excuses, excuses, excuses, photos tomorrow.

56

The best falafel sandwich in Jordan. And I am willing to lay money on that. Ingredients: hummus, fried eggplant, fried cauliflower (Americans:try that at home, it's mind-blowing), french fries, falafel, tomatoes, and pickles, wrapped in thick flatbread and grilled in a panini press. Result: HEAVEN.

55 (March 20)

The aftermath. We made a quick, only 45 minutes each way, McDonald's run to satisfy a serious McNugget craving. (See previous post)

54 (March 19)

This is Sarah. I spent the last 4 days at her house watching OZ pretty much non stop. Perhaps we went a little stir crazy. Note how her pupils are not equally dilated: watching many hours of a prison drama is perhaps not the best for ones mental health. We did learn, however, that although they do regularly get to eat chicken nuggets, pie, and sandwiches, have access to a gym, and cable TV (and thereby win over life in the Jordan) it would probably not be fun to have to craft shanks out of toothbrushes or spend time in "the Hole." I don't think that I want to trade places.

53 (March 18)

What is a picnic without a fire? We three independent young women made a roaring fire out of dried grasses, junked particle board, and rocks (that caught fire and exploded); we boiled ourselves some slightly debris-filled water, made Nescafe, and basked in our accomplishment.

52 (March 17)

Spring picnic in Ar-Ramtha.

in advance.......

hey out there, i'm out of town for the weekend, be back on sunday.

51

Well hello there Nisreen. Block in one hand, railroad in the other. See the green block that is in the same hand as her railroad? That is a block that is supposed to be a window in a little lego house, but she uses it as her mobile phone. Every 10 minutes or so she goes "Hello!" and puts the block to her ear and walks away gesturing wildly and stomping around.

50

The ladies. All in their natural state. Kefa (hijabed) is generally displeased and yelling at someone, while holding her school books. Nisreen (Canadian tuxedo) is spinning a toy railway on one finger, and twirling a block on the other hand, completely oblivious to the rest of us. And Baraha (pajamas) is talking and laughing to herself. We are all out enjoying the sunshine. It seems like winter is finally on its way out, alhumdulilah.

49

Removed this huge sheet of ice from my refrigerator today, and what else would you do with it but do a photo shoot of awesome distorted faces?

48

Woke up this morning to find I had been savaged by my cat during the night. See how my nose is barely still attached to my face due to the gash across it?

47 (March 12)

Mansef. Because somehow I have not yet posted a picture of it. Appetizing non? No? Mansef consists of a layer of really really thin bread, rice cooked in yogurt, chicken boiled in yogurt sauce, and a topping of yogurt sauce poured all over everything. Eat it with a side of raw green onions, parsley, lettuce, green peppers, or whatever you have that is kind of crunchy and has some taste that is not yogurt-y. I am a year in, and I just reached the point where I like this stuff, like I actually crave it if I go more than a week without having had it. That pretty much never happens, the family I visit all the time usually makes it 2 or 3 times a week.

46 (March 11)

It's ok that you just fell in love with her. Everyone does. Of course she is a complete brat, but what can you do? She's so CUTE.

45 (March 10)

Raed hard at work counting the money from the family's store. He loved it. He also can't count, but that did not stop him from putting in some good time.

44

Nishmee and Abu Saedeh pray before heading out to play football. Love them in their little matching hats and sweatsuits.

43

Being a thirteen year old girl is hard in any country. "Really, I hate everything except Pepsi, the internet, my father, and fool (beans, specifically in maglooba (a delicious rice dish))."-Shahed

42

Boo.

41

Someone (me) is about to get bashed in the head with a bouncy ball! But I got the shot. Because that is just how serious about my work I am. Other points of note in this photo: the look on Baraha's face (she just got hit), and the shininess of Hamudeh's pants.

40

Cousins playing marbles on the rehla. I really just like this picture because you can see the marble in flight. (Between the red stripe and his right wrist. Neat huh?) Also this picture is significant because it contains my future husband. The one in the middle. They call him "Abu Saedah" (father of the smiles) because he is always grinning, and he is the cutest thing ever. Which I made the mistake of pointing out at one point. And now the entire family thinks that I am obsessed with him and trying to get him to marry me and come back with me to America. They talk about it for at least 20 minutes every time he is around. Worst part is, he is the only one who is against the plan. Burn.
(Ok you caught me, this pic is from yesterday. But today was boring and stupid and I went to a new family's house that I had never met before and spent most of the day there. Can't very well just go around snapping pictures of people I don't know now can I? That's not very neighborly.)

39

The whole family out on a rehla (picnic/vacation/daytrip/overnight trip/drive through slightly wooded area). In this case our rehla took us out to a semi wooded area to sit for a few hours, have mansef, drink tea, drink pepsi, eat cake, drink juice, eat pumpkin seeds, drink coffee, and watch the kids play. There are families all around us (there aren't a lot of woods around me) and about a thousand cars behind us. The entire family was there, all 7 kids and their families; the woman to my left and the man in the dishdash and shmogh are the grandparents. It was a great day and thank god we were in the shade so I didn't even ruin my beautifully white skin with any more sun. This has been a concern of my neighbor's ever since it got nice a few days ago and I started spending time out on my roof and as a result got a little color on my cheeks.

38

First nice, sunny day in a long time. Out on the roof "washing" my blankets and reading.

37

Batteries always dying? Make the switch to the world famous God camel (God is a camel? a tribute to the god of camels?) battery. Harness the power of the haram.

36

Little bro's birthday today, miss you buddy!

35 (Feb 28)

Love this girl, so cute, so happy. And with a healthy dose of attitude.

34 (Feb 27)

Sick. On the bright side, the kleenex I have comes out of a box covered in pictures of kittens, and has festive pink and white tissues.

33 (Feb 26)

For comparison: this is a Fulbright scholar's house. Well at least what you can see of the two living rooms, dining room, sitting room, kitchen, 3 bedrooms, two bathrooms, and balcony. In short, it pays to be smart.

32 (Feb 25)

PCVs out on the town, watch out. And by out on the town I mean in the one bar that we can afford (during happy hour) after which we slink back to our hostel and hope that no one we know saw us out.

31 (Feb 24)

Aaaand the work party continues in Ramtha. Formatting publications is awesome.

30 (Feb 23)

Chocolate Chip Cookies in Shuna Shamaliyia! The recipe (as far as I remember it): half sugar, half butter, dash of flour, dash of chocolate chips. Result: heaven. We were supposed to be working on the volunteer newsletter, but when someone has a new oven and a bag of Ghirardelli chocolate chips what choice does one have?