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I decided to surprise my parents and return to Oregon for Christmas unannounced. It worked and I made it, but it wasn't the surprise I had envisioned. Part way through my journey, I developed an unrelenting stabbing pain in my back that continued until my arrival in Portland and a subsequent trip to the emergency room. As it turned out, the leftovers of a head cold had developed into a nasty case of pneumonia. So when I finally got home, all I could manage was a weak wave to my dad before crashing on the couch, where I remained for 3 or 4 days before I gradually regained some strength. Though my break turned out very different than I had anticipated, I was thankful to be in a warm, comfortable place with easily accessible health care and a mom to make me chicken soup! Plus, our family was together for Christmas, which hasn't happened for a few years and I enjoyed seeing friends who weren't expecting me.

Teaching With My Mittens On

Winter officially started today, as we woke to a shallow dusting of white snow that attempted to cover the brown of this place. It melted quickly but not before my kids were able to enjoy making a miniture snowman and catching a few flakes on their tongues at recess. Oddly enough though, they got more excited about the rain we had last week then about the snow. The air here has turned cold. Everyday I wear about four layers and keep them on all day. I have two heaters in my classroom that work about as well as a little space heater you might buy in the States. Its not bad yet though, just a different way of functioning... learning to teach with my mittens on. It makes getting dressed in the morning easier because I whatever I wear, my coat will cover all day! Winter here makes life rough for everyone. All year, some of our workers have been collecting cardboard which will be their main source of heat through the winter. Many people here just do what they have to to literaly keep from freezing. My blankets, heaters and warm clothes, inadequate as they may seem when compared to what I'm used to, are a great luxury compared to the average person on the street. I'm blessed beyond measure.

Giving Thanks

Thanksgiving Day here was a special one. In a place like this, its easy to sometimes get caught up in the everyday challenges and forget to lift your eyes and realize all that you've been given. And yet, in a place like this, there is so very much to be thankful for. The reminders are all around, I just forget to take the time to see them. I am thankful for my "family" here and how we have come together as a team and as people from many walks of life for a united purpose. I'm thankful for their company, encouragement and that I get to work alongside them. I'm thankful for little things, like hot water, my 2 new heavy blankets and a package from home. I'm thankful for each of my students and the joy they bring to me each day as I get to see them grow and learn and change. I'm thankful that I've been brought here and been given this task and that I have the assurance of the Promise that will be fulfilled when He comes.

Thanksgiving was also just a plain old fun day. I got up early and had breakfast with a friend before joinging some other teachers to go to the embassy for the 10k and 5k races being held there. I ran in the 5k and, suprisingly enough, placed first in the women's race and won a cool turkey hat. It was a nice morning and I enjoyed spending time with fellow teachers and some other expats that I've met through frisbee or our local fellowship. In the afternoon, we had a big dinner together as a staff with all the typical Thanksgiving food and played cards and watched movies late into the night. A great way to celebrate and time to remember all I have to be thankful for!

Some school and frisbee friends and I at the race


Our school staff that competed in the 5k or 10k


The 5k group

K-Town Ketchup

Lots to tell, not much time. So pictures will have to speak for me. Enjoy...



Carving pumpkins with my housemates


Another great hike up the mountain




Dressing up for our Pumpkin Party on the 31st followed by our first game of "Packet Wars" in the rose garden.



My kids enjoying Flat Stanley, who is visiting us from East Primary in Sutherlin, OR.



Visiting R's house for Eid (Flat Stanley liked the food!)

Where has the naan gone?

