village look like a concentration camp or military out post. This village did not have a school but we learned that the reason for the identical houses was that there had been an earthquake that had leveled the village and the government and built these houses for them. It was not the nicest looking village but it was good to see that the government was willing to step in and help the people.
We decided to head for home around noon so that we could be back around 5 and not have to drive in the dark for very long. But as we where driving along we saw a lady washing laundry by a stream and wondered if some nearby buildings were a school so we pulled over to see what the lady could tell us. She was very nice and informed us that they did have a school but that the buildings we were pointing to was the local hospital. She invited us in for tea but we refused saying we had to be on our way but then her husband showed up and delightedly waved us into his home while chasing off his growling dogs. We ended up staying for over an hour and being served not only tea but lunch. The lady brought us a tray filled with homemade yogurt, homemade bread, homemade cheese, and some of the lamb they had cooked up from the sacrifice earlier. The lady simply wanted to marry Lucy off much to Lucy’s annoyance, but her husband was full of stories which he dramatically acted out for us. It turned out he was one of 9 kids had 4 kids of his own, had been in the military, and an extra in a movie, and knew about everything from the nearby road that used to have camel caravans to the best places to stay in the big cities. He was a little hard to understand and talked like Lucy should know everyone in the area by name, but we enjoyed hearing what he had to say. They were really a sweet old couple and clearly didn't get a lot of visitors and missed their kids. We finally said we really had to go and so they let us go.
We drove nearly non stop and made it home around 7. It felt much later to us though. We didn't even make it through our doorway before our neighbor rushed out demanding where had we gone and insisting we come straight over for diner. We didn't mind since we had no food and didn't feel like cooking. So we went over and enjoyed a delicious meal, desert, tea, and then fruit and nuts for a snack a little later.
We had a really good trip and Lucy plans to go back in June. She thinks that if she is with guys she won't be able to talk with the women and children and she is probably right. When it is just girls the guys ignored us but if we had a guy with us they would of had to come over and then the guys would dominate the conversation. This is a male dominate culture. If she goes with her mom that will also change things. The only way to spend time with the young girls and kids is to be a young girl and as soon as older people or guys join the group things change.

She would really like me to go with her again but I am not sure how that would work. I would love to go it was a lot of fun but It is a lot of money to come back in June. But it was a cool trip and we are very excited to see that people can go to these places and that she can return and teach.
Even though they are really poor people they have pretty good lives. They all have good land and good animals. They are a tough people and work hard but they all have houses, stoves, food, clothes. There houses are small but that just makes them easier to heat. They don't have a lot but they all seem to have what they need. Almost all the villages had a school, and a doctor and several had small markets. I think they have pretty healthy of lives and that their living is way better than a city slum.
A few people had cars but most do not and women do not learn to drive. The fact that Lucy drives is very unusual and people do not expect to see a women driver. Not a lot of people own cars. There are buses and sometimes they are close enough that they can walk but it takes awhile and must be very hot in summer and cold in winter. The guys hitch hike and get rides from passing cars. Most villages try and be very self sustaining. The one lady we talked to said they had all they need. They had cows so they had meat, milk, butter, cheese, and they grew wheat and made their own bread. We asked if they ate fruits and vegetables and she said no they didn't need to. They probably grow cabbage and potatoes and eat at them at least. They also had chickens and geese so they had more meat and eggs.
There was some running water but I am not sure about bathrooms. I didn't see out houses so I guess they must have some sort of indoor bathrooms. We did see the bathroom and shower room at one of the boarding schools. They had indoor plumbing squatty potties. The showers where a surprise. They just had a big open room with a cement ledge/ bench running along the wall. There were spigots with running water over the ledge and the kids just put a bucket under the spigot and take a sponge bath. I am not sure but I would assume the water is the same lukewarm temperature year round. Is there running water in the school? No they have out houses outside in a separate building. I think they have wood stoves for heat or they don't, then I guess the buildings are unheated. I am not sure if they have electricity in the smallest schools.
Lucy thought that the little schools had been made illegal and shut down. She was very surprised to see that they where still being used. They are very small two room schools with 2 teachers. One teacher and room is for 1-4 grade and the other teacher and room is for 5-6. After 6th grade the students have to go to a bigger village or city and go to school there. They are boarding schools so they only have to travel a few times a year.

November's news

11/3

We ran along a really nice, very pretty dirt road. They have so many cool places to run here it is like they have a ton of the perfect roads. I remember how hard it was back home to find a quite road to run on. Here we have all these places where the roads just wind along beautiful rivers and stuff and we won't see a car the whole time. We do have to be careful about dogs but so far most places have been fine. There was one road last week where we had like 3 dogs come out and bark at us but none where very big and all went back to their yards when I yelled at them. Lucy is very afraid of dogs and is glad that I am here to protect her she is also afraid of rats and now that we have to go out more after dark since it is getting dark pretty early here she says it is my job to protect her. So far we haven't seen any rats but it gets dark by 5 and most of our lessons don't end until 8 most of the roads are pretty well lit up though.
We went and visited the little girl we teach English to today and ended up staying for quite awhile because we had a lesson near by. So from 5-7 we stayed and taught her English and played with her. We don't have to do much to entertain her and she loves to talk and sing and tell us all about her day and school. Lucy did tell her a story from the fathers book and she really liked it. We weren't sure what her mom would think but she was in the room and didn't have problem with it. Lucy told her the story of Jonah since they had been reading a book about whales. The little girl had all kinds of questions like were we there when it happened, what was the other peoples names who were on the boat, and what was their eye colors. She is so cute and full of questions and stories.

