What a week!

On Friday (after the earthquake) we went to Istalif for a hike and spent the day at the Lodge. It was beautiful, the air was clean and it is so rural. After spending two months in the city it's hard to believe that there are such green and quiet parts to this country. I think our lungs appreciated the clean air as well. As we headed back into the city the “Kabul cough” returned.

The Lodge is a small camp in the mountains that is a perfect place to hike, rest and enjoy the beauty that this country has to offer. They advertise “mine free trails.” We hiked in, had lunch and spent the day exploring the mountains and the wild life around us. Some of our group saw a rattlesnake. Thankfully I was not part of that group!

The road in takes you through town and some parts of the road are very narrow. At one point we had to back up and squeeze the van next to the stonewall so another car could pass. As you get closer to the Lodge the road becomes more of a dried up river bed and it brings you about a mile away from the lodge. You have to hike the rest of the way in. By far, this was my favorite day here.

The weather is officially cold and I am still waiting for them to install my heaters. Every day I ask what's the status and I'm told "tomorrow." This morning it was 60 degrees in my apartment, not terrible but not great. I have been told that in the winter, showering is over rated but central heat is not. I am starting to understand the full meaning of that statement.

Yesterday was an interesting day here as I’m sure you saw in the news. I live far enough away from the events that I did not hear anything. But it is very strange to watch the news footage and know you've been there. I do have friends that live nearby to that and they heard every thing. Thankfully they are all safe. In pre-field training they encouraged us to find 5 joys in each day and after yesterday it's good to remember that there are at least 5 in each day. These are mine from yesterday:

1. Me and my team are safe

2. We had city power

3. I had a good Skype connection with my Mom

4. We were on the late shuttle so I was able to sleep in until 6:30a

5. Ended the day with dinner and a game of "Settlers" with friends

Keep Smiling!!

My First Earthquake....

Last night I had several people over for dinner and it was a wonderful way to end a crazy week. Good pizza, good friends and good fellowship. Around 11:30pm I climbed into bed and pretty much fell right to sleep.

Some time around 12:30am, I am woken up from a sound sleep and my bed is gently shaking and the dogs are barking. In my dazed and confused state, I figured it was a big truck driving by. Then I remembered where I am and that no big trucks drive by the house. My next thought is, "oh no it must have been an explosion." Then I realize that my bed is still shaking and it's gotten worse. Along with bed, I can hear the clothes hangers banging against the closet door and the cabinets under the bathroom sink are rattling. I swear I saw the walls moving, but I was half asleep so that may not be true. It ended just as gradually as it started but it felt like it lasted for 5-10 minutes. In reality it was about 15 seconds.

Needless to say it freaked me out. I was so disorientated and wasn't really sure what had happened. Being woken up from a deep sleep is always terrible but it really stinks when its because of an earthquake. It took me a few seconds after it all ended to remember that I read something a while back that there are earthquakes here. Then a another few seconds to remember that I should have grabbed my passport and stood in the door frame.

The next 20 minutes or so were spent sending text messages to make sure the rest of the team was alright. It was over an hour before I was able to think about going back to sleep and even then I didn't sleep well. I kept thinking, "My sister Andrea lives in California and she lives through them, so chill out." But seriously, like this country doesn't have enough struggles, I now have to add earthquakes to the list?!

I learned this morning it was a 6.2 -not bad for my first one! But this was an experience I could have missed and been perfectly happy about it. Thankfully we are all ok and I didn't feel any aftershocks. Let's hope this was my last one.

Keep Smiling!

My First Wedding

I attended my first wedding in this country on Monday night. The wedding was held in a wedding hall and about 700 people were invited. As we approached the hall you could hear the music playing outside. We handed our invitation to the man at the door and were ushered into the female side of the hall. Men sit on one side and women on another. There is a partition dividing the room in half and neither side can see the other.

The women's side did have a video screen that would periodically show what was happening on the men's side. There was a band, but again the partition surrounded them. The room was full with tables with plastic flowers as center pieces. As we walked in, we were ushered to a front table near the dance floor. On the other side of the dance floor was the "head" table. The head table is raised off the floor, the wall behind them was decorated with white linen, white plastic flowers, a green sash and white and green small lights. The lights looked like Christmas lights. The atmosphere was very festive and happy.

