Baa, Baa, black sheep

In my nearly three week blogging absence I have accrued several glorious stories. There's been laughter, tears, and one poor unfortunate sheep. I'll start at the beginning.

A few weeks ago saw the departure of our short term team. They were a group of 4 very gregarious guys and a girl from the Y base in Hawaii. They were an extremely fun group and we were all sad to see them go. So a glorious farewell party was planned to send them on their way. I heard rumor of some mutton being purchased but thought nothing of it at the time. Then, whilst approaching the house after teaching my classes, I heard it....baaaaaaa. I walked, in utter disbelief, to find a very much alive sheep tied in our courtyard. The sheep that would be slaughtered in honor of our departing guests. I had thought this kind of stuff only happened in the Bible! Apparently it also happens in Afghanistan. Thankfully the deed was done quietly and out of sight, but my appetite for mutton was sufficiently ruined. Thank God they also served chicken. And now the team is gone and they are sorely missed. It's way too quiet around here without them.

It is also way too hot. The temperature is consistently above 110 now, and the power is consistently out from noon to around 8 PM. It's a combination of the power genuinely going out and the city shutting it off to conserve energy. But I am of the mind that purposefully turning off power during the hottest hours of the day is downright barbaric and I am trying to find out if there is a local congressman around here that I can write to and complain. Because the days are miserable and the nights even worse. It's hard to sleep when your room only cools off to 95. I'm a new fan of taking cold showers with my pj's on. So I go to bed wet and then re-shower throughout the night as my clothes dry. It sounds weird but honestly, it's the only way I stay sane and get any sleep.

Oh! We've also had a plague of grasshoppers. Grasshoppers the size of my ring finger. And one two occasions I've seen inch long bees. Crazy stuff, man. I've learned a few odd afghan cultural traditions too. One is to put mascara and eyeliner on kids under the age of two. Its purpose is to make them 'ugly' so as to ward off the Evil Eye. Another is one I've seen in the classes I teach. Often when I ask one of the girls to give an answer or read something off the board they stand and preface it with some form of " In the name of kind and merciful Allah" in Arabic. I'm told that you have to start every public speech with this intro. And speaking of my class..I am so darn proud of them!! This 'semester' is almost over and they have made great progress. My little babies are all grown up and learning to speak English...sniff.

We're still waiting to find out where we'll go on outreach, which begins in August. There has been talk of doing teacher training seminars in some of the mountain villages, which would provide a veeery comprehensive look at rural afghan culture. It will be an adventure, to say the least :) I suppose that is all for now- I'd like to give a shout out to "JP" and the rest of that sunday school class.

Well, my bed is calling and we girls have to migrate the half mile to our house. I miss you all back home and wish you were all here on this adventure with me!! We'd rock the house.

Janna