The good, the not-so-good, and the terrifying.

Hey all,

So, the good news! I got my computer back as you may have noticed.

The not so good: I lost a lot of information but I will slowly and surely put my lifeline back together again. My computer also took a little vacation without telling me. This is to say that, I had a miscommunication with the guy who fixed it (not his fault, he was after all speaking a language he knows well, and I was doing the opposite of that) happily though, everything turned out ok. I'm so glad to have it back!

The Terrifying: Sorry I've not posted recently. About that. I've been trying to put together a community assessment on my town, which is more or less coming together. The real problem is is just trying to make myself sit down and type it all out. I was reflecting today why I haven't just punched it out yet. Why can't this be like college, where I just spend endless hours on it? Oh yeah, because this isn't college and I am putting together a somewhat coherent and professional piece of work, which in itself is sort of a terrifying thought. Aside from that, I am also signing on to actually speak in front of the community I serve.

"What? No, you're joking," you must think. Au contraire, mes amis! Somehow, I am going to make a sincere effort and give a 15 minute speech in Arabic (more or less....) Hopefully, I'll just say it, and get it out of the way and then we'll have some sort of discussion after that about how I can better serve the community or about the needs I didn't address, etc. My Arabic is shwia (not so fantastic-but what do you expect? I've only been speaking this language for 5 months) but I'm going to give it the good old college try! Can't ding me for effort! We'll see how that goes. For now, I turn 23 tomorrow! First birthday I've ever had in a foreign country and I'm rather looking forward to it. 

Not a good day.

Today is the day I have always feared. So I was an idiot and looking for simple patches so I could fix my problem with Microsoft office. I downloaded a faulty patch. My computer thought it was a virus, cleaned itself and then shut off. I can't get it out of boot mode. I realized that since I don't have the OEM disc I can't even put that in the cd drive to see if my comp will take that.

So tomorrow I am taking my computer to the city to see if I can find a computer store. *sigh* I am really hoping it works because otherwise, it's going to be an interesting 7 months until I can come home and retrieve a new computer. Blargh.

 Thankfully I do live next to a cyber cafe which is where I am typing this, so atleast I can check email.  I think I would really lose my marbles without this place.

Schadenfreude

Happily I have been busy lately. For a while I was overwhelmed with things and so ridiculously tired that I would fall into bed and sort of wait around until I thought I should really drag myself from bed. 

So when I haven't been constantly buying and haggling over items in which to put in my house, I have been attempting to clean my house. Today I even put down a carpet and for some reason that makes my bedroom feel more like a bedroom and less like a room I sometimes use. Little by little I am buying things. One day I may even buy a dresser for clothes! Who knows what the future has install for me?  It's funny how fast your emotions can change here too. This morning I was feeling somewhat blue, so I began to clean. While I cleaned, I put my music on shuffle and on came Paul Simon's "Born at the Right Time," and it filled my heart with joy. From then on, the day was a breeze.

I went to work a bit later and I have picked up a new teacher who wants to help me. He watched me in class and spoke with me afterwards and told me I was too nice to the students. So I thought to myself, "What the heck? How? What? Mafhmch! (I don't understand!)" So I decided to watch him take charge of the class for a while and see what he did. He kicked two students out of the class! I couldn't help but feel awkward, but after discussing this with him, it seems to me that this was sort of a necessary step in me learning how to develop dominance over the students. I never thought that I would end up quite literally forcing students from the class but the rest of the class now understands that I mean business when it comes to teaching. I was proud of myself today when I forced students who were disrupting the rest of the class out. I talked to the other teacher who watched the whole episode and later he told me he was happy. Finally! Someone is happy with something I do! I can't help but feel the irony though. It's weird to feel happy about making someone suffer.....schadenfreude anyone?

After work, I went to my host family's house. I can't help but gush over them. They always make me feel sort of normal in a culture where I am constantly stared at. I am superbly thankful that my host father is interested in history and religion. Today he was asking me about what was haram (Arabic for forbidden) for Christians? I immediately thought of the Ten Commandments and then proceeded to list off all of them except for the last two commandments. Wait? What? What were the last two commandments? How could I possibly forget? So of course, I did the natural thing, which is to ask google. Wikipedia tells me that the last two commandments I had forgotten (For those of you who care, I didn't list them in a particular order)was the commandment to take the Sabbath as a holy day and the commandment not to lie. So simple it slipped my mind. Ah well, si c'est la vie!

Then my host father asked me which was closer to the true Sabbath day, Jews, Muslims, or Christians. I felt it important that I go with the historical answer that I know of. Jews have one of the oldest religions, so they have the oldest mark on the Sabbath day (which the holy day is Saturday). In fact, Saturday in Arabic (and I'm sure in Hebrew, or at least it's close) is sbbt. We have the Gregorian calendar to mark how old Christianity is. Also, I'm pretty sure that the last time I checked, Islam didn't begin a calendar until at least after the 640s c.e. 

I've also been holding out on you. I began a new book which is a great read, called, The Historian, by Elizabeth Kostova. 

 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004E3XIAI/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_1?pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=0316011770&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1PBCBCX0JRSGT5BZ7C73

Fresh vegetables never tasted so good!