"Did you see my toilet seat this morning?" I asked Adrianne who was sitting at the table eating a bowl of Crunchy Nut cereal. "Yeah, I did actually. I hope you don't mind that I used your bathroom."
"What do you think it was?" I asked, my eyebrows lifted. "Come look again."
We entered my bathroom with wrinkled brows and examined the patterned muddy marks around and inside the toilet.
"Mandy thinks it may have been a cat, but the prints look too small for that," I reasoned. We squinted in the direction of the white seat again.
"A mouse?" Adrianne wondered, crinkling up her nose.
"The prints are too big. I think it was a rat. A pack rat. Yup, I think a pack rat visited us last night." Memories of a night in the Rocky Mountains of Montana were flashing through my brain... the sudden awakening at one or two a.m., the pathetic "trap" of cheese and suitcases, the chase that ensued and the eventual violent death of the hairy monster on our carpet. If it could happen in Montana, it could happen here.
"Yuck. We did have a mouse last year. And then there was that potato that Sohgra found on the counter all munched up last week."
We left the bathroom, both hoping that the problem represented on the toilet seat would somehow disappear without our personal interference.
That evening, we gathered around the table again. Helen had made vegetable soup and was willing to share with the rest of us. "I'll see if Ali will run down to the nan shop and get us some bread," she said grabbing her phone. There is nothing better than warm naan and hot vegetable soup when the nights are beginning to get colder. We feasted and then watched a movie, leaving the rest of the massive naan hunk on the table.
The next morning I was the first to arrive back at the table, since it seems I am the one in the house who can go the shortest amount of time without food. I pulled out my own box of Crunchy Nut and sat down. Pouring a bowl and filling it with milk, my eyes wandered around the room, trying to wake up. "Hmmm, I wonder who ate the rest of the naan. It would be good with some peanut butter this morning," I thought as I crunched. A little later Mandy came down the stairs. "I'm going to make French toast, do you want some?"
"W-Yes-ch pl-w-ease-ch!" I mumbled through my crunchy nutty bite. I swallowed. "Hey, do you know what happened to the naan from last night?" I asked.
"Nope. It was there on the table."
"Hmmmm..." The French toast was great. Its one of our breakfast favorites.
Later, Debbie came downstairs, pulled out a Nutella jar from her cupboard and popped some toast in the toaster. "Hey Debbie, did you eat the rest of the naan from last night?" I asked, still hungry for naan and peanut butter even after my Crunchy Nut bowl and French toast.
"Nope," she said as she sat down at our long table. "Maybe Helen did? Everyone else is gone for break."
"Hmmm..."
We relaxed at the table until it was past nine, enjoying the fact that we were on vacation and didn't have to get ready for class or do anything really. Finally, Helen came downstairs. Before she could get to her cupboard for her own Cruchy Nut and Nutella, I asked, "Hey Helen, did you eat the naan from last night?"
"Nope."
"Did you move it or put it away?"
"Nope." (Helen is not much of a morning talker.)
"What?! I didn't eat it and neither did Debbie or Mandy." Everyone's eyes turned toward my bathroom door. (Except for Helen's that is. She was busy pouring her Crunchy Nut into a bowl.)
"Its the toilet seat creature," I sighed.
"No way, that was a big hunk of naan, we only ate like half of it. There was at least that much left," Mandy said, stretching her hands a good 12 inches apart.
"Yup, and it was sitting right there when I went to bed," I said pointing at one end of the table."But now, where has the naan gone?" I smiled, chuckling at my lame rhyming skills.
Several days past, the naan was forgotten and I found other food items to put peanut butter on. Then one night, I sat at the table with Mandy and Esther, working on report cards and listening to the Beatles.
"What is that?" Esther asked, turning her ear toward the kitchen cupboards. We stopped to listen. Behind the tune of "Hey Jude" there was a scratching, crinkling kind of noise coming from behind one of the bottom drawers. Mandy and I looked at each other knowingly.
"We had a visitor while you were in Dubai, Esther," Mandy explained.
"Yup, and it looks like he's still here," I added."But how did he get back there?" I got up to investigate. Peeking behind the fridge, I saw that between the living room wall and the kitchen cupboards, there was a nice little pack rat sized alley way. I pulled the sliding door that separates the kitchen and living room closed, allowing me to have a clearer look into the crack. Mandy looked over my shoulder. "What's back there?"
"It looks like there’s a pot holder or something on the floor. I can't really see it, it’s too dark."
"Let me get my maglite." Mandy rushed upstairs and returned with a huge flashlight.
"Shine it straight back...yeah, there!"
We both chuckled. Tucked neatly back into pack rat alley was our missing piece of naan, though a bit smaller than we remembered it to be. "Well, I hope he didn't get his paws on my peanut butter too!" I thought.
The naan that was gone has been found. But this is more than just a story; it’s a cry for help! If anyone has suggestions for the removal of hungry, sneaky pack rats, by all means, share your wealth of knowledge with this house full of women, would you?

