Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! (And a safe Black Friday!)
One of the downsides of living overseas is that we can't always be there for those loving, family-filled holidays. And that void is noted, trust me! We wish we could be there!

That said, this year we will get to spend the last few hours of Thanksgiving with my mom and dad! They are soon to begin their crazy zig-zag travel to Cairo. And about 20 hours later, we'll hop on a plane for a short little ride to meet them there- putting us on the ground there at 9:30 pm- plenty of time to see them before the clock strikes midnight! Inshallah!

I am also pretty excited to finally see Egypt! Camera batteries are charging- I'm ready to go!

We will post on the other side of Eid holiday and our wonderful Egpyt tour!

Creepin' through the week

We're looking at 2 and a half more days until we meet Mom and Dad in Egypt! Hurray!

Here at school, we're enjoying the last week before the holiday. Below are a few pictures of the seventh and eighth graders working in our school community garden. You can see the way we plant here- quite different than at home! The final photo is our plot-, watered after the seeds were planted in the mounds. Cool, eh?

Algeria! Algeria!

THIS is a great article about the soccer match last night.

It was pretty interesting how it played out. In most cities in the world, hosting a major FIFA soccer game would not be a big deal. But here, there is such a lack of such normalcy, that something seemingly normal like a game is a really big deal.
I think it was really good for Sudan to host the game, to take part in these things like the rest of the world does. Even if they did it in a pretty intense way. (Half day for government employees, Sudanese schools off, tanks on every side road...)

I personally enjoyed the afternoon holiday!

Soccer Mayhem

This city is going nuts! Tonight Sudan is hosting a World Cup qualifying soccer match, with Egypt playing Algeria. It's making for complete madness in the streets- so much so that the Sudanese government has ordered everyone home by one in the afternoon. Surprise! Half day everyone!

You can read more about the drama HERE.

I had initially investigated getting tickets, but officials are expecting things to get pretty rowdy. There has already been pretty widespread violence in Egypt and Algeria leading up to the game- and now all those fans are showing up in our fair city! We'll see what happens. From inside my apartment!

Check it out!

Emily is making attempts to bring her blog back to life... Encourage her by clicking on the link to her blog on the right of this post and take her quiz- WHERE TO NEXT???

Let us know where you think we should live and work next year!

the drive

While the sand dunes around the pyramids are beautiful, most of the drive is not-so-pretty. See above video. Not a lot going on.

Morning shenanigans

After some pretty awesome scrambled eggs (with scrambling coordinated by yours truly), we packed it all up and went exploring. Everyone got to ride camels, sketch some drawings and take LOTS of pictures.

After-dinner Clean Up Crew

These four girls were responsible for cleaning up after our delicious dinner of hot dogs, cheeseburgers, salad, grilled vegetables and chips. They were such good cleaners- they ate ALL ELEVEN leftover hot dogs! Talk about cleaning a plate!

Setting up camp

We arrived to Meroe late in the afternoon, allowing us to use daylight to set up camp. The kids had practiced by setting up a tent in my classroom, so they knew what they were doing. Awesome surroundings, super-excited kids dragging rolling suitcases through the sand- what more could you ask for?

The road north

A few photos from the drive up to Meroe. It takes about 4 and a half hours to make the trip- in a bus, cruising through check-points. The mood of the police at the checkpoint can alter your travel time by hours. We had Mirghani, our Sudanese miracle man with us. And that kept us clippin' along.

Carpooling

The really awesome image of a jalibiya on a motorcycle

Girls leaving schoolMirghani, our liaison officer, as we approach the pyramids

to Meroe

Its that time again- we're taking this year's seventh graders on an overnight trip to Meroe to see the pyramids! Its a really big deal for these kids, as most of them don't really have any opportunities to do anything like this here. It will definitely be a lot of fun. Today in our advisory class we cut vegetables for tomorrow night's campfire dinner. More great pictures from the trip are guaranteed- Let the good times roll!

Caught in the yawn

Where to next?

An update for you all-
We have already started looking for jobs for 2010-2011. It's quite the process. We are applying to a recruiting agency, and will attend a job fair in Bangkok in early January.

Leading up to the fair, we will be stalking schools online, reaching out to those that interest us.
We have sent a few emails, but are just getting that process rolling now.

Where will we end up? At this point, the possibilities are endless- Zambia, Poland, Thailand, Bangladesh... We'll keep you posted!

Hush little baby

We made a friend at the Ethnographical Museum- a Sudanese college student that had lived in Dubai. She was eager to tell us all that she knew about the different tribes here. She explained that the basket in this picture is actually for a newborn baby- a bassinet of sorts to be hung in the tent.

Sudanese Ethnographical Museum

Em and I went on a field trip this afternoon- to the Sudan National Museum for Ethnography. Say WHAT?!? The best part about exploring Khartoum is that if you go in with low enough expectations, you're bound to be impressed! It was free, and showed off all kinds of artifacts from various tribes around Sudan. Pretty impressive, as we didn't even think anything like this existed! AND things were labeled in English!

More photos to follow...

Reason to watch your mechanic at work

When we first bought our classy little used car, we were very surprised when it arrived without a functional horn. We assumed it was broken, only to find that, in fact, there was no horn.

Five months later, we casually asked about a horn at the mechanic's. For $20, they installed a brand spankin' new one, right in front of us. We watched, very entertained to see the mechanism at work. (Do YOU know where to find the horn on your car?)

Last night, that spying paid off. Driving home from a friend's, Emily slammed on the brakes to avoid hitting a jerk turning in front of us. A two-part reaction, she also slammed on the horn. HOOOOOONK. and some more. HOOOOOOOOOONK. and a little more- HONK, just to prove her point. This happens all the time here, no biggie.

However, the horn got stuck, and we drove several blocks with the horn going off non-stop. honk. hooonk. honk. short pause. hooooooooooonk. hoooonk. A bit embarrassing. Finally, Emily figured out that she could push on the horn, jamming it further and keeping it quiet. kind of. honk. honk.

We dropped off a friend and popped the hood, and knowing just where the horn was located and how it was attached, located the beast and disconnected it. sigh. peace!
Now when we drive, there's just a quiet clicking in the wheel- poor guy still wants to honk.
We'll work it out, but for now, the embarrassment is taken care of.