Finally, the school year has ended, so all the western teachers are leaving. The Village will be very quiet. Ramadan also starts early next week, so the city should be very quiet, too. All the cafes will close during the day and the iftar feasts will start in the evenings, when it is not a great idea to be driving around as people are hungry and thirsty and in a hurry to eat.
Charles and Grace are leaving today to go to England to see all the Vallees. Simon, Robert, Charles and Alison will be in one country at once, which is the most Vallees in one place since James's memorial.
I have my first ever Russian friend. I just realized I should start asking her some questions - about when the Soviet Union broke apart (her family is Russian in Lithuania so they lost their jobs), going to stores and getting two eggs each, being given apartments, her grandfathers being in the Russian army and going into Germany, how Communism was good for them in some ways and not in others, holidays in the Crimea on the Black Sea.
I also talked to a colleague whose father is Palestinian and mother is Syrian. The father cannot get Syrian citizenship because it does not transfer from wife to husband. Now that Syria is being destroyed, her whole family is living together in one house and they are very scared. She lives in the UAE with her children and cannot go back to either country (Palestine or Syria). She works two jobs to send money back to them, and she gets paid a fraction of what I get paid due to our nationalities.
Meeting these people and hearing their stories really expands the stories read in the news. I also meet a lot of people from India, mostly the south (Kerala, Tamil Nadu) and so I want to go there and wonder how our trip to the north (Delhi) in Aug will compare.
We have a pan out back in the sun heating up and today we are going to try to fry an egg in it.
After G returns from her trip she is going to write a blog post. So get ready for that....
Charles and Grace are leaving today to go to England to see all the Vallees. Simon, Robert, Charles and Alison will be in one country at once, which is the most Vallees in one place since James's memorial.
I have my first ever Russian friend. I just realized I should start asking her some questions - about when the Soviet Union broke apart (her family is Russian in Lithuania so they lost their jobs), going to stores and getting two eggs each, being given apartments, her grandfathers being in the Russian army and going into Germany, how Communism was good for them in some ways and not in others, holidays in the Crimea on the Black Sea.
I also talked to a colleague whose father is Palestinian and mother is Syrian. The father cannot get Syrian citizenship because it does not transfer from wife to husband. Now that Syria is being destroyed, her whole family is living together in one house and they are very scared. She lives in the UAE with her children and cannot go back to either country (Palestine or Syria). She works two jobs to send money back to them, and she gets paid a fraction of what I get paid due to our nationalities.
Meeting these people and hearing their stories really expands the stories read in the news. I also meet a lot of people from India, mostly the south (Kerala, Tamil Nadu) and so I want to go there and wonder how our trip to the north (Delhi) in Aug will compare.
We have a pan out back in the sun heating up and today we are going to try to fry an egg in it.
After G returns from her trip she is going to write a blog post. So get ready for that....
Jen--It's great to see you writing again. I was getting worried! Sounds and looks like everyone is doing well. Keep up the interesting posts. I like to live vicariously through people living abroad! :)
ReplyDelete