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Wednesday, 08 July 2009

Action Packed Errands

Yesterday, I accompanied the children in from my home-stay on a trip to the community oven to bake the traditional cookies we had helped their mother make. The community oven is a unique concept (especially in the summer) where you pay for the service of the wood fueled oven for baking bread, cookies, etc.   The one we went to looked similar to the one pictured here:

     After dropping off the cookies, we walked a little ways down the street, which, is quite narrow as it this part of the old city is for pedestrians only.

     Suddenly just ahead of us, a small buttagaz bottle (1.5 gallons or so) came flying out of a doorway, and landed in the middle of the street--ON FIRE!   The children and I pivoted quickly, backtracked a bit, and prepared to run before the imminent explosion, but kept watching, our eyes glued on the scene! Immediately a young man burst from the same doorway, and in an act of either steadfast courage, or sheer stupidity, grabbed the bottom of the bottle (there are usually small handholds like on a propane bottle in the U.S.) and swung it shot-put style as he careened towards a community fountain (spigot for water) in the street where he doused it and eventually stopped the flames!
   Though I couldn't understand much, I listened as the children relayed the story to their mother in excited tones for at least fifteen minutes after arriving home... What an afternoon!

Monday, 06 July 2009

Teacher becomes the student…

   For the summer, as many of you know, I am studying Arabic in a different N. African town. To aide with my studies and cultural understanding, I am also staying with a N. African family. I have looked forward to this all year! I hope that along with learning much, I will also have ample opportunities to share N. African life with you in antidotes of many kinds…

   Last night I arrived at my home-stay at almost 8 pm and met the family, mother and three children. The daughter is a teen, and the two boys are eight and ten (father works in another town). I know that families eat later in this culture, but I was thankful for the snack around 9 pm, as I had not had dinner on the way. We sat around the TV all night, talked a bit, and played “Go Fish” (something I’m sure that some other guest had taught them) which was great practice to say my numbers and ask, “Do you have?” in Arabic. However, I was a bit surprised to learn that I had not missed dinner yet, and around 11 pm, we sat down to eat.

   I have been using my very poor French thus far, with any Arabic words I know thrown in, but was surprised at how much we communicated. The only serious difficulty came when the mother asked what my father does, and I was thoroughly stumped as to how to explain “taxidermist” with my very limited vocabulary. After lots of charades, finally it was the picture I showed that introduced the concept of taxidermy to my host family. I’m surprised they didn’t sleep with the light on after that…

Picture of the medina (old part of the city). I was told this is the largest city without cars (the medina, anyway, there are plenty of cars in the new city) as well as the oldest existing city in N. Africa.

Sunday, 07 June 2009

Scandal in First Grade (don't worry, it's still "G" rated)

The Spelling Scandal
Before I left for the States, I had put up a wetland scene with animals and labeled each animal, the pond, cattails, and so on.

The beaver I had taped on the wetland wall fell off this morning, and as I was taping it back up I saw that the label I had for the beaver dam had been folded strangely. Much to my embarrassment I discovered why, I had written the wrong “dam”.

Oops!

The substitute discovered it and fixed it while I was gone.

The things that they teach in schools these days…

More Giggles from 1st Grade

The French teacher was reading a book in French to my students and was soliciting answers from the kids about how what they would do with a gorilla in their living room. So, she asks me, "Miss Strong, what would you do if you had a gorilla in your living room and didn't want your roommates to find out?"

One of my roommates, Miss F, works with reading groups for my class, so I threw her name into the equation. "Hmmmm...If I had a gorilla in my living room and didn't want Miss F to see it, maybe I would throw a banana out the window and hope he would follow it." I answered. Someone had already answered that in French, so my answer was quickly forgotten.

"You sleep with Miss F?" asks one girl.

"We share the same house." I reply, suppressing a laugh at her terminology and gently correcting her.

"Miss F is your mom?" asks a boy.

"No," I openly giggle, no holding back that one, "she is not my mom." But I guess we know who the mature one among us is...

Sunday, 03 May 2009

Spring Break in N. Africa—a photoblog

     To celebrate Spring Break, a couple of my friends/colleagues and I went on a four day tour of mountains, gorges, deserts and a spectacular cascade!   We saw many amazing sights, and even toured a film studio and a Kasbah (ancient fortress/house).
   So here are a few of the photos from that trip:
Poppies were sprinkled throughout many of the fields and valleys we passed.

We visited a spectacular cascade!

From down below, you can see a permanent rainbow!

You can also see monkeys at your table, yuck!


We spent a day driving through some gorges. We witnessed breath-taking scenery and everyday village life.


We visited a couple of movie studios where movies such as The Passion, The Jewel of the Nile, The Kingdom of Heaven, The Mummy, Cleopatra, and many more have been filmed.
Here is my friend, Julia, and I on an Egyptian set:
We had the run of an entire fortress set.
Of course we had to bar the gates to keep the other tourists out.

You can see how the walls are made of plaster and scaffolding, amazing!

My dad told me that my car had seen better days!


Perhaps we should have followed the rules on our trip...


Maybe my next trip I will be knocking on your door...

Sunday, 04 January 2009

The Wise Guys

Merry Christmas to all and a Happy New Year as well! As many of you know, my family celebrates Christmas in the some very un-traditional ways. Dad always has something planned that drives home the purpose of the holiday. From sleeping in a stable to eating a shepherd’s dinner round a fire, Christmas Eve has been an adventure for many years.

This year my brother, Noah, came to visit for the holiday, and since I hated for him to miss out on the excitement of Christmas at home, we had a bit of adventure of our own…

WISE GUYS!

"Do we have the tent?"
"Check!"

"Three camels?"
"Check!"

"Three Wise Guys?"
"Check!"

"Three Gifts?"
"...ummm...about that...well...uh..."

“…I can’t believe that you forgot the gifts! They were sitting right next to your camel-pack!”
“…Well, we will just have to stop and pick up some more gifts at the next town…”
Some time later...
"Let's try here."

"Excuse me, sir, do you have any Myrrh?
...Frankincense?
...Gold?"
"I guess we are going to have to try somewhere else, Belshazzar."
Well, at least we made friends with the spice merchant...

Once we got our gifts we were ready to go...

Back in the saddle again...

"Um, I'm saddle sore!"
By the way, camel travel is not all it's cracked up to be...
but it sure beats walking...

"It is so hard to find our way by day. "
"Why don't we just stop and ask for directions?"
"We don't need directions. We have a map...and a star."

Ahhh, there is the way!

Well, in the end, the journey was well worth the trouble...the treasure we have now is worthy of giving your life for!