Happy Halloween!

'Sarah Palin' won the costume prize... beating out Emily's glamourous 'Queen of Sheba'. As a PE teacher, I didn't figure I had much of a chance!

Excitement to come

This weekend, we have been invited to a Sudanese wedding! This is sure to bring some excitement to an otherwise stale blog. (My apologies!) It seems I no longer have new and exciting experiences on a daily basis. Imagine that!

Today's bits:
* There is a Halloween celebration at school today- meaning I shamelessly ate a Twix for breakfast.
* Coaching the girls swim meet after school today.
* STILL no costume idea for tonight's party.
* aaaaand- big local news... (nothing to worry about there, mom...)

Too much

We have a seven person team of teachers and administrators visiting our school this week. Will we be re-accredited? We'll find out Thursday afternoon, after five days of interviews and observations. Oh what fun!
This doesn't leave much time for fun... Hence the lack of exciting blog posts.

Something has happened that I NEVER believed would-
* 80 degrees in the morning means the kids are complaining that its cold!

Wow.

Cat's in the cradle

The highlight of this beautiful, breezy Khartoum weekend? A home visit from our new veterinarian! Toab didn't even know why he should be looking anxiously out the balcony, toward the street, but he was!
We got the number of a good vet from an expat friend. We called, and within two hours, he was being escorted up our stairs by our security guard. Wow! This guy speaks great English and makes house calls with a snakeskin briefcase! His day job? He works at the Police Dog Training Facility!
For the price of $15, we got a home visit with a shot, a prescription (written on Police Dog Administration paper), and lab tests. There are bargains in this city!

More swimming!

It seems I just can't get enough of this sporty nonsense. The boys had their official "swim meet" competing against the two other big International schools. Music blasting, tented team 'camps'- it was a great experience for them. And we won several races! Not bad for not having a pool to practice!

The 'seasons' are changing...

We're finally feeling it cool off a bit. The rainy season is technically over, with fewer haboobs and rainshowers. The air is cooler, especially in the morning. Some mornings, the thermometer tells us its a cool 90 degrees. Its nice. I'm not cold, but its nice.
The Nile is still flooded (see photo). I'm not sure how that plays out. I guess I'll see.

(We all passed the HIV test- we are a few short days away from having our stay visas! What a process!)

more hoops...

It seems I forgot the best part of yesterday's game... The scene-
My girls are attempting lay-ups, 10 minutes before the game. Some girls just don't hit rim. The idea of a rebounding line is killing them. We muddle through. The PE assistant at the school is attempting to coach them.

(This is the man whose connections brought us the Olympic runners.)

He comes over to talk to me. His English is rough, and I think he is making jokes about my girls being so good they could be the US National Team. "Ah, ha ha ha... Yes, yes... National team..."

Um, no. He is pointing to his buddy, walking across the field, who helps train the Sudanese National Team! He's coming to the game to watch and help! NOT the sort of thing you dump on a coach as her girls are air balling layups right before a game!

"Oh! Nice to meet you... Yes, my girls are young... Yes, they don't understand the game... Yes, they need more training..." And, its game time!

0-2 and proud!

Our second game of the season. Score? 6-20. Much improved from 6-38!

A few highlights from the game (that much resembled a bad comedy)

- Its one minute until our scheduled start time. A girl gets out of line to come tell me that "My father says you lied to me. It is 3:00 and you said the game was going to start then. And he is here. And you lied."

- Carol, the girl with very limited English, has a shoe that is untied. The ref stops the game, tells her to tie her shoe. She doesn't get it. He tells her again. Repeat. Repeat. Another player from our time comes over, and ties her shoe for her.

- I glance back at the bench and see one of my players EATING A SANDWICH!

- Throughout the ENTIRE game, three girls take turns tapping me on my shoulder and asking me to put them in the game.

- Two players approach me after the game, and say: "Did we play well?" "Yes. You did." "Well, so what is our reward?" They wanted me to give them candy!!!!

