The "Kiek" Kick

It’s official! We are fighting serious “kiek” (flea) infestation. Last night as I lay in bed pestered by the little guys crawling and biting on me I listened to my kids toss and turn, Elli at times crying out. They weren’t tossing because they were restless. In their sleep they were trying to kick the “kiek” off. Apparently “kiek” is a common problem, regardless of if you have animals or not. They are some form of wood flea. So we have started sunning our floor pillows and foam mattress at least weekly, to help pull the fleas out. On one arm alone, I counted over 20 flea bites. I’m currently hauling our laundry on the small taxi vans to do it in Janel’s washing machine. And when I pulled the laundry out yesterday, I found at least 10 fleas, several of which were still living. After a full washing/rinsing/spinning cycle!

So today I did some internet research for home remedies to kick this problem, as the sunning doesn’t seem to be working. And I discovered salt, rubbed into the carpet, and laid under our bed sheets is supposed to help. So I’ve salted our bedroom and will see if this helps us kick the “kiek.” If you know of any other remedies, please share!

Sitting by herself

Elli is fully expressing her independence, or at least her desire to be independent. One of the major ways is that she wants to do what the big kids do. So she's boycotting sitting in her booster seat. Instead, she wants to sit with the big kids. And they are very patient with her. So she'll try and feed herself and if she can't, Fazula, the 14 year old red head will help her out. Who knows, by the time we move, she may have "dest-er-khan" (floor table) eating figured out.

The house fell through

Oh I’m so sad! Austin tracked down the man who had shown us the house (tracked down as he is a van taxi driver and doesn’t answer his phone while in route, all day long.) He said that family is returning from the capitol and they will be living in the home. We were both so saddened by it falling through. I think this is one element of how I’m wired that I grow weary of; I dream! As I’m sure the blog entry revealed I had already moved in mentally. I found some fabric at the bazaar and bought it with visions of making kitchen curtains for those exact windows. And then when it doesn’t actually happen, I’m winded, like a swift kick to the gut. The thought of getting back out there and hunting for other options is exhausting and more than I can currently consider.

Austin's 30 th Birthday

I’ll be honest, I had different ideas of ways to celebrate Austin’s 30^th birthday. But being in the midst of our home stay, he was thrown an all out Aobistan birthday party! Janel and her family and then several adult children of our home stay (and their families) were invited to the party. The final count was 34 people at the party.

Party preparations began the day before with a trip to the bazaar to purchase over 30 items. Merenges, the 10 year old girl, came with me to make sure I got the right things. She was so excited for this honored position and made sure to express her opinion on the quality of meat, fruit and candy that we purchased! Since the foreigner was buying. Several people in the bazaar asked why her language was so good when her mother couldn’t speak as well. She clarified that I wasn’t her mother but just a relative.

Then on his actual birthday, we started cooking by 8 a.m. By 4 p.m. several recruits from the family arrived to help and make sure that everything was prepared in time. A birthday menu is the same as a wedding, circumcision, any party kind of menu. The table is set with the first course when the guests arrive. And by set, I mean full of small plates filled with salads, cookies, candies, and nuts. The goal is to have little or no space remaining.

This is the woman’s table. We had to sit seperatly as there wasn’t a room big enough for all of us.

The second course is a sour soup that is made from “chaka” (which we have yet to fully identify how it is made) and some mountain leaves only found in the spring. Definitely a stretch on our taste buds and not Austin’s first pick for a 30^th birthday meal. And the final course is the Ash pilau; pilau rice with meat, onions, and carrots. Grandma doesn’t like cumin, so it is always immited. But I asked her permission to include cumin for Austin’s birthday, as it is one of his favorite spices. She willingly conceded and was honored that I asked first.

Before all the men arrived our Grandma and a 74 year old neighbor had their fun giving Austin his birthday presents. It was all about the presenting of them to Austin and then dancing a little celebration birthday dance for him. Austin’s face quickly reddened, as this is so different from what we had grown accostumed to in our first overseas home.

And the Grandma’s were fully aware of how they had made him blush. Actually they were quite pleased with themselves.

Here are some of the guests in attendance. Once everything got busy with hosting, I wasn't able to get a picture of all the women in attendance. But there were quite a few more than this picture captured.

I told Kaleen that I would make Austin's birthday cake. She was quite concerned that it wouldn't be a "real cake" but I assured her she would like it. Without Austin knowing, I organized with the corner store that has a small soft serve ice cream machine to have 30 plastic cup servings of ice cream ready. I told them I would pick them up around 7 p.m. The kids were extatic about the ice cream, calling it "Eid-e-Arif" as they have ice cream for weddings and Eid. The adults weren't quite sure what to think of the white ream atop their cake.