Everyday Life

No matter which side of the planet you live on, it seems there's always that daily life stuff that has to be done. You still have to do laundry, make your bed, find something to eat and wash your feet occasionally. You still have to get up every morning, find your way out the door and deal with whatever everyday life may hand you. Life here is no exception. Of course, it isn't always monotonous and routine, sometimes there are little curves in the road that are unexpected. (Here, they seem like hairpin turns, but at least there's some variation!)
So the next time you're feeling the burden of a daily routine, remember that life in a foreign country can feel just about the same as life in your home country most of the time.
Here's a little synopsis of my everyday life:
5:30 Alarm goes off (Steph lays in bed pondering the coming day's activities)
6:00ish Power comes on (Steph decides to brave the shower)
6:20 Breakfast (Steph scrounges around her cupboard to see what she can find...it looks like toast is on the menu again!She really needs to go shopping one of these days...)
6:30 Quiet time (Steph gets some real food and wishes she could stay all day...but 7am always comes)
7:00 Off to work we go...
(Steph works frantically or calmly, depending on the morning, to make final preparations for her students. On most days, this involves squabbles with the printer and copy machine.)
8:05 Students arrive (Steph is bombarded with homework papers, various relational complaints and bugs of all shapes and sizes that were caught the night before by her eager students).
8:10 Students are working quietly (Steph bribes students to start working through a variety of top-secret methods).
11:30 Lunch (Steph escapes to the kitchen to recover from the morning's escapades, unless, of course, she has lunch duty. On these days Steph stands outside repeating in a loud voice: "Throw away your trash." "Sit down while you're eating." "Don't swat at the bees or they will sting you." "You were swatting at the bee and that's why it stung you." and "Is this your garbage?" until the clock strikes 12).
12:00 Return to class for story time (This is Steph's favorite part of the day when she gets to read great books to her great kids. Currently they are reading "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe").
12:29 Students leave the classroom for "Specials", ie. art, P.E., computers, etc.
(Steph breathes deeply for several minutes, perhaps lying on the floor- depending on the day. Then, on most days, she tackles her "in" box, grading papers until her students return. On other days, Steph can only gaze out the window and blink).
1:19 Students return to classroom (Steph reminds herself that she is more than halfway through the school day and prepares herself for the crescendo that usually occurs in most elementary classrooms during the afternoon, especially if the students have just returned from P.E.)
2:50 Students leave (Steph hurries the stragglers out of her classroom, throws away the forgotten water bottles, sits at her desk and stares at the computer. At last she gathers her courage and looks at tomorrow's lesson plans).
5:30 Dinner (the most predictable event in Steph's life)
6:30 Various local events (Sometimes Steph escapes to the nearby "coffee shop" with a few fellow teachers. Other evenings, Steph returns to her classroom, which unfortunately involves climbing in through the window because she does not have keys to her building. Still other evenings, Steph plays Cranium or Taboo with her fellow teachers, works on school stuff in her bedroom or attends meetings. However, Steph's favorite evening activity occurs on Tuesday evenings when she plays Ultimate Frisbee with a wide variety of expat locals).
9:30 Bedtime (Steph crashes, hoping the fan has a chance to cool the room down a bit before the power goes off).

Here's some pictures of my everyday life....

Hanging out at the local "coffee shop" where we eat pizza on Wednesday (our Friday) nights.




With some friends on our staff night out

Class Picture


Duran and Oghai soak their pea seeds in water while Farhad looks closely at his.

