Recent Happenings

It is hard to believe June is almost over.  Living in a place that feels like perpetual summer, I still find it difficult to notice the passing of time. 

Over the past few weeks we have been busy with life and some extra events!

Compost bin

I've wanted to try composting for awhile as the dirt here seems to have a very clay like consistency.  We finally got a suitable container and are finishing our second week!  I'm sure I, Erin, as women, looked pretty funny to our neighbors drilling holes in this big container.  One neighbor asked if we had an animal inside because of the holes and rock on the lid. 

 

Our small garden.  From the left: lemon grass, basil starters, then chili at the far end.

 The real reason I wanted to start composting was out of a desire to grow a small garden, particularly vegetables or herbs that are difficult to get here, or that I rarely use.  Lemon grass and small chili peppers are very abundant here, but whenever I buy them at the market most of it goes bad before I can use them up.  I’ve also wanted to grow basil for the longest time as dried basil does not exist here in Barat.  Fresh basil can be found at the market but I’ve only ever seen lemon basil.  A nice neighbor cut off some springs from her plants after I asked where I could buy the plants.  It is lemon basil which will do until I find regular basil.  Green peppers are next on my list, again not available here.  We have some seeds Caedmon is anxious to plant, but I’m wanting to wait for some good compost first!

 

The filling in of our backyard has been finished, making a decent playing area.

Our picnic lunch on our bench in front of our house.

                                                     Caedmon finished kindergarten! 

Now it's summer vacation, though I'm not sure what that means as they've been playing outside all year and school was only ever two hours a day.  Never the less it was an achievement we celebrated first with a picnic of hot dogs.  We found some good sausage and I made buns.  Later we invited the neighbor kids over for cookies, ice cream, and a movie.  We used a big screen and projector in our front room.  It was great fun and something special for everyone, though the neighbor kids got a little bored as we didn't have any movies in their language. 

 

Our picnic lunch was joined by neighborhood friends!  They liked the hot dogs too, though not all of them liked the ketchup.

 

Caedmon riding the length of our street on his second day of being able to ride a bicycle.

 

The neighbor girls have bicycles that both boys have been interested in.  Caedmon spent a couple weeks riding the small bike with training wheels, then set his sights higher.  After about a week and a half of pushing with his feet and occasionally trying to pedal, he has learned how to ride a bike!  And now another item has been added to his birthday wish list. 

 

  We have also had the pleasure of attending multiple events: a baby naming party, a circumcision party, and a graduation parade. 

Folding banana leaves for a desert to be steamed inside. 

Preparations the day before for the baby naming party. 

It is a custom here to name your child at a special party at least 7 days after birth.  Many people wait longer than 7 days until they are financially able or have the time.  Our neighbors had the party about a month and a half after their baby's birth, at which point the name was made public and began to be used.  The day before the party family, friends, and nighbors all gathered to help with preparations.  I joined them, pealing shallots and garlic in the morning, then folding banana leaves in the afternoon. 

The actual event started the next morning with cutting of the baby's hair and placing it in a coconut.  They then read various prayers and served a meal.

 

A nurse, on the far right, preparing to circumcise the 12 year old on the bed. 

It is the custom here that boys are circumcised between 10 and 12 years.  Here in Barat you just have it done in your home, by a nurse.  Our host family's son had this pleasure last Saturday.  John and the boys went early to watch the procedure, which is not a very private event.  We then took part in the celebratory meal afterwards. 





Graduation Parade

John was invited to a small town about 20km away.  The town was celebrating children who had graduated from kindergarten and also those that finished learning to read Arabic with a parade.   All the children dressed up in either tradition dress or other costumes.  Those that finished learning to read Arabic rode horses.  There were over 80 horses. 


Girls decked out in tradition dress. 

Just graduated kindergarteners, also decked out in traditional dress.

 

Teaching our house help to read. 

On a more daily basis, I, Erin, have been teaching our house help to read.  She is from village south of us, but has lived here since her marriage.  She is in her twenties and never graduated elementary school.  It has been my pleasure to spend about 15mintues most days teaching her to read the national language.  The national language unfortunately is her second language, but the letters and sound system are the same.  It has proved a little humorous at times when there is a word she reads that neither of us know!  It has been exciting to see her light up when she understand the words on the page and see her begin to refer to herself as 'just a little smart.'

 

And more kids!