11/5

One thing I did today was learn how to write most of the local alphabet. They have all the same letters that we do and then a couple of extras but they don't write them the same way we do. They make it more difficult and they think handwriting is very important but that is probably mostly because they rarely use computers. So the kids have to spend a lot of time getting really nice hand writing. We wanted to try and teach the little girl at least part of the alphabet since she really isn't learning anything in school. But Lucy doesn't have good handwriting and isn't any good at writing the local alphabet so she asked me to try. She is aware that my handwriting is not great in fact I think it is worse than hers, but I was able to figure out how they did it and practiced enough so I could at least look like I know how to write and be able to teach the girl. We tried to teach her at the lesson but she wasn't very interested in learning and was not as well behaved as usual so we gave up. We might try and teach it to her again some time but either way I got some practice.
Here everything molds and I mean everything. It doesn't seem that humid but the the roof, walls, furniture, and everything molds. Clothes that don't dry and it can take days to dry clothes will mold, food molds fast we have to keep the bread in the fridge to keep it from molding, the towels we use to dry dished start to mold after just a day or 2 even though we keep them hung up to dry between meals. Last week Lucy was smelling mold really strong in her room and couldn't figure out where it was coming from until she realized her pillow was molding! It is amazing what will mold and Lucy doesn't know what to do about it this is something new that they are still learning how to deal with since they didn't have this problem in other places they lived. But the are slowly learning things that help like they keep all their closet doors open so there clothes don't mold and spraying towels with vinegar before washing seems to help.

11/6

I went shopping for yeast, milk, and cream because I wanted to make bagels and try another kind of homemade ice cream. Lucy made caramel sauce last night since she loves caramel and likes trying to make caramel candy now that she learned how to make caramel for the cake we made. However she isn't so big on following recipes but that is ok we just have sauce instead of candy and she can always try again. So I wanted to make some ice cream to go with the caramel but the kind we make in the bag we can't freeze and melts really fast. We aren't sure if it melts fast because that is just how it is or because we don't use whole milk or if it is because we don't shake it long enough. But I found some other recipes for making ice cream that are harder but sounded interesting. But I needed cream for them and wanted to use whole milk. When I got to the store though I couldn't tell if they had any cream I could see different kinds or milk but not cream so either they don't sell it or I don't know what it looks like here. I did see a package that had ice cream written on it and on the back in pictures it showed some one mixing the package with milk and freezing it so I did that and am waiting to see what happens. If it works it is cheaper then buying ice cream and ice cream is really hard to find now any way. The people here believe that if you eat ice cream in winter you will get sick even if you eat it in a heated house and it is nice and sunny out. So we pretty much can't buy ice cream any more because it is winter.
I did find yeast and made bagels they turned out pretty good. I guess the big difference between bagels and bread is that you boil them before baking. They kinda take awhile to make but the recipe was easy it just takes time because you have to wait for them to rise and then boil them.

We had a good time at the house we went to last night. We were talking about traveling and stuff and they wanted to know what it would be like to visit and American home. They were surprised by how different it would be. They do a lot of little things that we don't do. Like every person greats any one who comes to visit by kissing them on both cheeks or if it is a guy and a girl they shake hands ( guys greet guys by kissing cheeks ) So there have been times when me and Lucy go to a home and there have been people lined up from the door to the sitting room and we have to great each one. They will each say welcome and we respond I don't actually know what the actually translation of what we say is. They have several things they say and different sayings that mean thank you but are said at different times. They also always serve tea and snack, or sometimes coffee, but this is complicated too since depending on the time of day they are expected to serve different things and if they give you something you have to eat at least some but sometimes not all that they give you. Plus as hostess they have to offer you things and more thnn once. And as guests we have to except some things but not others. I mostly just try and do what Lucy does and guess. I know what to do a lot of the time but other times I am not sure. I have learned most of the things that they say but others just Lucy says and that is good enough. Another thing that I just learned is that if you compliment something more then once especially if you make a big deal about how nice something is it means that you want it. Then they will feel they have to give it to you. They also don't complement each others kids because then the evil eye/spirit will strike the kid so often if they think a baby is unusually cute they will tell the mother it is ugly to confuse the evil spirit. Lucy's mom was not prepared for this so she was highly offended when she had Lucy’s brother and people on the streets would tell her she had an ugly baby.