Hiking the Wall

Being trapped on a compound doesn't do much for your physical (or mental) health, but every so often, early in the morning, they let us escape to hike the wall. The wall lines a mountain near our neighborhood and once we walk through the streets at the base of the mountain and get high enough that the smog blocks the view of our lovely locks, we can even take our chadars off and enjoy the freedom to its fullest! The wall is ancient, somewhere between 5 and 15 centuries old depending on who you ask, and provides for us a great workout and history lesson all in one. Enjoy the pictures...



A view of "Wall Mtn." from my classroom building. We hike along the wall up to the two bumps on the right.



A close up of the wall. We follow it or walk on top of it most of the way up the mountain.



At the top on our first climb: Esther, me and Becky (all teachers) and Dave and Jeremy (local pilots and necessary male chaperones)



The view from halfway up

Boys and Bugs

What it is about boys and bugs remains a mystery to me, but I do know that, as a teacher with 15 boys and 5 girls, the bug factor needs to be alive and well in our classroom. Luckily, I think bugs are pretty fun too. Yesterday, we decided to see what would happen when a cockroach, ant and scorpion all spent some quality time together in a rather small jar. Here are a few pictures...

Classroom Surprises

Last night I decided to stay late and work in my classroom. The fifth grade teacher, Leslee (who is a really neat person and now my mentor teacher) was there in her classroom too and we were just working away when suddenly the lights went out. This is not uncommon here, but suddenly I realized the implications. It gets dark early here, around 7pm, and when the electricity is out, its out and you just have to wait. That is except when the generator is on but I haven't yet learned the delicate balance between when the generator can be used in relation to city power, but let's just say that last night, we were stuck in the dark. So I went and got my hand-crank flashlight which barely illuminated the darkness in front of my face and kept at it a little longer until, lo and behold, the power came back on. No big deal- I had to work in the dark for awhile but it was fine. At least I got something done.
Well, today I decided to rearrange my room a bit, still trying to get it settled into a workable formation. I moved a bookshelf and was looking at the wall behind it a few minutes later when I realized that the crescent shaped dark lump on the wall was actually a small scorpion. Hmm...and less than 24 hours ago I was wandering around barefoot in the dark...Well, I learned my lesson. Next time the power goes out I'll be prepared and keep my shoes on and use my big, powerful headlamp instead of my measly flashlight, just like my neighbor Jo Carol does when she has the urge to till her garden after dark.
The scorpion is now in a jar, a perfect class pet.
Here's some pictures from his capture:



Look closely and you'll see that this is not just a picture of me and a white wall!

Fishbowl Shopping

As I discovered today, shopping here is a whole new challenge. At home, I usually dread going to the store. I get indecisive when it comes to buying things. I think the best way to shop is to know exactly what you want, grab it as quickly as possible and get out. Well, here its not so easy. First, there's no such thing as "one-stop shopping". If you want furniture, you go to the street where they sell furniture. If you want plastic containers, you go to "plastic container street". Everything is grouped. But don't think this makes it organized because it isn't. At least to my eyes, it seems there's no real order. And if you bought it there yesterday, you may not be able to get it there today. So the rule is to buy it when you see it, with no time for indecisiveness. If this wasn't enough, there's the unique fishbowl aspect of shopping. Let me illustrate this aspect for you.
Today, Leslee, Sharon, Mandy and I decided we'd like to get fabric for our classroom bulletin boards and some clothes. Lucky for us, there's one area of shops nearby that sells both. So we hopped in the truck and Ali drove us to what I suppose would be considered a "fabric and clothes mini mall" of sorts. But for us, it was a fishbowl. All the store workers were men and most of them came to the door of their shop, or even outside, to stare while we looked at what was hanging in the windows. As we worked our way along, I snuck a peek back over my shoulder and, sure enough, there was a long row of brown eyes following us as we walked along. Every piece of fabric we looked at, every shirt we thought looked nice or wierd or way too sparkly, was noticed. I may dread shopping at home, but at least I can do it without every one around me examining my purchases! So, I'm realizing that I've got to say goodbye to quick "runs" to the store. Choas, bargaining and fishbowl shopping must become a new way of life!
We did buy some fabric from a nice man who had lived briefly in England and spoke English well. Here's a picture of his fabric shop:

