Eid Milad Majeed!

M's class had a party, too, and we enjoyed meeting some of his friends.

We enjoyed hearing traditional Christmas songs in English and Arabic and were happy that even the latter are becoming familiar.

We are so thankful that our children are in a school where the birth of our Savior is celebrated!

Eid Milad Majeed! Which means 'Glorious Birth Feast', or Merry Christmas!

Little Mary

M played "Mary" for her class's Christmas production.

Her classmates wore traditional Arab dresses.

So SWEET!!

Christmas Parties

 K's Christmas party was last week.  

We were proud of our baby, singing Christmas songs in English AND in Arabic.  

A sweet wave to Mom and Dad.

A smile we were happy to see, while the poor boy in front of her cried through the whole show.

The best part was when her whole class took off their necklaces and gave their "hearts" to the baby in the manger!

K reminding her classmates to "be quiet" between songs.

K getting a hug from the kids' wonderful Arabic tutor, who is one of her teachers.

Introducing Mario!

Ok, we felt a little guilty about sharing Bruce Lee the chameleon without introducing Mario.  We inherited Mario from some friends who were leaving the country.  He has been a fun pet, too!

He spends his days swimming with some nameless fish in the aquarium in the boys' room.  

When he sees us, he expects FOOD, which are simple turtle food pellets that he happily devours.  If only Bruce Lee was so easy to please.  Bruce won't eat anything that doesn't wiggle!

Trick-or-Treat!!

The kids were feeling a little bummed about missing out on begging for candy with their friends.  (They don't do that here.)  So Dad took us all out to go "dukkaan" (convenience store) hopping in our neighborhood. 

The kids stocked up on treats and came home smiling!

So they came home to check out their loot and had a healthy dinner of soda, candy bars, chips, sugary liquid in a spray bottle(?), and chocolate... oh, and a little chicken stew!

Afterward, Dad had them show off their best scary faces!

                                              K had two silly faces!

   

Thanks for a fun night, Daddy!

A thawb or thobe (Arabic: ثوب‎ / ALA-LC: thawb), dishdasha (دشداشة / dishdāshah), kandura (كندورة / kandūrah), or suriyah in Libya, is an ankle-length garment, usually with long sleeves, similar to a robe. This clothing is called Kanzu in Swahili, and is commonly worn in East Africa as well.

Our favorite taxi driver brought us gifts back from his hajj to Mecca.  Here are the boys in their dishdash's.  Pretty cool, huh?

Party Time!

So we are sitting at our dining room table doing our homework at 10:00 on a Monday night.  It's a beautiful night, the windows are open wide to let in the cool breeze.  Outside music is blaring from a function (concert, party, wedding, we have no idea what it is, really??), one block away.  C went to the roof to check it out, then for a quick walk.  Whatever it is, it looks like they are having fun.  C said it's all shabaab (meaning young men),  no women in sight.  Guys dancing and doing something with swords, while another guy sings.  It's been going a couple of hours now.  The music is punctuated every few minutes with beautiful fireworks.  No wonder the kids had a hard time going to sleep tonight.  We love the festive lifestyle here!  Our friends really know how to throw a party!

...11:00 now...The music is still going...I consulted with a neighbor I saw just coming in with her husband and 2 and 4 yr old sons (This really is a late-night culture!  We night-owls love it!).  Her first reaction when I asked about the reason for the music was, "What music?"  After that she agreed, "maybe a wedding".  The busiest "wedding season" is in the summer, when there are parties like this, with music and fireworks, every Wednesday- Sunday night. Who needs a stereo?... Just open the windows!

Aroma Buffet

This is the spice and olive selection at our local supermarket.  I only wish I could transmit the aroma offered at this buffet for the senses.  It's wonderful!  (You can see my favorite shopping cart escalator in the background.)

Language-Rich

When you are trying to learn a new language, one of the things you look for in a neighborhood is a place where nobody speaks your mother tongue, so that you are forced to learn the language to survive.  We call this kind of neighborhood, "language-rich".  Ours is pretty good, in this aspect, although many people will proudly use the few English phrases they know when they find out that we are Americans.  However, many others speak Arabic only, as evidenced by one young man in his 20's who had no idea at all that his new sweatshirt read, "GRANDMA is my name and Spoiling is my Game!"  That's language-rich!

Introducing Our Newest Family Member: Bruce Lee!

