Farm Life

Ok, so I don't actually live on a farm, but this is as close as I've ever gotten. The animal count at this moment...I think...

10 layer hens (whose purpose is to keep farm-fresh eggs available at all times...and who enjoy digging/hanging-out in the sandbox...you can also see one of the 2 former turkeys in the background)

85 broiler chicks (who are being raised to sell and/or be cooked for dinner).



3 dogs (there were 4, but Christine found a home for one of the two puppies she rescued from the side of the road).


10 rabbits (the newest addition and partly an experiment to see what the market is like for rabbits).

Plus, the occasional monkey, plenty of geckos, one sneaky rat that we can't seem to get rid of, and two rambunctious little boys.

What's Your Name?

I've lived with the Atherstones for a total of about 5 months now. Wednesday nights, I babysit the two boys, Noah and Kadin, while Jeff and Christine go out to Small Group. This past Wednesday, Kadin (almost 4yrs) looked up at me and said, "Hey! What's your name?" Not that he never talked to me before or hadn't heard my name be said by the others in the house, but he didn't REALLY know my name.

Now, he hasn't stopped saying my name since Wednesday...which, according to Kadin, is Beff. He has this funny habit of saying people's names quite often when he talks to them.

So, today went something like this...
After lunch, Kadin brought over a stack of Diego books to read, which he pretty much has memorized. With each book he picked up he said, "Beff, that's a humpback whale Beff...Beff, Beff, that's a crab Beff...Beff, what's that Beff?"

Later in the afternoon, I was playing with both the boys, chasing them around the house. Kadin decided to take sides with me to chase Noah. "Beff! Beff, let's get Noah, Beff...Beff, where's Noah Beff?...Beff, let's go this way Beff!"

I guess he's catching up on not saying my name in the last 5 months.


A picture of Kadin in his "work" outfit.

Back to Work!

Although attendance was sparse, two weeks ago marked the beginning of a new school year for the children of Uganda. I'm still teaching English Reading, but in a slightly different capacity...rather than pulling reading groups (10 students at a time) to work in the library with me, I am teaching whole class reading lessons (to 40-60 students at a time).

Why do this instead? Because ALL the students desperately need to learn basic reading skills, as well as it allows the teachers to actually see what I am doing with the students. They can then adopt some of the strategies as their own, brilliant, eh?! I do have to admit, teaching to such large groups at a time present new challenges...especially when there is a lack of teaching materials to use and little to no classroom management presently in place. I'm sure the stories will begin to flow soon enough...

Following in Moses' footsteps?

The first night in Sharm, Christina and I were approached by a young man who worked for a travel agency. Perfect. We had wanted to go to Mt. Sinai, but we didn't know how we were going to get there, and for about 35 bucks, which included transportation, a guide, and breakfast, it wasn't a bad deal.

Two days later, we checked out of our hotel at the required deadline of noon, but our trip to Mt. Sinai didn't begin until 10pm, so we were forced to kill some time, lounging by the Red Sea and going snorkeling. I know, poor us!

10pm- We were picked up in the lobby of our hotel to start on our 3hour journey to the mountain base. Here's a picture of us when we first entered the mini-bus, still warm and excited...

1:30am- After three and a half hours of sitting next to the most obnoxiously drunk Russian and getting virtually no sleep, we arrived at St. Catherine's Monastary, where we would start the trek up the mountain by foot. We stayed in the bus until the very last moment, knowing that it was going to be cold and steep up to the peak of Mt. Sinai.

We had been warned that it would be cold, and we even put on our warmest layers of clothes we could find, but we were not prepared for the freezing climate we were going to face. Our fingers and toes became painfully stiff and numb at the same time. Our bodies shivered uncontrollably and our legs burned going up the last 700 stone-stairs to the peak. As long as we kept moving, it was semi-bearable...

We arrived at the top an hour before sunrise. We huddled together, hoping that would bring us the tiniest bit of warmth. We willed the sun to rise quicker and the rays to hit our red noses. It was the slowest, most miserable hour I could think of. Then, our guide came up from behind and placed a blanket around our shoulders...I think he felt sorry for us as we danced around to keep our blood flowing...but even this didn't help much at all.


At 6:30am the sun finally peeked up above the horizon. The crowd of people cheered at that first sight of the sun's rays. The beautiful scene set before us was difficult to enjoy under the conditions, but we were hopeful for the warmth that we believed would come soon.


Down the mountain we went, much quicker than we had ascended. With each step the warmth from the sun hit my face and gave me a sense of relief.
We basked in the sun for a few minutes at the bottom of the mountain and stared up at the daunting cliffs, waiting for the rest of the group to arrive.

Would I do it again? Insanely, probably yes, but only if I had gloves and a proper jacket...or it was the middle of the summer!

Egyptian Adventures

So, here are a few more pics from my trip to Egypt. This one is taken looking up at one of the pyramids... not quite as smooth as it looks from far away. We climbed up a few of the rocks to take this one:

Christina and I took a day trip from Luxor to Abydos and Dendara. This is a pic inside one of the temples:

Ok, totally cheezy but kinda cool at the same time, the Sound and Light Show at the Karnak Temple in Luxor lets you walk around the temple at night:

Four Cups of Tea

I recently finished reading the book Three Cups of Tea and wondered if Mortenson had exaggerated about how much tea he drank while in Pakistan. Now, after traveling to Egypt, I've gotten a taste of what he was talking about, literally. It was not uncommon for me to drink 3, 4, or 5 cups of tea in a day because of what locals called "Egyptian hospitality."

Christina and I could not walk down the street without some shopkeeper practically forcing us to come into their shop and have a cup of tea, all the while telling us about the wonderful products they had to purchase, or some local man walking down the street wanting to invite us to a nearby coffee shop or to their home for drinks (having drinks means drinking tea in Egypt- a virtually dry country) just to talk. Saying "no" was not an option in most cases. Whether it was a ploy or a genuine interest in the two American girls, I can't really say. Perhaps it was a little of both.

Despite the constant bombardment of pushy shopkeepers and leering men, we had a great time visiting the ancient sites of Cairo and Luxor and enjoying the beauty of the Sinai peninsula.
Yes, we did the cliche camel ride to the pyramids in Giza- never again...on one hand you are grossed out by the smell and noises coming from the camels, and on the other you feel bad for how they are mistreated.

Kissing the Sphinx- also a "touristy" thing to do...

Sunset in Luxor: looking from a felluca (sailboat) toward Banana Island

Snorkeling in the Red Sea- so many beautiful fish!