Arrival at Final Destination

The last leg of my trip is finally at an end and here I am walking dusty streets and trying to make sense of a new culture. I've been able to get out a little, visiting some nearby stores and the bakery too! I've also enjoyed meeting the staff here and experimenting with the language. I'm trying to learn a new phrase or word each day. My home here is beautiful! It is so nice to have a comfortable place to go to in the chaos of this city. And also from the choas of my classroom, which I will begin trying to organize starting tomorrow. I’ve included some pictures of the school and my house, along with a picture of the sunset my first evening here, taken from our roof.

My bedroom, in what they call here "The Marble Mansion". There are six of us living here. I have a nice patio and view out the back window. (Check out the crazy light fixture!)




The building for grades 3-6 and my future classroom:




Our roof is great! Its often nice and cool up there in the evenings and provides a great view of the city:

Bergen, Blumen und Backerein (Mountains, Flowers and Bakeries....oh my!)

If these are the ingredients for a good vacation, my time in Europe definitely qualifies as one! The last two weeks I’ve been blessed to spend time hiking in the Alps with my mom and our good friend Jo Carol, as well as spend some time in Austria with my relatives as we gathered together for my cousin’s wedding. In Switzerland, we stayed in a small mountain town and did several hikes right from our cabin/chalet, as well as a few trips to the bakery and back again! In Austria, after recovering from an all-day and late-into-the- night wedding, we toured some local salt mines, went hiking, visited Vienna and ate lots of good Austrian food. Here are a few pictures from my time in Europe:



After hiking around these mountains, my mom and I stopped at this lake to cook up the bratwurst we’d brought along for lunch. The glaciers in this area were gorgeous!



All the green meadows were filled with colorful wildflowers!





I’ve never been one to pass up a stop at the bakery! After a long day of hiking, we enjoyed relaxing on our porch while tasting locally baked treats!





Dressed for the salt mine tour, we rode a “train” into the middle of the mountain and learned all about the history of salt production in this part of Austria.



A typical Austrian hike:
Climb the mountain, stop at the restaurant at the top for coffee and apple strudel and enjoy the view before scampering down again.

My Mississippi Mattress

Greetings from the South where I am living with teachers from all over the world for two weeks, learning more about how to transition into a new culture, how to teach kids who have lived in several cultures and sleeping on a mattress on the floor of a classroom. Along with hearing humorous stories about cross-cultural adjustment and experiencing huge Mississippian thunder storms, the best part has been meeting my new team. Our school director was here for a couple of days and so we got to know him and ask him plenty of questions. Also, two of the teachers here taught at our school last year and have been able to offer us newbies lots of insight. Here's a picture of our school group here at PFO (Pre-field orientation).
From left to right, back row: Mandy, Joel, Dan, Byron (our director), Ken holding Jett, me
front row: Leslee, Becky, Jaden, Erin, Ava



Left: Becky and Joel, married 3 days before coming to PFO!
Right: Jaden prepares for a cultural transition
Bottom Left: Erin and Ken, a brave couple who are bringing along their three kids, willing to raise them in the country we are going to.

Blue Tubs, Cherries and Goodbyes

The days are dwindling and I'm almost ready to go. My life for the last week has revolved around two blue plastic tubs pictured below. Many of my belonging have to fit inside, both for me and my classroom. Not an easy task, but a great chance to learn to live with less. I keep telling myself that many people in the country I'm moving to probably wouldn't own enough to even fill two tubs that size. I am rich beyond measure.


This week I also got to take a break from packing and showed a movie about the country I'm going to to some friends. The Matteo kids and Hannah helped me make snacks and we had a fun evening together. Here's some pictures.



This has also been a week of goodbyes. I'm leaving for two weeks of training in Mississippi along with all the other new teachers in my organization. So some of my friends thought that it was high time for some crochet and cherry pit spitting contests before the summer gets away from us.

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