11/7

They do not really have convenience foods here and I don't think they have them any where in the country. They have instant drink mixes and some snack foods but they don't have all the instant foods that America has. They do have a instant soup that comes in a package but it isn't very good and that is about it. We recently saw a frozen bread dough and Lucy was very surprised and said that it would be nice to have that at times but that she doesn't see any good house wife buying it. The people here are very big on making all their own stuff and it is important to be good at cooking. Lots of the girls will ask if I can cook and what I can cook. Microwaves are almost unheard of here.

Lots of homes have a computer, only the younger generations would know anything about using one. No one knows how to type and kids are not taught how to use them but they figure it out and most can at least go on facebook. They never look things up though and don't understand how much they could do with them.
11/8

There are a lot of surprises in the town and always interesting stuff to see when we walk around. The buildings are fascinating and so different they have super poor apartments next to ancient mansions and then so many new weird buildings that look like something from an animated Doctor Seuss movie. The fashion there is also very interesting and varying. I have tried to get pictures and will send you some new photos. I also watched some kids having a skating lesson and the teacher is not a very good teacher at all. She doesn't really teach anything and this time she was just having the kids play capture the flag which was a bad idea but she had them play it for a long time. There where about 20, 10 - 12 year old girls all super skinny. They would get mad at each other and cheat and get in each others faces and yell. Someone was always fighting and then girls would hit each other and fall down and get hurt. One girl didn't get up for awhile so the teacher actually had to come over and help her up and let her sit on the side for awhile until she was better. The teacher really doesn't do anything and if a student doesn't do what they are supposed to she just ignores them.

11/10

One of Lucy’s friends had a baby last week and so we are now going to congratulate her. New moms have to stay at home for 40 days after giving birth something to do with their beliefs but I didn't get a longer explanation. We had a good time the one time I went to visit her and she seems to have married a nice guy which is doesn't happen a lot. They still do a lot of arranged type marriages where the girl has little say and the guys here aren't great guys.

11/11

Honey is super expensive here the cheapest you can get it is like 30 dollars for a jar a little smaller then a normal quart jar and if the honey if from the bee hives in the mountains it can be over a 100 for a jar.

Most days it is still t-shirt weather and Lucy says this is normal. I guess they usually get only a couple of weeks of cold and the rest is like this. So for me winter might already be mostly over with the coldest weather already here and gone.

We are now big fans of ice cream and make it the fast way in a bag way and are still experimenting with making it in the freezer I have just stirred up a batch and am waiting to see how it turns out.

We got diner and more chestnuts at the house we gave the lesson at. I liked roasted chest nuts and the family we were with is a really nice family. Their boy is the smartest kid in his class and is definitely the best English student Lucy has. Plus he is just a funny cool kid and a great older brother, his younger brother who is only 2 adores him. The lady we visited is the one with the 10 month old baby so I ended up playing with the baby again so Lucy could talk. The baby is probably the easiest baby to watch ever he rarely cries and is happy just sitting or trying to walk. He let me hold him the very first time we went over and doesn't cry or fuss when I pick him up or his mom leaves which is rare here and for most babies I have seen.

The holiday here starts on Monday and we are not completely sure what we will do. The first day every one will be killing an animal for the sacrifice since it the sacrifice holiday. So we will go across the boarder all day to avoid being given the meat and since there wouldn't be anything to do here with everyone busy. Then after that we would like to travel and might end up going to stay in another town from Tuesday-Friday. We really would like to go but no one from America goes to where we want to go so it might raise suspicion and Lucy’s boss wants to know everything she does, so that is a problem. We want to go because no one else goes and we want to know what it is like and if other people who know the father could go.

11/12

I liked today’s lesson, the kids are so fun and great students I will have to get a picture of them before I go. I would love to take pictures while Lucy teaches but there is no way the kids would pay attention. They are so excited to learn it is still unbelievable. Just last night the mom of the kids we where teaching told us about how her 9 year old son was crying because he thought he couldn't have English lessons with lucky during the summer! And the kids at the school have asked Lucy to give them a test. They want to have a test and not just a normal study time.

They have a really good fruit here that I tried last night. It looks like a really orange tomato but it is solid and you eat it like an apple. If it isn't ripe it makes your mouth feel funny, kinda like it went numb, but then after a minute the feeling goes away. When it is ripe it is really sweet and good. They dry a ton of it here and eat it all winter I have not tried it dried but lots of people are drying it on their balcony.

11/13

People here don't keep pets and definitely not cats as pets so whenever Lucy wants to amaze the students she tells them how many cats we have. One of the first sentences I learned to say is “I have 8 cats”. People always think I got the number wrong and ask me if I really mean 8.

11/14

It gets dark around 4 and is usually really nice and warm until 5 and even then we just need a light jacket. The people here act like it is freezing though and everyone wears coats even in the middle of sunny warm days. It is completely mental and almost funny after November 1st everyone wears a coat all the time and some even have hats or boots on. While I walk around in Capri's, a t-shirt and sandals. I don't blend in at all so will have to at least where pants and a long sleeve shirt when I go out from now on.