Each day seems to bring a new face to our front yards and new challenges as our cultures collide.  Sunday we invited the children of our host family over; the same family we lived with for 5 months.  The younger girl is the same age as Whitman.  At one point in the afternoon she came to me asking to go ‘pee.’  I helped her to the bathroom and told her to sit as I pointed to the toilet.  Apparently I was not clear enough, for just as I feared, she immediately squatted on the floor and peed.  Thankfully she was in the bathroom, but our bathroom is more like a shower with a toilet in it.  I helped her get dressed then proceed to disinfect the bathroom floor. 

A highlight from the weekend though, occurred when two neighbor girls stopped by to ask for a Band-Aid for a small cut.  Apparently we are known as the house with Band-Aids! 

A challenge recently has been to love the kids as we are called to.  There is a group of kids that wander the neighborhood looking for plastic, glass, and cans to turn in for money.  Apparently they can get a nickel for 1 kilogram of plastic.  I have told these kids to always stop by as I will set aside our plastic, glass, and cans for them.  This is the closest I can get to recycling here and it helps these kids out.  These kids have also taken to peering in our windows.  The other day they proceeded to ask for the apples on our counter.  It stirs up different sentiments in me when I am asked to give versus deciding to give on my own, especially in a manner my culture would see as rather impolite.  I am called to welcome these kids, not hinder them, and give to those who are in need.  So I am learning to love them are they are truly loved and look past cultural, social, and economic differences. 

Saturdays

 

Ever since we first arrived in country, we have set Saturdays aside as a family day.  The culture here is very relational and as we take initiative to build relationships and learn language it can be difficult to spend time just as a family.  So, on Saturdays we may stay home and Skype, or go out to an enjoyable and relatively quiet place!  In the big city this usually meant the mall as it was air conditioned, had play structures for the boys, and was pretty quiet on Saturday mornings.  Now in the small city of Barat there are no malls.  There is one city park along the beach.  Though kids are still in school on Saturdays the city park turned out to be pretty busy with fish vendors, many wanting to talk to us.  The beach has turned out to be a great spot.  Sunday the beach can be quite busy, but we have enjoyed it on Saturdays as we usually only see a couple other people. 

My favorite beach from the cliff above.  It is a 30minute walk from our house.

Looking towards the opposite cliff. 

Down on the beach!
This beach is pretty rocky, reminding John more of the Oregon coast than Florida!  The water is clearer, there is less trash, and it is quieter than the other more popular beach. 

 

We still run into locals wanting to chat.

If we don’t feel like the beach, we head to the graveyard.  This isn’t just any graveyard.  It is a historical graveyard where former Kings from the area are buried.  It is larger and more beautiful than any park here or in the big city (not that there really are parks).  The graveyard sits upon a cliff with an incredible view of the ocean.  There are multiple little places to sit and catch some shade, along with a fair amount of open area with grass.  It is also very quiet.  Most people don’t choose to go and sit in a graveyard, even to the extent some are too afraid of spirits to venture there. 

Walking through a neighborhood on the way to the graveyard we are joined by a group of kids coming out to 'see the westerners.'

A well and public bathrooms for those in the neighborhood without water in their homes. 

From the neighborhood we climb up the hill! 

A community graveyard, still in use today.

Entrance to the King's Graveyard

Nice large grassy area with a view. 

 

Historic graves.

More historic graves.

A traditional house within the complex.

Enjoying the shade, a small breeze, and the quiet!

Whitman

Caedmon

The view!
Fishing boats and homes below.

Kids

Most kids are just left to play and wander on their own.  Small children that can already walk usually are left to the care of older siblings.  I’m probably a pretty odd sight as the only adult that follows my children around wherever they go.  The other day the boys wanted to play badminton at tennis courts that are practically next door.  I followed them over there along with at least 8 other kids.  I was the only adult.  The ages ranged from 18months to 13 years. 

One of our neighbors, an 18month old cutie, accompanied to the tennis courts by his 11 year sister.

Sisters of the small boy; the 5 year old is a skilled climber, as her 11 year old sister watches from below1

More neighbors, enjoying the space to play!

On a different day some kids were over at our house playing and reading books with the boys.  When Caedmon and Whitman left to go on an errand with John, the kids just stayed.   The whole time they read the books we had in the national language.  It made me wonder if they have any books at home to read for themselves.  They are 2nd and 3rd graders who seemed, on that day, very enthusiastic to practice their reading skills. 

