Some random things...

It’s been a couple of crazy weeks for us here as you can tell from the pictures last time. Alright, so crazy might be a bit of an overstatement, but we do finally have a place to live once we move out at the beginning of August. The time has gone by pretty quickly until this point but the last week and I fear the following couple might not move at the same speed. In the next couple weeks we’ll get to go on a spending spree of sorts buying up all sorts of stuff to fill our house. Some of the essentials already have been purchased. The always useful spice rack and juicer were Jana’s high priority items. Lesser items like somewhere to sleep and eat are soon to follow. I’m sure once we move in pictures will be forthcoming but there are a couple rooms and a kitchen. The landlord did take back one room he had promised us but we will survive. All the inside walls are cement covered which is the exception here but hopefully should cut down on the amount of dust we inhale.

In general it is nice to use our Arabic with people but occasionally there are people who speak English to some degree. There is one nice man who talks to us using English and most of the time can be understood, however, on a couple of occasion we have been thrown by his use of the word “needs.” An innocent word it would seem but, one time he was asking about how long we had been here and then he asked about my family. Then he asked “… and do you have needs?” Well, sure I have needs, like an air conditioner for one but I wasn’t quite following so we tried again. Eventually we got it straightened out that he was asking if I missed my family back in the states after these 4 months. I said I did a little and he just smiled and shook is head. It’s probably not the easiest for a lot of them to understand since they usually don’t leave the house unless they go to school or work somewhere else. Women usually move in with their husband’s family, sometimes into a different portion of the same house but in very close proximity.

Jana may add something too. The computer is hot on my lap and its 9:30, time to move the bedding outside so that after dinner – about 11:00- all we have to do is take our showers to cool down and then hop right into our little mosquito net, spray down the sheet with water, spray down myself with water, and then its off to air conditioned land.


I think this is how we write our names, basically the sounds translate like this and of course your reading right to left
Maik u djana hoofman
مايك و دجانا هوفمان

Hello now from jana hoofman... I'm just going to add a few random thoughts and happenings.

First, a blog has been created for the newest member of the Huffman family! Michael's brother and sister-in-law are expecting in November, so we're excited to keep up with them here!

I said I couldn't find the temperature here on the internet, so my mom the internet whiz took over. Here's the link, if you are interested,but just FYI we're in the hundreds this week...and as far as the extended forecast looks...yikes!

This link was sent, due to the heat, by a fellow Peace Corps Volunteer. :) It is vital info for us, but maybe for you too if you are ACless or just want to put off turning your's on for a little while!

Another Girl at Play is a group of women who have taken the scary step of declaring themselves "artists" and choosing it as their profession. Not only are they inspirational, they make great stuff! Jewelry...songs...books...

A couple of my favorites are Andrea Scher's Superhero Designs (check out her blog too for good pictures, good thoughts, and links to other good sites!) and and Jenny Hart's Sublime Stitching... cool girls.

One last link -- the Nata Village Blog (brought to my attention at Botsblog -- if you'd like go read why they feel this blog is so valuable!)

And it isn't that I thought the spice rack was the most important thing... we just found a cute one! Spices are bought here in bulk, so a spice rack will be very useful. :)

Stay cool!