I HAVE A HOUSE! EYOW! It was a super crazy ordeal getting it but by jove it's mine for two years! After depositing an amazing amount of stuff in my house that I have magically accumulated in the two months I've been here, it occurred to me that at some point I need to organize this place. So on today's agenda was the following: buy organizing tools, tables, chairs, cleaning supplies, cooking tools, and let's not forget some vegetables! When I got home, I rinsed off those veggies so fast and then took a huge bite of a green pepper. I almost cried it tasted so good. I'm thoroughly convinced that buying and cooking my own vegetables was the highlight of today.

After buying all of the above, I taught for a bit at the Nedi Neswi and then to my happy delight, I came home and began to organize my kitchen. I did what I always do and booted up the old computer and turned on some country music! Somehow when you're all alone in your brand new house in a foreign land, listening to something straight from the heartland somehow makes everything feel better. I discovered that happily I have an abundance of spices that were left to me from the previous PCV. With spices in hand, I realized that I had the power to make (wait for it....) CURRY EGGS AND VEGETABLES! I even bought a little thing of olive oil. When I bought the bottle of oil I thought to myself, is that a big enough bottle? Then I realized the different rates of oil use that I had forgotten to analyze.  My host family probably uses about a liter of oil a week for cooking. I realized that I probably use about, oh say, a liter of olive oil over a period of about 4-6 months. But anyhow, I made myself dinner for the first time in little under 4 months. The first bite was pure bliss.

New Years, with a little help from my friends.

So two hundred people just heard me sing the Beatles' song, "Help." Poor people. The reason I was singing is because the town I live in threw a huge party. To start out with the kids asked me to come to the Dar Shebab by at least 4. When I got there, the room was filled with people and the most amazing spread of cakes, cookies and asundry other sweets. I was placed with a bunch of teenage girls who I know and like and then we played a quiz game for the next hour and a half. Somehow, someone took pity on the poor English speaking girl and happily the English teachers were sat at my table. They then helped translate the questions asked by the MC so that I could pretend to donate an answer to the table.

After a while, the MC asked all the tables to send one person to sing a song or tell a joke in front of the crowd. Of course, funny American girl is picked and sent off. After racking my brains for a few minutes, BINGO! I would sing "Help," (because isn't that just what I needed then?) by the Beatles. So, I closed my eyes and blared away for a few seconds and hamdullah, I made it through. And afterwards, somehow my hand was grabbed and then I was dancing in the middle of the room. Ah, the terribly awkward dancing! (I am such a self conscious dancer!) But overall, I'm really happy I went to the party, it was definitely a cause for fun and I don't remember the last time I laughed so hard or smiled for so long.

Christopher Richards, this post is dedicated to you.

Dear Christopher Richards! I dedicate this post to you in order to thank you for your gift! Your gift made today so bright! Chris sent me a beautiful little day planner that's so helpful! You can see it in the picture below. 

Thank you all friends and family for being so kind to me! Thanks for not forgetting me!

Packages are like inexplicable boxes of utter happiness. :)

I also had a fantastic time this Christmas weekend, hanging out with friends. We used my really sad little Christmas tree for a white elephant gift giving game! I got a camel puzzle! Thanks Rachel! But basically, we just ran around all weekend on a shopping spree so that we could decorate our soon-to-be houses with useful  items. I even managed to lose and find my debit card all in the same weekend! So much fun. I'm actually more impressed that I stayed calm and didn't freak out as I would have in the states. It's enormously empowering moving to a foreign country. I am also becoming more accustomed to just being here in general. Every day is a little easier. I notice that I can exude calm occasionally, and for me, that is an entirely new characteristic.

I'm also going to start reading, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. I love that satisfying feeling of finishing a book. Now, on to the next!

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (Today Show Book Club #13) by Mark Haddon http://www.amazon.com/Curious-Incident-Night-Time-Today-Show/dp/0385512104

I lost my keys, oh wait, I didn’t, oh but they don't work in the door.

What a day.

My host mom asked me if I wanted to walk to one of the satellite towns. Of course I want to go! So off we went! On the way, there was a house with all of the stuff left by the PCV who I replaced. I wanted to stop by and check on the stuff he left me. So I opened the envelope he had left me that had two keys in it. I thought I dropped something but then thought nothing of it. I get to the door, open it, go to another locked door and realize I have only one key. I DID drop something! Egads! So I go searching out in this field for the key. Soon, I was aided by my PCV’s former neighbors, who were combing the ground. Thankfully, my thoughtful host mom asked me to look through the bags I was carrying. Lo and behold! It was in my bag!

So everything was hunky dory after that. I even found a Christmas tree! Total bonus! Thank you former PCV!!! Upon walking out, I got my key out to lock the door, and it wouldn’t lock. At all. My host mom was telling me, I was going to have to spend the night here in the satellite town until I could figure out the lock. I was bound and determined to make this door work! Work evil door, work! So the neighbor comes over to try to get the door to bend to my will. Then another neighbor joins, then another, until there’s at least 5 women standing around this door, trying to make the lock work. Finally, after a half an hour, the door’s lock budged and I was able to shut the door. (Such a group effort for such a simple task!)

Happily after that, we did make it to our final destination, which is a town very close to a castle (called a qasbah)! I will post a little video I took of the land around the castle soon on my facebook page.

After a quick visit to Qasbah town, I was off to my Dar Shebab to teach my students “Jingle Bells!” Happy Christmas everybody!

Look! The Christmas tree that could!