 

Neighbor kids reading.

Correction: square footage!

Our house is 40 square meters, which is actually about 430 square feet.  Big difference from my previous conversion!

Differing Schedules

Our typical schedule is as follows…

Wake up at 5am to read, study, and exercise.  The boys are up about 6:30 but have to stay in their room until 7am.  The we shower, get dressed, and eat breakfast.  Caedmon and I try to start school by 8:30.  We have lunch around 12p, quiet play time for an hour or so in the afternoon, which consists of the boys playing in their room… alone, no friends.  Then dinner 6-6:30ish.  The boys shower about 7pm and are in bed usually by 8pm.  Recently I changed our big meal to the middle of the day, at lunch time.  Many of our neighbors are outside more often in the late afternoon.  I, Erin, felt I was missing out on a lot of time with people as I would go inside to prep for dinner about that time.  Though it still seems weird to me, eating something easy such as sandwiches, ramen, or left-overs for dinner, it has enabled me to spend more time outside with people in the afternoon. 

Regardless of the changes, our schedules are still very different from the people we live among.  The first loud speaker call happens between 4:30 and 5am.  We thankfully, often sleep through it.  Though most people go back to sleep afterwards, they are up well before 7am.  Children start school by 7:30 and the loud speaker occasionally makes public awareness announcements in the morning, sometimes before 7am (these consist of recent deaths, baby well checks at the local clinic, and school enrollment dates).  By the evening loud speaker call (6pm-ish) most neighbors go inside.  Kids and some adults are back outside about 8pm-ish. 

Though we are interact a great deal with people amidst the differing schedules, it has caught me off guard many times recently; compounded by other cultural differences as well!  At least twice in the past week, kids were at our front door looking for the boys before 8am.  On Tuesday morning, a national holiday so no school, it wasn’t even 7am when they arrived!  I still struggle with how to politely get them to leave.  After telling the children Caedmon and Whitman cannot play they often continue to call the boys’ names from our yard.  In the afternoon, during quiet play time, it is even more difficult as the kids then move to the boys’ bedroom window, at the front of the house, and peer in the window, occasionally opening the screens.  After repeating that the boys are ‘resting’ and will play later, I then proceed to close the curtains. 

Onlookers while Caedmon studies.  They remained, quiet, at the window for at least a half hour. 

One evening a couple neighbor kids came to our door at 8pm as the boys where climbing into bed. We politely informed then the boys were headed to bed, but maybe they could play tomorrow.  Thankfully the boys are rarely distracted by the laughing and talking of kids outside at night. 

All of these experiences are full of cultural lessons for us; specifically the difference in concern for adult direction, the difference in personal space, and the difference in schedules! 

 

Kids that came to visit.  Most of these live 15minutes by foot from us.  The boy on the far left is a neighbor.  He is very helpful, constantly picking up toys after he is finished playing with them, even when Caedmon and Whitman don't.  He seems to be a bit of an anomaly in his culture!

Adventures in our new house

Even in a house of our own, we have been experiencing a great deal of culture as we get settled. 

As part of our rental agreement the owners installed safety bars on all the windows (common on most homes).  At the same time we ordered screens to be made, but forgot to ask that the bars be installed an inch inside the window sill.  This resulted in needed adjustments for the screens to cover gaps around many edges.  The screen worker thankfully was willing to add molding to the edges, closing the gaps, and actually dressing them up a little.  Another hang up with the screens was the material the worker chose was neon green.  In the end we learned in a case such as this people typically buy the materials themselves and just have a worker build it.  As per John’s idea, we spray painted the screen material black, which now looks great and didn’t clog all the little holes!

Screens on door, window, and ventilation holes!

 Our landlords also decided to fill in the back part of the property, to enable adding on to the house at a later time.  For the past two weeks our front yard has been full of rocks, sand, and ten truckloads of dirt.  All of the work has been done with shovels and wheelbarrows. 



Truck load #6.
I woke up from a nap to find dirt being delivered next to my clean laundry drying in the yard.



Caedmon is my helper.  He is ready to get involved in just about any work taking place!