All the guests finally left around 11 p.m. after we had eaten, talked, and even danced. Then it was clean-up. With 2 tables covered in a plethora of little plates, I was up midnight washing dishes with Kaleen and Fazula. All in all a fun memory. Cause you only turn 30 once!

It's Apa's birthday

This is the oldest daughter in our family (in the teal dress; which is a color only worn in mourning). Though she doesn’t live in our yard we do see her often. Her birthday is one day before Austin’s. So we were invited to celebrate with her. I went over with the kids at around 6 p.m. Austin joined us shortly there after. We celebrated her turning 40 with a “full Ash”; a three course meal and didn’t leave for home until after 10 p.m.

This is Grandpa (the birthday girl’s father in law) proudly standing with his cow. What the picture doesn’t capture is that he was dressed in only long johns for pants.

But Elli took a liking to Grandpa and of her own initiative sat in his lap for the first course of the meal.

Ethan’s highlight of the evening was getting to sit atop Grandpa’s donkey. First it was to pet him, but Ethan warmed up to the idea of sitting a top of him. What this picture fails to capture is the raging dog that is tied up right behind the donkey. Austin stayed close by for fear that maybe the donkey and dog weren’t having a good day. But Ethan got off the donkey without incident.

My first spa day!

Today I had my first Aobistan facial. One of my most heard compliments is that my skin is “super white.” After being out in the sun today (just doing life, not lying out), Kaleen was concerned that my skin was turning black; maybe a little pink but I wouldn’t go as far as black. She pulled out some white creamy milk product and sought to convince me that it would take the sunburn out and return my “milky white skin.”

After much protesting, I went along with it just to see her reaction. She loved it. I was instructed to leave it on for 10 minutes until it hardened.

Grandma was visiting her new grandson today. Life is always a little slower and low key when she’s gone. So to finish of my spa day, Kaleen and I took a nap out on the “cot” in the great spring breeze. I slept so hard, that the 10 year old daughter not only got Elli up after her nap, but cleaned Ethan up after he went to the bathroom. All without my knowing it. I told her she has truly become my children’s older sister.

I am so blessed to have this dear friend. In such a short amount of time we have grown a friendship where we can laugh, work and cry together. A true gift!!!

Picking Cherries!

The cherry trees in our yard are full of ripe cherries. At least twice each day Ethan climbs the trees with his buddy Bakhtavar and picks cherries for everyone to enjoy. We’ve come up with some great ways of catching/carrying the berries.

Here we used a recently inherited backpack from a little boy returning to England. We lined it with a plastic bag and Ethan filled it with the berries he picked.

Elli has learned to wait under the trees for the berries that drop while brother works hard to pick them. I don’t know if you can see it in the picture, but she has mastered the art of eating around the pit. When she’s done, she’ll pull the pit out with the stem still attached.

The plan is to make jelly next week when the berries are really ripe.

A circumcision party

A circle of women gathered in our kitchen to discuss the demise of using “pampers;” what they call disposable diapers. A cousin to our home stay family had contracted an awful infection and was not urinating as he should be. In hopes to remedy the problem, the Dr. circumcised him. And the deduction was it was all the fault of using the disposable diapers. So instead of having a huge celebration between the ages of 5-7 celebrating the boy’s circumcision, we were invited to a small family gathering to do the same.

We were greeted on our arrival by the little boy, without his pants; to prove he had indeed been circumcised. I felt sorry for the little boy who was really going to lose out on a big celebration later.

Halfway through the feasting we were encouraged to stretch our legs and climb the hill on the backside of the house. “It’s an easy climb” but was actually straight up a shale cliff. But it did provide a beautiful view of our town.

These are the women of the family who were at the celebration.

The grandfather of the family is paralyzed and stays in bed. At their request I took some pictures of him with his wife and some of his grandchildren.

Could this be the one?

The house hunt has begun and we are excited. Homes with any form of plumbing are rare to non-existent. So that means we are anticipating building a kitchen and bathroom into our home. We have found a place that we both really like. There is no doubt a lot of work that will have to go into it, but we are hopeful. The yard is a selling point as well as each section is very heatable for cold winters. We have yet to talk cost with the owner (trying to play down our interest) so the cost of rent and remodeling may exceed our budget and then drop the house from the list. But I wanted you to see what we are looking at.

Almost all homes here are build around the yard/courtyard. So the house is actually the walls of the yard. The first picture is of the door to a small entryway and then the 2 bedrooms. The second picture is of the current shower room which we will gut and make into a bathroom. In the middle is the courtyard. There is a terrace with grapevines that will quickly grow over and give it shade. The "cot" along the bathroom wall will probably come with the house. After a coat of paint and a little carpet, we can enjoy countless summer evenings/mornings eating and sitting outside.