Yesterday we ended up having the kids from the family we where going to visit come here instead. We had a lot of fun. They arrived around 7pm and stayed until 10:30. We played games most of the night. It was the same family that came over last time except this time the mom stayed home which was actually nice since she didn't really get the games we where playing and would frustrate her boy's. So it was the three kids, two teen age boys and their little sister who is around 6 or 7 I think. First we did some puzzle game things Lucy found, where you make a puzzle or arrange tiles and one where you jump peaces over each other trying to get as many as you can. The kids here don't have any games like this so Lucy likes to have them try them she thinks it is good to get them thinking and show them new things. People are so set in their ways here and often don't use their brains at all after high school. There are some really brain dead adults and actually most of the older people didn't even make it to high school so most can't read. The grandma of the little girl we teach hasn't seemed to of caught on that Lucy is teaching another language and has no idea of the world. She doesn't understand where America is or how far it would be to travel and Lucy thinks she has probably never seen a map maybe not even a map of this country. Some of the older people won't allow tv's to be turned on because they don't understand how they work and think the people can see and hear them. Lots of the older people who watch tv talk to the people and think they can hear them. It is so funny- it is really hard not to laugh especially when they start telling the actors how bad or dumb they are. Me and Lucy just try not to make eye contact and keep a straight face.
After the thinking games we played Chinese checkers and the boys where super competitive and into the game. It was the most competitive game of Chinese checkers I have ever played.
Then we drank tea and ate cake. It suddenly struck me how odd it was when I realized I was sitting at a table drinking tea from nice little cups and eating small cakes with two teenage guys who were using very nice table manners and sipping tea. I tried to picture American boys doing this and couldn't see it happening. But we asked they guys and they said of course they wanted tea and to them eating nicely and drinking tea was something they do every day. The guys here are so interesting. They may fight and yell and be typical rowdy guys but then serve them tea and they become polite gentlemen carefully using napkins, sipping tea, passing things, and being respectful of the girls and older people in the room.

October News

10/18

Today we went to another area of this beautiful land and drove down a gorgeous road stopping often to take pictures and look for chestnuts or just enjoy the road. Then we hiked even farther into the beautiful mountains before returning home tired. The day was super nice and almost hot with clear blue skies and the trees are just starting to turn colors. The mountains here are covered in bushes and trees and vines and unlike our mountains it is all leafy trees with almost never a pine tree so fall here will be very colorful.
We where not very successful in finding chestnuts but did get around 50 or so. They are much harder to find and the trees our huge so we have to search for the prickly seed pods on the ground and then crack them open and get the seeds out. They are super poky so we had to step on them or crush them with rocks. I could carefully pick the seed pods up but Lucy wouldn't touch them.
We did not find any apples or anything else edible although we did look. We drove and then hiked along a really beautiful river and ended up getting pretty high up in the mountains. We went where we did so we could get pictures of some super old cool houses and pictures of the tea fields and how they get the tea from the super steep mountain fields down to the towns where they can sell it. We always bring along books with teachings and stuff so we have really cool times where we read and pray and discus what we have been learning in our quiet times through the week. We both also fasted from sun up to sun down today so we only ate diner it was a good day.

10/21

I am a bit of a distraction for the kids who still find me fascinating and want to ask me questions....I just seem to make things a little more interesting when I show up so if Lucy knows that class will have a lot of students or go for a shorter time than usual I stay home or go some one where my own. They have a cafeteria where I can go and read and see if any one else shows up and talk to them. It has a cool balcony where I can watch people and take pictures. I can stand on the balcony and see the sea and the mountains and watch the kids fight in the streets it can be pretty interesting.

10/22

When we had the study time I went along but just sat with the receptionist instead going into the class room because there where a lot of kids so they wouldn't have behaved. I got to see a hawk up close. They bring them in when it rains so one of the other teaches brought it out and was holding and petting his hawk. They are kinda cool but I think I would get tired of it pretty quickly and they feed them live little birds every day and I don't think I would like doing that. I am not sure how they get the little birds and I would think it would be easier to get mice then birds but I couldn't ask any of these questions.

It seems like I used to be able to learn 15-20 words a day and now I am happy when I learn 5-10 my mind must be full.

10/24

I met a really nice family that works there and the 2 sisters are close to my age 22 and 25 I think. So I stayed and tried to talk with them. We used a dictionary and they wrote stuff out so it was easier and they know a bit of English. I really like talking with them because they use helpful hand motions and will repeat what they say and try different words. Lots of people will only say things twice and if I don't get it they give up. So we actually talked quite a bit and then they started teaching me Lasja which is what a lot of the older people speak. I am not sure who all knows it or where it came from or really much about it. Lucy has just mentioned that the older people speak it so sometimes if the grandparents are the ones to raising or watching the children then they will speak it. Like the little 2 year old who likes me sometimes says things in Lasja. Lucy does not speak it and it is quite different from the local language. I learned how to say things like what is your name, and the sea is good. Then it was the lunch break so the girls had to work but then a bunch of the students came over to talk with me. For like an hour I always had at lest 6 people gathered around and trying to talk with me but people kept coming and going. Different people would ask questions at the same time and things got kinda loud and crazy but it was fun. I was able to talk quite a bit and answer their questions and ask some of my own. I can ask about family, sports, hobby’s, and class/school and age so with the people changing that was about all we had time to talk about before they some one would go get to food and some one else would came over. One girl who came over was actually pretty good and English and all the others would tell her what to ask and say. So then they wanted to talk about boy's and Obama and traveling.
After about an hour they all had to go to class though. I hung around for a bit longer but then decided to leave before they had another break. It is fun to talk with them but it also makes me tired because I have to think so hard and when their is a lot of people trying to talk at once it gets tiring to try and understand everything and come up with simple answers to all their questions.
They gave me lunch too and that was really nice. It was good but it was hard to try to talk and eat. They gave me salad, bread, rice, and the chicken meat that they put in the sandwiches its the meat they cook on the spit like thing and shave off with a knife.

