كشرى

KOSHِARI

This stuff is a local specialty, and it is delicious. I've had it twice now, but I plan on making it a normal part of my diet.

It consists of two kinds of pasta, lentils, chick peas, tomato sauce, and sometimes rice, fried onions, and hot sauce. All mixed together. Love it.

One Month

I've been here just over a month and I still have no idea what normal life is going to be like. I arrived on Day 1 of the Month of Fasting, so life has been different for everyone. I don't have anything to compare it to yet, so I've just been going with flow. That means:

- No eating outside during the day. I wasn't participating, so I ate during the day, but it meant a lot of eating at home. I don't really know how to cook, so my food options were limited: cereal, soup, sandwiches...and when I wanted to get fancy, chicken with beans and rice.

- People stay up late. This country is very noisy as it is, but this month (though maybe always) the noise extends well into the wee hours of the morning. As a night owl myself, it didn't bother me. I just used all the activity as a reasonable excuse for staying up late and sleeping in.

- Meeting people is an interesting process. Part of the month everyone is with his or her family, part of the month they're all out and about. Fortunately the second half of the World Cup overlapped with the Fast and it was a great way to meet guys at the local cafes. It was also a great way to get humiliated if you are walking from one cafe to another wearing a Brazil jersey while they're losing 7 to 0 (then later, the not much better 7 to 1).

- It's hard to know when things are open- or if they are even do open. A bit tricky when you're in the process of moving into a new apartment.

The people here are friendly and I'm looking forward to getting a bit more into a routine. Hopefully that will help put me in contact with more guys with more chances to make new friends while we are preparing to launch our new English School.

Which, by the way, is why I'm here- I will be an English teacher for the next year or so in a new center that I'm helping some friends to open. More news to come as we get the final preparations done!

...Hello Rio Grande

I had hoped to write this blog sooner, but I haven't internet the past couple of days. I've been here for over a week now, and I'm getting settled in.

I've gotten introduced to and somewhat oriented in my new home as well as the capital city a few hours away. The look here is different than anything I've seen. Two major pluses: it's a lot greener here than Tierra Seca and the buildings have much more color. They're covered in brown dust...but underneath you can still see that at least they were more colorful!

I moved in to my new apartment with the BEST view in town, overlooking a big river.

It's the month of fasting so it's hard to know what day to day life is actually like- it will all change in about two weeks. But it's been fun going out at night and watching the World Cup in local cafes and going to bed late. And sleeping in late since nothing really happens around here early in the morning.

The people are friendly and the local dialect of Arabic is not so different from what I was speaking before, so I'm able to have conversations with people more or less.

More to come as this new adventure gets underway!