This is the kitchen. It is in a cluster of 4 small rooms on the left side of the courtyard; so directly across the courtyard from the bathroom. Amazingly it's already plumped for cold water. We'll do some work on the floor, put in cabinets and a new sink. It is yet to be determined if we'll buy a hot water heater for the kitchen. That is all budget permitting. I'm so excited about the windows. An improvement on lighting from my last kitchen and one window faces the courtyard and the other faces the yard, so great Mommy watching potential!

This is the current shower room. It looks WAY bigger than it actually is. Pretty much the family would go in with buckets to shower; so it's a small closet size room with no actual shower or toilet. The small window is at the ceiling line, so it's very short. We both have to stoop to enter the room. Austin has great ideas of actually moving the door to another wall, gutting and building the toilet room, bath and washing machine space. What a blessing to have a hubby who has taken a college class on building a septic tank. Looks like that will be my 30th birthday and 7th anniversary present!

This is a shot of the yard from the edge of the courtyard. Nate, I apologize for the tree in the middle of the picture. In attempts to quickly/discreetly take pictures my framing abilities were apparently lost. There are apple, mulberry, apricot and cherry trees in the yard. There are several rose bushes in bloom. And then an entire yard of wheat. As no one has lived here for years, they planted wheat to feed the family cow. To the left of the roses is the squatty that we'll use until our toilet is built as well as a very clean stable. The vote is still out on if we'll get a sheep, team steer, or chickens.

These are some additional pictures of the house

A baby binding party

On May 9th, the 3rd born son in our home stay, had his first child; a son. Mother and baby were in the hospital for 5 days. Once they arrived home, Grandma went accompanied by the 3 year old of our family to help out with the baby. It turns out while she was there "helping out" she sewed new dresses for all her daughters/daughter-in-laws on the new mother's sewing machine. She even made me a dress.

We've been waiting for the baby's umbilical stub to fall off. Once it had the baby could be bound to the cradle. And of course that is a reason to celebrate. I received last minute news of the celebration and had other things planned for the day, so I didn't get to stay the entire day. But here are the pictures from the parts I did see.

A walnut is beat against the bed with a stone. Both the mother's grandmother and sister took their turns at whacking the nut. The banging is supposed to accustom the baby to noise so they won't be easily scared.

Both of the baby's grandmother's took turns at offering a prayer of blessing. It feels kind of awkward to take pictures while they are praying, but Grandma ordered me to do it. They're really into the pictures!

Then there was the donning of various things to keep away the evil eye. The new mother was rubbed with a burnt onion by her grandmother; the baby’s great grandmother. And then the baby was dotted with flour on his forehead.

It was all a quick flurry of activity and then it was over. After which we all sat and enjoyed some kebab and chips. The full 3 course meal followed late into the afternoon, but I wasn’t able to stay for that part. A monumental day, the baby has been bound.

We've got internet!

As I'm sure you've guessed by the sudden influx of blog entries, we have our internet set up and it's working. Along with the city post office, we are the only 2 wireless users, working off of a cell tower signal. It's a little slower than our friend's internet, but we are grateful to have it!

A confession . . . while we were waiting in Sharjah we purchased season passes to NCIS and LOST on itunes. These are our areas of weakness/addiction. So in our lapse in internet we have 10 episodes to download. The question is how long it's going to take to do so. I'll let you know when we get it all downloaded.

Feels like home

We returned from our family get-away to find Grandpa busy working on cutting and drying alfalfa that had been brought in from the family land outside of town. It didn't take long and Austin was busy at work helping cut the alfalfa, much to Grandpa's appreciation.

This is the machine they use to cut it. It continues to sit in our yard, which keeps me on higher alert for curious fingers that may find their way to it.

For 2 days the alfalfa filled the yard as it dried. Austin and Grandpa then worked to collect it into sacks and store it in the attic to feed the sheep for a while. Unfortunately, I think all the fresh alfalfa is also to blame for the rampant flea bites plaguing our whole family!

This is one thing I love about and am challenged by my husband. He is such a servant and loves people by working alongside them. I think he has won his way into the heart of Grandpa by his faithful service.

Barber Arif

It's been several days without rain and the temperatures are rising. Young children, boys and girls alike, get their hair buzzed for the summer months. The reasoning "to keep them cool and allow their heads to get good sun." So while the clippers were out for Merona's (3 year old girl) haircut, Austin gave Ethan a quick haircut. We didn't buzz it down quite as short as they all wanted it to be.

Grandpa woke up from his nap to the buzz of the clippers. And came out to join us. He wanted to be next in Barber Arif's chair (Austin's local name). Austin was a little nervous buzzing Grandpa's hair.

But all clients proved satisfied with their new cuts.