10/25

Right after diner our neighbor called and asked us to come over for a visit so we made a cake and then went and visited them. They wanted us to stay for a long time but we had a great time. We watched a football and they are a cool family. Lucy had not met her sons before but one of them was their this time and he was really funny. He would keep trying to say things in English but he didn't know much and would get all the words mixed up. So the time really went by quickly and Lucy says her cheeks hurt from laughing so much. So we had a really good day.
Lucy says people here don't make cinnamon rolls so they are a cool thing to make for people when they come over so we will probably be making them often. Lucy also thought making the home made ice cream was really cool. I told her about making it and showed her how and she said it was good and that the people here would be amazed so tomorrow when we have some girls over we plan to make it with them.
10/26
After running practice we had to go straight to a private lesson. We where kinda hungry since we usually have time to eat but this time our run took too long. We had a good lesson though and the kids where a lot of fun as usual. Then we went straight from the lesson to visit a family. We thought they just wanted us to come over for tea and to entertain their little girl but they ended up feeding us diner. We where very surprised but happy to see the table set for diner. It was a good meal with the main course being flavored rice wrapped in cabbage leaves and then steamed. It is lucy's favorite meal I liked it pretty good but it isn't my favorite. We also had soup, salad, bread and they also served pickled veggies. They pickle all vegetables here so I got to try pickled tomato's and carrots they tasted weird but they where pretty good.

10/30

We had a pretty busy day and then a very fun evening. They where having a holiday here it has to do with Ataturk and the founding of the republic so all the schools where closed and they had a lot of speeches and stuff. We didn't go hear the speeches but the kids all lined up and marched through the streets and they came by our house so we saw that. Also the high school students have to do this presentation where they beat drums and play horns and march around. So for the last week or maybe it was the last two weeks we have been hearing the kids practice. We are close to the high school and can see it from our kitchen window so we had been listening to and watching them practice for this for what seems like a long time. The thing is they play this one easy rhythm and well that is pretty much it and the trumpets just blow the same rhythm and they only have to play one note. So for at least an hour every day for the last week we have listening to them playing this same rhythm over and over but yesterday they played it for the last time.

Since kids weren’t in school but parents where still at work their was a lot of kids running around and we ended up baby sitting a little 6 year old for a couple of hours.
In the evening the family we visited on Thursday called to ask if they could come over. We said yes so then we had to quickly make sure the house was clean, and find something to feed them. When ever any one visits you have to serve tea and some sort of snack usually people give you something sweet and something salty. So like pretzels and cookies or cake and nuts. We ended up thawing out some pizza we had made awhile ago and I cooked the cinnamon rolls that I had made before.
We had a very fun night the family that came has a girl around 7 a boy who just turned 14 and 17 teen year old boy and then one older boy who is always busy so I haven't met him. The father didn't come he was probably working late since lots of places stay open until 8-9. We played dutch blitz and then we played a game called mafia and another game called killer wink. The family stayed until almost 11 and we laughed so much. Mafia and killer wink where so funny they had trouble understanding mafia at first and then the mom kept cheating during killer wink and the 14 year old would get so mad and dramatic. We had a great time.
Lucy has always visited a lot of people that is the main way she shares. She can't really share at work since if she looses her job she will pretty much have to leave and that would stop her from being with kids and she doesn't see kids outside of class unless she gets to know their family. So her and her parents try and visit as many people as possible and so she is used to going out and at least 3 times a week to visit people. They prefer to go out rather then have people over because then they would have to cook stuff and it is always up to the person visiting how long they stay. So once you get a guest you expect them to stay for at least 2 hours and would never ask them to leave or even hint that they should go unless you had a really good reason like if you had to go some where.
I have been given a new nick name because no matter how many times we correct the one boy (the 14 year old ) he can not remember my name so now the whole family has started to call me Jamerica. The girls we visit down stairs call me Jaida because they too have a hard time with my name and Jaida is not as unusual to them.