I can't even remember all of the nonsense that went on. To get them to play defense and rebound, I told them if they didn't keep their arms in the air, I was going to make them stand with their arms straight up and jump for an entire lunch period. Ha! And it worked! It seems they actually think I'm crazy enough to make them do it! Ha HA!

Fish out of water!

Emily and I were in charge of the swimmers today. What fun!
Em got in the water and taught some diving- I preferred to be the one prancing along the side of the pool with the stopwatch and clipboard.

We were timing the girls for the match next Thursday. But we found it was hard to get a time when half the girls didn't know how to do the strokes! Or dive! Again, what fun!

In the end, it was a great afternoon to be hanging out with cool kids, splashing around in the desert heat. We could use a pool of our own, I reckon.

On a side note, we do have a friend that will soon be moving into a place with a small pool and hot tub. I'm not sure if I'm excited about the hot tub, but the pool is definitely something to look forward to!

Long John Silver!

Big day today... the Sudanese Olympic medalist came to school! The kids loved it!
Two all-star runners came-
Ismail Ahmed Ismail, the silver medalist from the Beijing Olympics in the 800 m.
(First medal in Sudanese history!)
AND Abubaker Kaki, the junior world-record holder in the 800 m.
They got to ask them questions AND even 'race' against them!

with Ismail Ismail- Silver Medal Winner!

Barack the vote!

After navigating the confusing overseas ballot hoops and loops, we mailed off our applications in early September. We put our faith in the Embassy's pouch, a sure-fire way to send government mail.

We have been doubting the process. Well, until late Thursday night, when we received our ballots! It's a bit odd in one way- why would we all send our ballot applications to different counties and states, and then receive them all on the same day? hmmm??

I don't ask questions- because my vote is going to count!

We have a colleague that is returning to the states this week. He is going to drop those puppies in the mail for us. And -bam! Everything falls into place.

Well, that will only be known once all the votes have been counted.

Almost cleared

Had to spend the morning in the health clinic getting our HIV tests to be cleared for residence.
A couple things worth noting:
-needles are scary anywhere.
-the bandaids are beige. Most people here are not.
When that is cleared, we will finally have our stay permits, meaning we can come and go as we wish. No more nonsense.

We have discovered two new and amazing restaurants this week. Things are looking a little up.

Quote of the day

8th grade boy, in advisory discussion about fighting:
"See, boys have a thing called 'mental angerments.'"

Sporty Spice Returns

After a week full of basketball, I am going today to help our boys swim team as they practice at the rich school in town. (The only school with a pool!)
I'm flashing back several years here. And having a good time doing it!

The big game

Our first game! The girls were so excited! And nervous! And freaking out about everything. So many questions! Water. Fouls. Bathroom. Parents. Posters. AHHHH! So much fun to be around them! What a fun bus ride to the British school in town. (Of course we all brought snacks and music for the 15 minute drive!)

Its very, very informal here. But still, teams want to win. Unfortunately, ours doesn't quite have what it takes. We're playing in the U14 league, meaning that players have to be UNDER 14 years old. Due to team sizes, our 13 year olds are playing up, with the U18s. Leaving us with a team of 11 and 12 year-olds to compete against bigger and older teams.

But boy did we have fun anyways! Half of the team would rather just make up cheers with poor-ESL grammar than practice and pay attention to the game. Unfortunately, these same girls really want playing time! Oh, the fun!

38-6. Good effort, ladies! I am quite proud!

connected!

We made a big purchase this evening- a US phone number!

If you are interested in calling us, email us.. we'd LOVE to give you that number.
For the cost of a local, US call you could be talking to us- in Khartoum!
The internet blesses us in so many ways.
And next it just might bless me with a phone call from you!

squeaky clean

This girl is hired!
All important world events aside- we've got ourselves a house cleaner!
She passed day one with flying colors- even sweeping those four balconies!
(Remember earlier documented sand?)
Quality of life just increased dramatically.

We have begun pricing tickets for winter break. We have three and a half weeks to travel. We're very excited to meet my parents and grandmother in Jordan for 10 days. (An Amazon wish list is in the works!) And we are looking to follow that with 12 days in Uganda. Excellent! We're definitely trying to take advantage of living in this fascinating corner of the world- and we only have so much time!