John is also becoming quite the home-fixer-upper.  He installed a knife rack, a curtain rod, and a shower head.  This all required drilling into our brick walls.  The shower is a pleasure to use.  Unfortunately the water flow in our complex isn’t strong, so during high water usage times it is impossible to use the shower.  I have learned the mornings, especially on Sunday, are not a time to depend on water as occasionally there isn’t any at all. 

In the kitchen I was using a two burner stove barrowed from our host family.  Last week their stove broke.  We returned their extra one and bought a one burner stove.  Why?  Because we had a real oven on order.

The one burner stove was quite nice, for awhile, as it opened up a little counter space.

 

Our new oven!!!

The biggest cultural adventure recently has been with our neighbors.  Neighborhood kids just come right in when we leave our door open.  Then they, and even the adults who usually wait to be invited in, look through our stuff that is still piled all over the floor, some even still in boxes.  In addition, we’ve had multiple pieces of furniture delivered. which is always accompanied by neighbors and friends asking, “How much did you pay?”  This is a common question here and not at all taboo to ask, even in regards to salary, rent, or anything purchased.  It is a very difficult question for me to field.  It would very rarely be asked in our home culture and I feel we are constantly battling the image of rich-white-westerns.  Hopefully a lot of those questions will die down once we are more settled. 

Neighborhood kids, and a mother, playing with the boys. 

 

For now we await some additional furniture to finish unpacking and gain a little more order in the house!

A kitchen cabinet, still not perfectly placed, but with lots of storage!  Each piece of furniture requires us to be creative in arranging rooms to take advantage of the space we do have. 

 

 

We have a House!!!

Monday the 28^th of April we arrived back in Barat with the main goal of finding a place of our own.  By Wednesday John met with a couple to negotiate the terms and conditions, and price to rent their 2 bedroom house for a year.  The next day we cleaned, and then Friday we began painting.  After a very full weekend of moving and painting, we spent our first night in our own house on Sunday.  We know so many people were lifting this up, but we are still amazed that we are in our own place, and in just a week’s time of returning.  It is a small house, 40 square meters (~131sq ft), but the location is wonderful.  It is in a complex just behind our host family of 5 months.  It is at the end of a small street, keeping it pretty quiet and safe for the boys to play.  We don’t have any furniture yet, but it doesn’t seem to matter at this point.  Another blessing, thanks to John’s planning, was we had already packed up our house in the big city before returning to Barat.  So last Saturday we hired a man John knew to bring all our stuff here to us, without us having to return to retrieve it.  By Monday we finished moving out of our host’s house and have been furniture shopping and re-organizing to live amongst all our unpacked stuff.  Thank you for thinking of us.  We now hope to focus on using what we’ve been given for others, amidst finishing getting settled. 

Our house!
At the end of the street, shares a wall with an empty orang house and sits next to a large banana garden. 

The back door and unfinished back yard area. 

Looking down our street towards our house at the end, left side.  Seven of the nine houses here are currently occupied.

Our living room, after we painted.

Currently the kitchen, dinning room, and laundry room (washer by the back door there). 

Our bathroom.
  It too is small, but it has a sit toilet!  Notice it is not a flushing toilet, which John reminded me wasn't part of my 'must have a sit toilet' condition.  We just added a shower head to the faucet, but the water pressure so low showering is difficult when the neighborhood water usage is high!  On a cultural note people here DO NOT shower at night, more or less after dark that is.  There is some belief it will make you sick.  Thus far I've been able to use the shower head at night because we do shower at night.

Looking toward the living room from the kitchen area.  The boys room is on the left and our is on the right. 

Looking into the kitchen from the living room. 
The frame of the doorway was a very bright turquoise before we painted. 

From the kitchen window are our neighbors directly behind us.  They have 11 baby chicks the boys are enjoying. 

Our bedroom, yet to be painted.  John doesn't want to see another paint can for a very long time.  One of our neighbors told us everyone was so surprised I too was painting.  Apparently it is not something wives or mothers do here.  I got the impression it is considered the man's job. 

The boys' room.  They are very excitedly waiting for a bunk bed!

Our first event.  On the first night, or day, when people here move into a new-to-them home they make a sweat mung bean porridge and other sweat treats.  Then they usually read out of their holy book.  Our host mom on her own initiative, with her new baby on her lap above, prepared the porridge and another dessert.  Then Monday, about noon, we all ate together in our new house. 

From left to right: the Dad, the mom, their month old son, oldest daughter, the grandma, Caedmon and I, and an employee at the center where John will work.