10/31

I spent an hour today hanging out and talking with different kids. I like it and am starting to recognize kids and so I hope to be able to make some friends and to be able to keep talking with the kids their. Lucy thinks it would be really good if I could make some friends there she says she has always wanted to meet and hang out with the highschoolers but that she has never had the opportunity but they are the ones that are hanging out with me the most so this could be a chance for her to get to know some of them. Plus she says that it is really good that they try and speak English and that talking with me could motivate them to study harder and work on their English. One of the girls I have met is actually pretty good at English and seems to know way more then any of the others. The younger kids would like to talk to me more but the highschoolers break starts first so by the time the younger kids get to the cafeteria there are to many older kids for them to talk to me so they go complain to Lucy that it isn't fair and ask if I will be coming to the study times so they can talk with me.
We had the power out all morning and usually lose power when ever it rains so when I realized that the power was back on I came home to do laundry and start diner. But now for what ever reason the stove isn't working I think it has run out of gas so now I am not sure what we will do for diner since all the food we have needs to be cooked and we can't buy more gas until tomorrow. Our hot water heater is also out of gas so we have been taking cold showers for the last couple of days or not showering. I did shower today and with it being so cold outside it wasn't very nice but we should be able to buy more gas tomorrow. We couldn't buy it any sooner since it ran out the first day of the holiday and the store was closed.
Their is this strange black American lady who is here. We don't really know how she got here or who she is but she is definitely a little crazy. We had noticed a black lady one day while out and then a couple of days later saw the police following her so we asked what was up and people said that she was an American and that she ran out of money and is now stuck here but that seemed a little strange so when we went to the boarder we tried to find out more. They said that she is American and that they don't know where she was going or what is up with her. Every one seems a little freaked out by her and she dresses crazy and carries around like 10 purses. Then on Friday we ended up passing her in the street and she was talking quite loudly to herself in English and what she said was " every one who lies has holes in their throats " I kinda wanted to see what she would say next but also didn't want her to realize I spoke English. There have been storyies of her yelling at people and acting violent which I guess is why the police where following her. No knows what her story is or what she will do or anything really people don't seem to know what to do with her either. We kinda want to follow her and see where she is staying and if she is eating and we would like to know where she was going and what she plans on doing but we are afraid if she finds out we speak English that she will follow us around all the time and cause trouble and Lucy is afraid because she could be violent. So we both agree that we would like to at least follow her so if we see her again and can we will probably see if we can find anything out by following her. Lucy could follow her easily enough but we are worried that she might realize I am American because of my hair but I think she is crazy enough that she wouldn't catch on and she did walk right by me and not react.
So that is our exciting story.

Table manners, scorpions and a wedding

10/3

We visited some girls who live a couple floors below us who were roasting chestnuts. We had seen people roasting them on little carts in the streets but had never bought any. They taste kind of like a baked potato but better. I remember reading books where people sat around the fire roasting chestnuts, that makes a lot more sense now.

On the way back from the bazaar we figured out how much money we spend on food each week. It is costing me about 5 dollars a week. That is really cheap living and I am enjoying all I am eating. We might be spending a bit more because we only added up fruits, veggies, snacks, bread, milk, and yogurt. We haven't bought any rice since I have been here so we didn't count that but rice is cheap.
Yesterday we went for a long run, about 45 minutes without stopping. We don't run on nice flat roads but instead on hilly paths. It is a beautiful, quiet road by a river, then we turn off onto more like a path. I haven't seen a car on it yet. But some of the hills are steep and long.
Seventeen kids showed up for study time and things got loud and wild. Lucy likes to have them play games and do interactive stuff. The kids get very into the games; for them it is a completely new way of learning and they love it. Even when she just has them write sentences they get soo excited it is crazy. The schools over here are just so different, they always have to copy and memorize. It is hard to believe that getting to think up and write their own sentence is a new and exciting idea for a 12 year old. The kids also have to wear uniforms, stand up when the teacher comes in the room, and stand up when answering a question.
Then we had a private lesson and they had a lot of fun too. This was our second time to visit this group and they just love learning. They didn't want the lesson to end and the one boy who is around 7 can not sit still his excitement at knowing the right answer makes him jump out of his seat. They were a lot of fun to teach and hopefully the enthusiasm will continue.

10/5
Yesterday we had to go to the border so Lucy could buy a visa. We left around 8 hoping to get to the border early again so we could get through quickly only to discover that they were having computer problems. The place was packed and crazy; so many people and cars and no order at all. The people have a problem with lines and the guards trying to direct people were little help. It took 2 hours to cross the border. I had to walk part of the way and that sucked because it was raining. Instead of forming a line to give their passports to the guard and get through they formed a pushy mob. I had to push and elbow my way to the front and definitely would of been knocked over a time or two except there were too many people to fall over.

Lucy wanted me to see the market so I would understand the difference in poverty between the two countries. We walked about 15 minutes to the bazaar. It was still raining but the roads are so bad that walking is safer. The bazaar was very smelly and dirty and much smaller then most I had been to. They had a meat section that was so gross we barely went in it at all. It smelled bad and they had things like whole dead smallish pigs. It was super gross and made me glad we don't eat any meat...the whole place was dirty and grungy. I wouldn't want to have to buy my food from there and yet so many people do. It was an interesting experience.

