loosening up

When we were at a friends house the kids kept asking if the girls could go out on the street and play and ride the bike. Finally I gave in one by one and let them each have a turn. We were sitting on the second floor so I just watched them through the window. this is house that makes me so nervous, none of the windows have bars and the roof they play on is a death trap for sure, and the stairs just to get down are crazy. So I figured them being outside one at a time riding the bike, might be the safest thing they did. Well you take your shoes off when you come in, so I reminded them to put them back on but if you look closely you can see Addie forgot. When I looked down and saw her riding with no shoes, on that oh so nasty street I thought I was going to be sick. The two boys you can see in the picture have shoes, but I don't think the other three in the picture do, lots of kids run around with no shoes, so I guess Addie wanted to fit in. I have had to relax about a lot of things and I just keep telling myself that the Father will protect, and I am so thankful that He has. Thats not to say we didn't have a little talk with Addie later about "forgetting"!

The girls did have fun on the bike and then later getting all dressed up in the national clothes, and no one had to go to the hospital so it was a good night.

meal time

the girls have came a long way since we first got here. They are eating so much better!!! They actually don't even mind eating at friends house now. And at home Addie always eats with her hands and says well I'm from (this country.) And Annie Lynne loves being able to reach over and dip in all the bowls! Ayden is doing great too, the first time we went to eat in someone home all she ate was bread, and look at her now!

Guess Who???

first visit

I had my first visit "holiday" visit tonight. We have all been kind of sick for the last week and a half or so, and then Ayden ran fever the last three days, so we have had some long days, but everyone was better today so we were able to get out more. Usually you visit people from 4 to 6 in the afternoon, but not this month. My visit tonight started at 9pm. Way to late for me, by 10pm I realized that my Arabic was getting worse and since it is not that good to start with, I was really struggling. The girls were hanging in there, but I could tell they were ready to go to. So now they are all in bed and it is about 10:30pm and Kirk is still out. The men here (and the women) will be up most if not all night. They break fast with a big meal and then have another big meal around 3 or 3:30am before prayer and the fast starts again. Kirk won't stay out that late but he still might be awhile. The younger guys that live around us are all outside playing cards so thats what Kirk is doing tonight. It is a little crazy, until about midnight or 1:00 (maybe even later) you can hear the kids all out on the street playing and popping fireworks. And you will see women out after midnight, where the rest of the year, you hardly see women after dark. It has been an interesting time and I'm sure will get even more interesting as the month goes on.

hanging out at home

most the pics here are of us just hanging out at home with mom and dad and carsyn, we sure do miss them!!! 2 of the pics are with a huge cucumber that is grown in one of the cities here, and the bottom is grumps and ayden working on a puzzle. The girls sure do miss all the play time together!
but the picture below is mom, carsyn, and i after returning from a wedding. So glad they got to experience a wedding because
words can not describe what one is like. We went to a huge wedding hall with about 500 women all dressed up, it is always amazing to me what is under the black. You may be thinking, wow, they are a bit dressed up for a wedding, but you would be very wrong, we were probably the most underdressed people there. I will eventually have to break down and get a really fancy dress so I will not always be the most underdressed there. Carsyn and I are both wearing bridesmaids dresses that I have worn in the past, and before we left carsyn said "i can't believe I am wearing a bridesmaid dress to someones wedding I have never met" she thought she would be way over dressed, but she was mistaken and soon realized she really needed more sparkle! Too funny. it was a lot of fun and defiantly a cultural experience! (thanks emily and mindy for the great bridesmaid dresses, bet you never thought I would get so much use out of them!!!)

our trip home

Here are the last pictures from the trip. These are all on the way back to our city. It was a great trip, lots of fun for all of us.


Sorry if you are grossed out, but I just had to post this. Yes this is a restaurant with a calf head hanging out the front. At least you know there meat is fresh!!!

waterfall

Here we are still in the city we stayed for two nights. One day we went and visited the waterfall. It hadn't rained in a few days so as you can see not much water. We hiked up some so where it fell from the top then it ran into a little pool and then flowed to the bottom. Kirk talked the men into getting out so that we could play in the water some. even though it wasn't much water it was fun and refreshing. The sad thing to me was all the trash everywhere, wasn't surprised its just like the rest of the country, but sad because the place could really be beautiful. Where we were playing in the water you can see all the trash on the ground and most of it was paper from soap packs. when there is enough water people will bathe there and wash their clothes there. One of the pictures is us on the top looking down, you can see all the men sitting on the ground. and in one picture you can see all the men sitting on the rocks as we were playing in the water.