Flashback

On a painfully early Sunday morning, sometimes I can't help but flash back to a happier time... frolicking in the medieval castles of Ethiopia. Ahhh... life was good.

Buckled

We've hired a maid. On a trial basis, of course.
We met with her this weekend- a sweet woman from Eritrea, recommended to us by a worker at the school .
She will come once a week and do the floors, dust, and do dishes and clean the bathrooms. Its almost too good to be true!
And all this for the grand total of 150 SDG a month- $75. (And we're paying her really well.) I really hope it works out- I'm so excited to come home to a clean house tomorrow!

Back in the Kh-town saddle

We've made the list for a '70s themed party tonight. I can confidently say that that's to be the highlight of this weekend. Well... I hope its more exciting than dishes and grocery shopping, which are the other high points of the weekend. Oh, crazy crazy Khartoum...

Photo permit

See this nice Ethiopian woman? She approached me and asked me to take her picture. So I snapped it, showed it to her, and without even looking, she erupted in giggles and ran away.

I returned from break to find a photo permit waiting for me. This is exciting. While the permit has very strict rules about what I can and can not photograph, it does give me a bit more freedom. I can get more random pictures of people like the one above. In Sudan.

The Churches of Lalibella

A few more choice photographs from Ethiopia. Like a few already posted, these were taken at the Churches of Lalibella. Lalibella is known as the "Second Jerusalem" because the king (Lalibella) was inspired to dig churches that rivaled those of the great Jerusalem. So, in the span of several years during the 12th and 13th centuries, he (with the help of tens of thousands of friends) chiseled 11 monolithic churches. Wow!
Most amazing of all is the fact that these are not just tourist attractions. They are still living, breathing communities of believers. We were there for the monthly feast day of Mary and witnessed thousands of locals passing through the churches, singing and praying. Beautiful. All of it.

Lake Tana, Ethiopia

Me, cruising in a motor boat on the lake.

A papyrus boat cruising in the mouth of the Blue Nile from Lake Tana.

Ethiopia- a few choice shots

Men resting outside a monastery, Bahar Dar

A village near Bahar Dar

Priest of Ethiopian Orthodox Church with his community's 900 year-old crossSt. George's Church, Lalibella

My birthday

Day one of the holiday that almost wasn't- Addis Ababa. September 26.This day may prove to be one of the most exciting birthdays of my life. Perhaps because it was my golden birthday. (26 on the 26th, yo!)

The day started with an innocent and easy arrival in Addis.
We continued into the early afternoon with a pickpocket scheme. A man stopped, backing into me and forcing me to take my hand off my pocket (and camera) to stop him. As I did so- well! If I didn't feel my camera go! His little friend was on the other side of me taking it! I whipped around yelling "NO! NO!" Emily, behind me, was moved by my cries, and started waving her arms yelling "NO! NO!" And I simply took my camera back from the man. He looked really confused, glanced around, and ran away down the alley. Ha!

We were excited to learn that we arrived in Addis on the eve of Meskal- the celebration of the bringing of the true cross to Ethiopia. This is big! There is a huge celebration at the Meskal square, with music, bonfire and more. We couldn't really get close. There was a crowd estimated at 2 million people!



While cruising the periphery, we found ourselves in the middle of another difficult situation- a mad bull! Running towards us! You try to NOT run, but pretty soon you're with the rest of the people running and hurdling large bushes. He actually got one woman- rolled her around with his horns a little bit. In the end, she was fine. Just REAL muddy. Several men finally got it down in a hole.
(Crazy Audrey took pictures while screaming at us to run!)

And several hours later, my heart stopped racing.

Ethiopia!

Limited internet in Northern Ethiopia didn't allow me to post. But boy- do I have some goodies for you now!
I will post pictures as I can. We got home at one am after battling the complexities of customs and visas. As for now, its 7 am, and kids are wanting to tell me ALL about their exciting vacations- so mine have to wait!