Yams, goats, cell phones, and acceptance . . .

Hi guys, A couple of the latest random experiences. I was walking around town last night and smelled possibly the best smell since I've been in Egypt. It was a guy pushing a cart around selling roasted yams. He had a little wood stove burning in his cart. I used to live in a house where we used a wood stove to heat in the winter, so I love the smell of a wood fire burning. Between the smell of the fire and the sweet smell of the yams, I was loving it!

One of my neighbors has started herding goats recently. I think he's going to try to raise them and sell them for the next big feast, which is in a couple of weeks. I used to wonder why young goats are called 'kids,' but I think I've figured it out. Sometimes when goats make noise, they sound exactly like a small child. I woke up yesterday morning because of some noise outside the window. It sounded like someone was torturing a small child, but when I looked outside I realized that it was just two goats playing. Kind of a surprise.

I saw something this morning that made me laugh. It was the ultimate example of a short-sighted decision. I was riding in a micro-bus, and saw two guys fighting on the side of the road. One of the guys was running away from the other one. The other guy took his cell phone out of his pocket and threw it at the first guy. He missed, and his phone hit the ground and shattered into many tiny little pieces. He got even angrier, and I couldn't help laughing.

I was showing some of my friends here pictures of my home back in Oregon. They saw all of the mountains and trees, and decided that I'm a bedouin. I was walking around town with one of them today, and another guy asked my friend why he was walking around with a foreigner. My friend told him, "he's not a foreigner, he's a bedouin. He's just a white bedouin." It made me smile. I hope you enjoy the photo of the white bedouin! :)

Okay guys, that's it for now. Peace . . .

Moving up in the world!

Yikes! Let me apologize right up front to anyone who thought I was dead. I don't think I've updated my blog in at least a month! But, have no fear. I'm still alive and kicking!

I'm moving up in the world. I've managed to go from a bucket shower to an actual real shower-head. It's nice! I can actually take a shower without lifting a bucket over my head. Oh, and I haven't had to kill a rat in about a week. I think I finally got them all!

Matt's back in town now, which is really nice. He was in the States for a couple of weeks checking on his mom. I thought I would enjoy being here on my own, but it was actually really tough. We had just moved into a new part of town when he took off. At first things were really cool, but then I had a couple of really tough conversations with some neighbors. One of the guys in my neighborhood told me "get out of here foreigner, you don't belong here." It was actually a pretty tough thing to hear. But, things have calmed down since then, and people seem to be reacting to us a little better.

Oh, I also learned how to use the water pump in our flat, which means that we now have running water most of the time instead of only some of the time. All you have to do is fill up a storage tank when there's water. That way you can divert water from the tank to your flat when the water goes out. Cool, huh?

Okay guys, that's most of the news for now. I'm planning to travel to the Netherlands in about two weeks, which should be a good time. I like living here, but it's always nice to get out of the culture for a little bit. I'm also meeting my family in Amsterdam, which should be a really cool time! Hope you're all doing well . . .