christmas far far away 2of2

Well Merry Christmas!!!! yes, a little late. i spent christmas eve with a couple other volunteers at a friends house about 4 hours away!! there is very little christmas spirit here, but we managed to have a pretty good time. here are a few snapshots.

first project, decorations!!!! i made this little sign for our holiday archway.

Leslie made this fabulous nativity set out of clay and a box and some fabric scraps. so creative!! they arent in this picture, but the set was complete with three wise men bringing gifts to the baby jesus. awww.

Stockings!!! unfortunatly santa must have gotten lost, but at least i had this awesome stocking!

Next project, christmas cookies. we made a ton! this is leslie early in the process or rolling and cutting out.

this is lena, our hostess really getting into the flour.

and then we frost!!! so messy, so delicious.

after hours of prep work, we finally made it to the christmas dinner. i was very impressed as lena made the most delicious chicken i've had in ages! mmm.

On christmas morning i traveled back to my town, and watched some christmas movies on my satellite dish. it was peaceful, relaxing, nice. this is the christmas tree sent by my sister, after i added the magic liquid (before picture is in a previous post). it really did grow!!! it's a christmas miracle!!

a much needed trip out

I recently managed to leave town for 12 whole days!!! thats right kiddies, i busted out and was able to see two of the places i've wanted to visit since i arrived here. and in the middle, i was checked out by the docs to commemerate being on the downhill slide of my time in country. clean bill of health! humdullah!!!

so some of you know about my obsession with fountains. well, this was my first trip to a real waterfall, and needless to say, i'm in love!!!!! so incredibly beautiful. i was in heaven and took at least 4 billion pictures!

We arrived at the village, and i thought "where is this thing??" then you walk about a hundred yards and notice this big cliff. all the sudden you're standing right on top of them! crazy!

This is where the collide about halfway down.

and then you can walk all the way down to the bottom of the falls where the view is equally breathtaking!

truly a dream come true. me and a real live monkey, living out in the wild and sitting in the palm of my hand!

so the waterfall was pre medical visit. after, i went to one of the imperial cities! this is at the tomb of a famous old leader. love the doorways in this country!

just outside of this city, there is old roman city. all ruins and not completely excavated, this place was incredible. Here i am next to an old well.

once again i took a million pictures, but tried to choose some interesting ones. this is some sort of aquaduct or something.

this was the center of town where the government buildings and public square was. now some birds call it home.

They call this the "arc de triomphe." not quite the one in paris, but still pretty cool.

This is just off the main road of the town. these houses were of the weathly people and many also had shops and businesses attached. sweet!

this house is called "the house of columns." i claimed it as my own as it is so beautiful! lots of columns and a beautiful courtyard. i'll be moving in next month.

it's so cold!

My store keeper says "welcome to teresa's update!!"

He is my main food man, i just walk across the street!

(yep, that is the toilet paper i was about to buy)

it's officially winter. i mean, it's been chilly for a while now, but now i'm just freezing my booty off. this morning i woke up, and for the first time, wasn't toasty warm under my four blankets. "this is odd" i thought as i felt a little chill. then i looked at my handy dandy clock thermometer. 47 degrees in my apartment.

the snow is beautiful!

in fact, as i sit here typing this to you all, my hands are so cold that they can only move very sluggishly. tried typing with my fleece gloves, but that just makes it too bulky. The mountains around town are covered in snow. while this makes for extremely picturesque scenery, it makes me just about willing to give my left arm for a furnace.

hmmm or maybe i could roll myself into one of these rugs?

so whats the big news these days. well, yesterday i got a new bike. it's a trek bike, and apparently cost over 500 dollars, so basically PC will kill me if anything happens to it. But wow, it's really zwine (beautiful). i went on my first ride this morning, but despite the daily running that i've been doing for the past 2 1/2 months i felt like i was going to die. my heart was racing, my legs were hurting. Really makes me realize how out of shape i still am.

i participated in making couscous for the first time at the home

of some new friends. mmm mmm good!

in other news, my theater club actually held a little performance on friday night. the actors were excited, and we had a crowd full of siblings and friends. despite not having much time for rehearsals, they pulled it off, and i consider this a large accomplishment. It proves that we actually can get something done, and i think we can only go up from here.

our performers and the teachers who lead the whole thing

spectators!

On thursday i'm leaving town for a little work and a little play. i have to go up to the capital for my mid-term physical, and have added a few vacation days before and after to make a nice little vacation. i'm going to visit some friends in the mountains who live close to an incredible waterfall, and then to an old roman city all in ruins.

these "snack carts" sell candy, nuts, seeds and lots of goodies

and are located all over town! this is by far the best one

i've seen in this country.

despite how great work has been the last few months, i am ready to get out for a bit. my location certainly makes me feel secluded and i'm getting a little stir crazy. The last night away will be christmas eve at a friends house, and then i will arrive back home on christmas day. maybe i'll make myself a little christmas feast.

maybe my feast will include peas. do you see how

many peas i shelled to get this tiny little bowl!!!! ridiculous!!!

but they are just so much better fresh. i tell you, canned peas

should not even be called peas. they dont taste the same at all!!!

I hope you all had a great thanksgiving and are fully in the holiday spirit. i love and miss you all!

this is my santa. i bought it for about 1 dollar

from that cart you saw earlier. sweet!

I am one spoiled little girl. thanks family!

this is my christmas tree. courtesy of my lovely sister. apparently it will grow when i add the magic water. i'll let you all know how it goes! HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!!

