After last weekend Caedmon said, "Next weekend let's do less activities." Though we had a very full weekend, the boys for the most part were champs.
The official holiday celebrating the birth of the majority's most famous prophet occurred in January. In our province each town or neighborhood celebrates the holiday on a different day, so celebrations are still going on. Due to two previous engagements, we could not attend the main event on Sunday so our host invited us to the opening event Saturday Night. The small public transportation vehicles do not run after 6pm, so between a barrowed a motorcycle and our host picking us up, the four of us traveled about 15 minutes north of town.
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| A stage, chairs, couches for special guests, and a tent was set up right next to the beach. |
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Children in traditional dress.
When children finish learning to read Arabic and have read through the WHOLE holy book, they are rewarded with a ride through town on a dancing horse. The kids celebrating this achievement are usually between 7-10 years old. They were in attendance Saturday for the opening and were to ride the horses Sunday. |
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| Just sitting and watching. The boys were less than interested. |
As with most events, things got started about an hour late. There was a
welcome, a holy book reading, and opening speeches. Part way through the first opening speech,
about 10pm, Whitman lost it and we decided to leave. Our host felt so bad, kept apologizing, and sent us home with multiple boxes of cake, even though it was our child who was having difficulty.
Sunday
we were invited to a friend’s get together outside of town. After about a 30 minutes drive we found
ourselves in the middle of vegetable fields on the top of a mountain with a
view of the sea to our left and right.
We had lunch and enjoyed the surroundings.
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| Stopping for gas: bottles on right. |
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| The Road There |
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| The road getting narrower and steeper. |
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| Vegetable gardens in the mountains. |
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| Chiles |
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| Our View |
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| Shallots |
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| Grilling Fish |
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Cell phone coverage was still available!
All the food was brought with us: fish, coconut rice, fruit soup, and fried dough filled with carrots and potatoes. |
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| Sitting in a small shelter with our friend who invited us . |
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Who are those boys?
Occasionally Caedmon will pose for a picture, but Whitman never will.
Completely on their own they posed for these. |
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Posing, even amidst the hated cheek pinching.
Wild pigs are a big problem for farmers.
This was a statue someone made, possibly to warn other pigs of their potential fate if found in a garden. |
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| More Smiles |
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| Terraced Fields |
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| John on our transportation there and back. |
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Long sleeves and pants for the motorcycle ride. It was NOT cold.
John and Whitman actually ended up with sunburns. |
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The ocean in the distance.
We
had also been invited to a neighbor’s family event the same day, but upon returning
at 3pm we had missed it. We stopped by
our neighbor's to apologize and visit.
We were served food from their event, coconut rice, chicken, and
fish. That evening our host from the
night before brought us coconut rice and grilled fish.
It was a day full of beautiful sights, time with people, and eating lots of fish
and rice.
For dinner I made waffles!
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