We decided to go look for a museum that Lucy had seen before but had never been to. We decided it would be better to drive though so we headed for the car on the way we bought a pastry filled with goat cheese. It is something that all the people eat and eat a lot of. It was really good but also kinda greasy. It would not be healthy to eat them every day but I guess people do.

The drive to the museum was about as much fun and stress as we thought it would be. The roads are really bad and so is the driving. The road is filled with pot holes and loose rock and with all the rain it was more like driving down a river bed than a road. There was huge puddle and pot holes filled with water so we couldn't tell how deep they where. We managed to get to the museum OK with just a bit of honking and swerving only to find that it was closed. The sign on the door was confusing as it clearly said in English open 9-5 Monday. However with some arm waving and confused looks we discovered that they had forgot to put the word closed on the sign. It was supposed to say open 9-5 and closed on Mondays.

Today Lucy is giving me a language lesson. I am learning quite a bit but not as much as I would like. I have a hard time remembering the words when I actually need to say them; I am getting better at understanding what people are saying. For part of my lesson I read either scripture which I am memorizing or names from a map they have. I should be very good at this country's geography soon.

10/6

Today we talked to a lady today who told us that the news is saying this will be the coldest winter here in a thousand years. It went from hot and humid one day to winter cold overnight and Lucy cannot remember it ever raining this much.
We visited a family with a super cute 6 year old who loves Lucy. It was a fun visit and study time. A good number of kids showed up and they get so into the games; they are fun to watch. Different kids show up each time and they always find me fascinating and want to ask me questions; it is quite entertaining but it is kind of tiring. Lucy told them I would bring pictures next week. The people here are very big on family and love looking at the pictures. Jakota and Jedrick are very interesting to the girls here, at least until the learn how young they are. Several of them have said Jakota has eyes like some actor so they always talk a lot about him but that is the only part I get.
After the study time we had my favorite private lesson with the three kids who love to learn English. They are so enthusiastic and say the funniest things. I can tell just by watching them and then Lucy tells me what they said on the walk home. The lesson is only supposed to be 45 minutes but we have a hard time ending after an hour and the youngest said he would like the lesson to be 10 hours long because it would only seem like an hour to him.
10/7
Today it felt really good though to be out running again though after 5 days without running. We ran up a big hill it was probably a mile long and at times pretty steep since it wound up one of the big hills which they call mountains. We also visited a family, had a private group lesson, and got invited out for diner. The food was amazing as usual and we stayed for hours. This family is really nice they have invited us over 3 times now they have a little girls she is the one I gave piano lessons to.
Pray that kids keep showing up for running and that Lucy will be able to teach the kindergarten classes. They guy at the very top of the education system does not want her teaching. The kids, parents, teachers, principle, everyone, wants her to teach and it would be really cool to for her to be able to interact with so many kids while they are at such a young age but this one guy is saying no, so she may not be able to teach.

10/8
Today we ran a long a beautiful road. Almost every time we run I wish I had my camera but it is hard to take pictures and run. It was a cloudy coldish day but didn't rain so hopefully the weather keeps clearing up. Then after running we had the private lesson with the three kids and they invited us to eat diner with them first, the food was once again very good. Since we ate diner and then had the English lesson we ended up staying with the family from about 6-9 then we visited another family. We ended up staying there quite late.

10/9
Lucy knows a lot of people and the people here are all really nice. It is fun to go out so often and even better when they have kids. I still don't know what is being said but have more or less gotten used to just tying to play with the kids, or just praying for the family while Lucy talks. The visits seem to go by quickly most of the time which always surprises me since it would seem like they should be long and boring.
Getting invited out to diner is really nice because the food is so good but I am still having trouble with the change in table manners. They are pretty much opposite to what our table manners are. Instead of asking for things to be passed people just grab what they want or even get up and walk around the table and get it. They think it is rude and lazy to ask people to pass things, They keep both hands on the table and often elbows and use both hands to eat. They think it is rude to eat all the food on your plate, so you are always expected to take more than you want and not finish it. They also eat right from the serving dishes. For example they always serve salad and instead of taking a scoop and putting it on their plate, they just reach over with their fork and take a bite when ever they want some. They don't talk much when they eat so sometimes that makes the meal seem awkward to eat in near silence.