-I would like to say a big thanks to my dad, sue and little david for sending me a new camera for christmas. all of the pictures on this page were taken with it, and dont they just look fabulous!!-

my life, in a nutshell

So i've started having "women's cafe" at my youth center. women come, we eat, we talk, we dance. and sometimes it gets pretty serious. The last one was especially exciting.

an exerpt:

woman 1: so how do people pray in america?

me: well, people do all kinds of things because we have all kinds of people and religions in america. (i can usually get away with an answer like this and avoid any other uncomfortable questions)

woman 2: well, how do YOU pray?

me: (SHIT! hesitation as i think about how to handle this. finally i think, what the hell!) well, i don't.

w1 & w2: (confused and frightened stares)

w1: teresa, do you know where you will go when you die if you dont pray?

me: (trying not to laugh) well yes. down there (pointing down)

w1: teresa, do you know what's down there!!!

me: (again with the holding in of laughter) yes, of course!

w1: you're not scared?

me: nope

w1: really?

me: yep

w1: well i'm scared for you!

me: really, you dont need to be scared for me, i'm not scared.

w3: (to the other women) you know, there are a lot of really bad people who pray, praying isnt everything. people kill and steal and pray.

me: (thank you woman 3!) do you know that my president prays?

women: yes

me: and where do you think he's going when he dies? (sorry president, i'm just trying to prove a point here)

women: (pointing down) he's going to hell!!!!

me: well see. he prays and you think he's going down there. i think that if i'm a good person and i do good things, something good will happen to me when i die.

woman 4: teresa, i think that you will go to heaven because you are good and you teach us.

me: thanks!

(end of conversation about religion.........thank god! ;) )

out and about

i'm so happy to say that the hell that was october is over, and i am happily swimming through november.

work is great. the past few weeks have been quite an adjustment as i've gone from working 4 hours per week, to working about 20 hours per week. things are really moving and i'm hopeful that good things will be happening.

so, in a nutshell. soccer! the girls team is actually entering the official boys club! this is pretty huge people. there is lots of paper work, and i have personally visited lots of parents in order to convince them that it is good that their girls are playing soccer. i have also started working with the leaders of the club to get money. we are going to write letters and prepare a budget to take with us as we visit community leaders and ask them to contribute. this should be happening in the next few weeks. if successful, the girls and boys teams will soon be playing with new jerseys, balls and all of that good stuff.

women's cafe. the women here dont really have a place to hang out and have a good time. so now every saturday night they bring cookies and drinks to the youth center. like our own little nightclub! we dance, we talk, we have a great time. i'm hoping to start bringing people to speak to the women about health and other important issues.

theater club. started out with a bang! 25 students came and by the end of day one had chosen to do a play on 'adolescence'. unfortunatly my counterpart had to leave for a week and we have now had to cancel 2 weeks of this club. we are to start again this friday and i just hope that interest has not been lost, and we can still accomplish something in the next month.

english class and youth club. both going well, i have lots of students and the youth center is pretty full most nights during the week, which is great. unfortunatly i really dont like teaching english. after christmas i might just stop!

this past weekend i left my town for the first time in 2 months. i had to go to the big city to get my yearly flu shot. everyone in my region had to go, so it was cool to meet a lot of people who i'd never met before.

And we went out! a lot of the hotels there have clubs. and these clubs are like 80's discoteches. pretty sweet. we drank, we danced. it was a blast.

then the next day i traveled to a little beach town that i'd been wanting to visit for a long time. unfortunatly the weather wasnt great and i didnt have much time there, but it was beautiful! the pictures you see with this post are from a few of the beaches there. it was at dusk and really foggy. needless to say the pictures didnt turn out that well. i brightened them on the computer, but they still are pretty bad. i guess that means i'll have to go back for some better ones!

ok, i guess thats all for now. i hope you guys like the new site. feel free to send any suggestions, comments, questions, etc.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!

how i celebrated in a land of no halloween

i love halloween. in my opinion, it's in the "big 3" of holidays. you dress up. you eat candy. you party. nothing but fun involved. so as you can imagine, i couldnt just let my 2nd out of country halloween pass without a fuss. especially when 2/3rds of my job is cross cultural exchange.

Halloween this year fell on the day of my first classes, so i decided to take advantage. I would do some halloween themed lessons. i would bring a jack-o-lantern. i would make caramel apples. i would wear a costume.

I decided to be a black cat. simple. classic. easy. The week before i bought a headband and attached some ears. i also made a tail. i dressed in black, and used eye liner to draw on some whiskers. sweet!

we dont have orange pumkins here, but i thought, who cares! i bought a whitish green one and carved it up.

the caramel apples were a blast. the people who i bought the caramel from surely thought i was going on a binge eating spree, but i managed to find enough to make about 20 apples. they were delicious.

The big day arrived and i lugged all of my paraphenalia to the youth center. when i arrived i added my makeup and put on my costume. i lit the pumkin and put him outside. i brought candy which i gave out to all of my students, and some sweet halloween sticker. they learned vocabulary like vampire, witch, full moon, monster, pumkin, etc, etc.

i think they thought i was a loon. i've never been laughed at so much in my life. it was worth it.

when class was over i decided to bring some apples to my host family, so i wore my costume across town. i was greeted with much laughter. i gave them stickers and apples, and tried to explain why i was looking so crazy. me to a 70 year old berber man, " today is a holiday in america. everyone dresses like this. we eat candy!" him to me, "cat! makeup!"

when i was ready to leave one of my soccer girls said to me "teresa, take off that tail and the ears. people will laugh at you!" i took them off. my whiskers were with me until i made it home, where i finally washed them off.