One of the benefits of living in the desert is... When one of your friends is driving down the road and sees a chameleon crossing the street,  he can stop and pick it up and give it to you for your birthday!  We've had Bruce for about a month now, and he really has been a fun pet!

 He likes to get out of his aquarium and climb around.  We like him because he doesn't move very fast and he doesn't go missing if you put him down! 

 He changes color, depending on his mood or what he's doing.  Sometimes he's dark brown, sometimes tan with flecks, sometimes pale green.

We have enjoyed him more than the crabs, frogs, and geckos that have come to stay at our house recently. 

Here he is eating a fly out of M's hand.  He also likes grasshoppers and cockroaches!  We've considered fitting him with a halter and leash and renting him out to our friends!

Old stones

 Living in the Middle East, there is never a shortage of ancient ruins to climb and explore.

Ramadan Kareem

This is the first week of Ramadan, a 30 day daily fast that our Muslim neighbors here observe.  Our friends wake very early before the first call to prayer to have a big breakfast, because once the call sounds at around 4:30 am, all eating and drinking is forbidden.  They fast all day until the sun sets, and then their fast is broken with their whole family gathered for a lavish meal.

Here is a good article I found about Ramadan:

http://alameda.patch.com/articles/ramadan-a-primer-for-non-muslims

Some of our neighbors hang lights outside their homes to celebrate the holiday.  Our language teacher said her family drove around on the first night of Ramadan looking at the lights.  Sound familiar?

                            

                            

Ramadan Kareem means "generous", because people are supposed to give generously to the poor, as well as to be generous in gifts or food to their friends or guests.  It is also a time of increased focus on self-discipline, and earning Allah's favor.  Help us lift up our Muslim friends to the Father, that they would seek Him with all their hearts and that He would reveal His Truth to them.

             

Language Learning

Our kids have spent the summer learning spoken Arabic from this very sweet (and patient) woman at our language center.  They learn written Arabic from another sweet lady who tutors them.  They have one more month until school starts and then the boys will be in Arabic school all day long. 

Learning new names for body parts.

A page out of a math book.  The numbers are different.  Here we use Hindi numbers, while in America  we use Arabic numbers.  Go figure!!!  To make matters more difficult, the written words (formal Arabic, Fusha) for most items are completely different than the spoken words (local dialect).  So the children actually need to learn 2 new languages for school this year(one for the classroom and one for the playground).  Please lift them up to the Father that they would be able to learn.

Vacation means...

We gave the kids a couple days off from summer school and took them out of town for a break.  They were happy to find the golden arches waiting for them there.

Vacation means having ice cream with your supper...

or FOR your supper!

YUM!! Finger-Lickin' Goodness!!

We visited a different town recently and drove around for over an hour because we heard (and saw billboards) that there was a Krispy Kreme in town.  After asking several locals with no success, we finally had a our car rental agent take us there on our way to the airport.  Success has never tasted so good!

Am I at Food Lion?

This is Badia Fajita Seasoning.  It is our very favorite spice for putting on steamed veggies, steak, eggs, and, of course, fajitas.  We brought 5 bottles from NC and carried it with us as we traveled all over the US, because we couldn't find it in most places.   But take a plane ride over the ocean to the Middle East and you can find it in every grocery store!

Look familiar?  I even see Kroger brands here.

Camel Crossing!

Funny...I don't remember seeing this one on my driver's test!

Our Littlest Sweethearts!

The Fuddrucker's here had face-painting and balloons the other day.  Don't we have beautiful butterflies?

First Trip to Emergency Room...Check!

Well, we had our first (and hopefully our last) major accident a few days ago.  Madison fell out of a swing at a friend's house and landed on her head.  Thankfully, her head is fine!  However, she broke a bone in her hand in the process and she ended up with a cast for the next 3 weeks.

Have you ever seen a child this happy to have a broken hand?

This was our family's first cast!

We have so much to be thankful for:

1.  Sweet friends who gave us rides to and from the hospital, and kept K while we were in the ER (her brothers would not stay, because they wanted to be a part of the action).
2. No head injury!  Thank you, Father!  We know things could have been so much worse!
3. An exceptional first experience with foreign medical care. The hospital was clean and well-equipped.  The staff was polite, professional, and knowledgeable (and spoke English).  We left feeling relieved that should a greater emergency arise, we would have a qualified hospital to care for our needs.
4. That Madison's fall was from a swing and not last week's mountain!

Praise Him!

Annoyed by your co-workers?

 This camel seems to be begging for attention, or maybe he just likes coffee!