The host is always supposed to keep offering food and will sometimes even just reach over and put things on peoples plates, but the guest doesn't have to eat it if they don't want to, and isn't expected to. If you do eat all they give you they think you are rude and greedy and will talk about you after you leave. That is opposite of what most people think about being expected to eat everything. The people here also don't find it wasteful because they just take it back off the plate and eat it later. Lucy says they will just cut off the bitten of piece and save the rest, so just because something was put on your plate and you don't eat it does not mean it is going to be thrown out. It isn't even because the people are poor it is just how they do things.
Another strange thing that has stood out to me is that all the little girls dolls and barbies always have their hair pinned up. This is because they think it is showing off and bad to have your hair down (that is the point of head coverings to keep guys from the sin of lusting because of girls hair). So we never go out with our hair down or loose and all the girls are very careful to keep their dolls hair up as well. It seems weird to play with dolls and not comb out their hair but they never do. If they do anything with the hair they just make sure it is staying pinned up.
10/10

Last night it rained really, really hard here. When we went to bed it was cloudy and kinda looked like rain but we didn't realize how crazy a storm it would be. The wind was really driving the rain and it was pouring down. We woke up when the wind coming through the house made one of the doors slam shut. When Lucy went to close one of the windows that was left open a crack the wind was driving the rain in so fast it soaked through the three hand towels she had brought to dry the floor and she had to go get a beach towel. We could hear the wind howling and driving the rain into the building it sounding like someone was throwing buckets of water at the house. Luckily the storm didn't last too long because once we where awake it seemed super loud so it was hard to sleep. Plus we had found a scorpion in the hallway a couple of nights ago and were worried about where it came from and if it was a really poisonous kind. We had been asking people if it was normal to find scorpions. Most people we talked to had their own scorpion story so it is fairly normal and at least one guy had been stung and he didn't do anything about it and was fine. But the people all said that they scorpions live in the roofs and when it rains really hard then they come into the houses they are mostly nocturnal though so not a lot of people see them and they leave again. So here it is pouring rain and in the middle of the night and the electricity shuts off while we are up trying to make sure all the windows and doors are shut and not leaking and the first thing we imagine when the lights go out is scorpions crawling down the walls. So we hurry back to bed to hide from the scorpions and try and sleep without thinking about scorpions crawling into bed with us.
We haven't seen any more scorpions and both fell asleep again pretty quickly but we don't plan on walking around in the dark any time soon.
We have been invited to a wedding so I am looking forward to that. We don't know who is getting married Lucy has never met them but they some how know our neighbor who invited us. It is important to have a crowd at the wedding and they don't care if they know the people or not. They just think the more people at the wedding the better so we get to go. I don't know when it starts or where it is but it sounds like fun. I guess there will be dancing and music and maybe food.
10/11
Today we went on another adventure, this time to a town in the middle of the state we are in. It was in the mountains. We had to drive kind of a long way to get to a town which is called the town on the hill. It is a pretty cool town that goes right up the side of a pretty steep mountain. We drove through the town and then went for a hike farther into the mountains. It was a nice hike and we ended up hiking to the ski slope of the area. It has only one lift and only one run but is the only ski slope around so the locals are very proud of it. I took some pictures because I knew Jakota and Jurney would want to see a local ski slope. I was very surprised when I saw it and realized they only have one run. During the hike it got really foggy and then started to rain so we ended up getting kinda wet but at least it wasn't too cold. On the ride back to the town we stopped to pick some wild apples which we thought where pomegranates but when we found it was apple trees instead we tasted them and they where really good apples so we picked a bag full. They are some of the best apples I have tasted and we where happy to have a snack.
We took another hike to a pretty little fountain and then a short hike to a lookout. It was so cloudy and foggy; it felt like a movie set and we were guards in a distant lookout.

When we got back we ate an unusual diner of lentil lasagna it has lentils, eggplant, zucchini, tomatoes, and spices and of course lasagna noodles and just a bit of cheese.
We are in one of the only towns where the mountains aren't right up against the town. The drive today was really pretty and I am always surprised by the little towns in seemingly remote places that we find. People live everywhere right along steep mountains and everything. But the kids then have to go to boarding schools. Kids in first grade are sent to boarding schools and only come home and see their families on the weekends. Their is actually a boarding school for 1st thought 8th grade in our town. It is hard to believe kids that young are going to boarding schools but hundreds of kids are. Plus most kids go to boarding schools for high school and some far enough away that they don't go home until summer. But it is normal for all kids to go to a boarding school as soon as they enter 8th grade.

10/12

This afternoon we visited some girls who were watching a pretty cute little boy but, as most children here, he was a handful and spoiled. I would never want to have to raise one of their kids and wouldn't let any one here babysit for mine. They let this 2 year old boy climb on a stool, take money from out a drawer, and then when he ran out the door they had to chase him so he wouldn't get run over. Then instead of punishing the kid, they just followed him across the street and into a store where he picked out a big chocolate bunny which they bought for him and let him eat. That is just one of the many things I have seen in the last couple of days. These people really don't know what to do with kids and aren't big on punishments. After that there was the the usual tutoring sessions and a study time at the school. There will be more study time opening up and for more grades so we will now be even busier and will have to move some of the private lessons into the evenings.

10/13
Most people at the wedding where dressed nicely but only those closest to the bride and some younger people where really dressed up and they had on formal dresses, their hair done fancy, lots of make up, and were wearing gold from when they got married.
Young men and women don't dance together so just married couples and family members danced. Then they cut the cake, then they people line up and give gold to the couple. They get a lot of gold but that is the only presents they get and only family and close friends give it. Then they did some of the traditional dances which where fun to watch. They form circles and dance fast. It is a kind of like folk dancing and looked like a lot of fun.