The tables surrounded the dance floor and one by one women got up and danced. Generally the women would dance in groups of 2, sometimes 3. They would be on the dance floor for a few minutes and then give another group a chance. The dancing was beautiful and graceful. Yes, I did dance. I didn't have much of a choice, my coworker pretty much dragged me to the dance floor. Thankfully it was only for a few minutes because my dancing skills are no better here then they are at home. I felt very silly but everyone was very kind and supportive as I gave it my best.

The women don't have to cover their heads since no men are present. Everyone gets very dressed up, there were lots of bright colors and lots of sequence. Some women wore gowns and others, like me wore a Punjabi. The wedding started at 5pm but we were told to come around 6-6:30p. Around 7:30p the bride and groom entered the room.

They roll out a white carpet. The bride is wearing a dark green dress and carrying red flowers. Her hair was pulled up and she had some flowers in her hair. Her lipstick had glitter in and it looked like some was in her hair. The groom wore a white suit and a green tie. They both looked sharp. They walked in and sat at the head table. For the next hour or so, different guests would have their picture taken with the bride and groom.

There are two parts to the wedding. The first part is called the "neka" and the bride wears green and she wears white for the wedding. If I understand it correctly, neka is agreement of marriage. The part of the wedding I observed was the neka stage. I think while we were eating, the groom meets with the mullah and the marriage is made official when he signs the marriage contract/certificate. The bride is not present for this part, I think this is when she changes into her white gown. We had to leave right after we ate, so I never saw the bride in her white gown. A few days after the wedding, the guests will bring gifts to the newlyweds house.

Around 9pm the food was served. It was a sit down dinner. One dish called kabuli pilau, which is rice, shaved carrots, raisins and meat was really good. This is very traditional dish. We also had ashak which is a leek filled pasta with meat sauce. That reminded me of a pirogi. I didn't enjoy this as much as the kabuli pilau. Other food dishes were served, one with eggplant and another chicken dish but I don't remember what they were called. They served coke to drink or orange soda. There was also grapes and bananas available.

I wasn't able to stay until the end. But it was a lot of fun and if you ever have the opportunity to go, I highly recommend it.

Keep Smiling

The Fabric Bazaar

I was invited to my first Afghan wedding and needed an outfit to wear. A coworker took me to a fabric bazaar to select fabric for a Punjabi.

The fabric bazaar is a long path of shipping containers lined up next to each other and each had a fairly large selection of fabrics. They ranged from cotton to silk. There wasn't a lot of room between the containers and thankfully the bazaar wasn't crowded because I felt like we were walking on top of each other.

The last time I picked fabric for an outfit I was in 6th grade and was going to be a junior bridesmaid at a wedding. I don't think I had much say in picking the fabric or what the final outfit would look like. This was harder then I expected. I struggled with looking at the fabric and visualizing how the outfit would look. Plus the choices of fabric were overwhelming.

It was handy that the fabric was packaged to include pants, top and chadar (head scarf). I tend to avoid wearing tops with a lot of patterns, which I was told was not the trend at weddings. Most women will wear bright colors, patterns, gold and/or sequence. It was a huge help to have my coworker with me. In the end, we found something both of us could live with. She was so cute as she tried to guide me towards fabrics that had more "bling" then the ones I was drawn to. I selected a purple and maroon fabric with a silver pattern in it.

Once we selected the fabric, which cost $10 it was off to the tailor. In the tailor's shop there was a book that was filled with the different styles of punjabi's. I was so excited that there was a book because I wasn't really sure what a punjabi looked like until this point. A punjabi is a type of pant suit; shirt has short sleeves but is long and comes to mid thighs. The pants are elastic waist and loose fitting. Punjabi's are very comfortable to wear, it reminded me of wearing scrubs. To have the outfit made it cost $5. Not bad to have an outfit for a wedding that cost $15.

I think this is the way to go, select fabric and have someone make the clothes for you. It's so much easier then going to the mall and trying on a hundred different things. Its also a lot less frustrating because in the end the outfit fit.

Keep Smiling.