In the heat of the night . . .

The weather the last few days has been horrible - really horrible. I don't ever remember it being so humid in all my years here. The air conditioner has hardly any effect - the house feels hot no matter what you do.

Just as luck would have it I had to go to a wedding for my neighbor. Most people nowadays have weddings in rented wedding halls. Most wedding halls are large, spacious and comfortable. But there are many women who will not attend a wedding that is held in a wedding hall - actually I don't think it is the women but their husbands who won't permit it. In the past there weren't very many wedding halls available and if someone wanted to rent a place they usually rented a hall in a hotel - they were often mixed parties with men able to come in and see what they women were up to. This is why many women weren't allowed to go - they would be seen by the men folk. This is pretty silly nowadays as many of the ladies are in there secretly taking pictures with their cell phones.

The wedding I went to yesterday was in a tent in front of the house. It was air conditioned by about five huge air conditioners. Unfortunately the weather was so hot, humid and it was so crowded that the air conditioners had no effect at all. Most of the ladies had fans and were fanning themselves. In the beginning of the party they all had their mirrors out every few minutes trying to keep themselves looking beautiful, but in the end most just gave up and opened their handbags, took out hair elastics and clips and pulled their hair up as best they could.

At one point I poured myself a glass of cold water and spilled it into the front of my blouse - actually I did this about three times. It didn't matter since my clothes were soaking wet anyway. When they started to bring out the dinner they came out with cans of soda and I held the cold can against my face and neck to try to cool off. No one had any appetite for the dinner. I waited until after everyone had been served and made a quick exit.

I felt miserable - but I looked at the poor bride and felt so sorry for her. If I felt awful I could only image what she must have felt like all dressed up in a nylon wedding gown.

I spent a sleepless night as I ended up with a splitting headache. I am doing my best to recover. Sunday I have another party to go to - and guess what? It's going to be held in a tent!

humidity initiates insanity

It's been a busy few days and I am exhausted!

Last Thursday I had to work and as son as I got home the girls and I did a presto-chango and put on party clothes and went off to a birthday party. It was nice, but the music was loud (as usual) They had a very nice belly dancer hired to dance for the party. I actually like when they have that as it gets everybody moving and interested in the music.

Friday we collapsed. The weather was too hot to go out and do anything and we were too tired to do anything anyway.

Saturday we took Ibrahim to see a speech therapist. It was on the other side of town. The evaluation took a while as the therapist wanted Ibrahim to feel comfortable and not shy so he could really get an idea of the problems he was having. This man is very devoted to his work and had a school with approximately 70 students. Unfortunately the building he was renting from wanted their building back so he is currently without a location for his school. Just when you find someone that you think will be able to help us sort out Ibrahim's speech it turns out there is an obstical thrown in the path. The man hopes to find a suitable location to reopen his school by September - he will contact us when and if it happens. In the mean time he gave us some tips and pointers on how to begin working with Ibrahim ourselves. And he says that Ibrahims problem isn't a complex one and should be able to correct it without too much difficulty.

Sunday - back to work for me! Straight home from work and into the shower - another presto-chango into the party clothes and off to another party. This one is for my sister in law who gave birth to a baby girl. The weather was awful - very high humidity. My head was spinning to the point that I felt I might faint. I got home - back into the shower and then collapsed in bed.

My schedule is totally booked this week. If it wheren't for the weather it wouldn't be so bad, but this weather makes me feel awful. I'm drinking so much water that I feel like a walking water balloon. Everything feels soggy, even with the air conditioning going full blast. And the constant woooo wooooo wooooo noise that the air conditioner makes drives me mad. I feel like I live in the middle of a vaccume.

I will survive, won't I? (that's a tag question)

Amazing!

I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer inwaht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh? yaeh and I awlyas thought slpeling was ipmorant.

I got some non-native speakers of English to try this to see if they had problems reading it - no problems at all - that's amazing!

Gnomes and fairies

Summer is a time when Libya turns brown. Spring is probably the best season here because the air seems fresh and wildflowers bloom. It's the greenest season. But then there is summer. The air becomes dusty and the wildflowers dry up and become brown. There are many species of thistles and other thorny plants. The one in the picture above is my favourite. The flower is the size of an orange and the thorns are long and sharp. The petals are a very light pink. Most people pull them up and get rid of them, but I've been letting them stay and now they have multiplied and become a rather dense low growing thicket. They are full of bees and beetles and small field mice . . . and hopefully gnomes and fairies too.

Ibrahim can hear . . .

We took Ibrahim to a hearing specialist that comes once a month or so from Tunisia with his equpment for testing people here. Ibrahim was tested and is fine. Now we have top take him to the speach therapist as the specialist said it was just a speach thing. One more thing to check on our long list of things to do. . .


Today we went out looking at lighting - hard to decide what to buy - I just want to be sure it's easy to keep clean.

Sara and I had an afternoon out on Saturday - we both had our hair cut and I had my lashes tinted again - that lash thing is becoming an addiction - so nice not to have to wear mascara. On the way home we went window shopping and I ended up buying a nice watch - cost me 150 dinars but when I did a search on the internet for the same watch I found that if I bought it outside Libya it would have cost me twice the price. So I feel like I had a big bargain - that made me happy. I've got my eye on a Rado that's for 750 dinars . . . I'll have to see how much that would cost me from outside. They sell cheaper here because they dont have the big import charges on many goods here.

PhotoFriday - Silky

Yusef needed a haircut but was reluctant to have it done. He kept putting it off until his father got fed up with him and took matters into his own hands. The result was a shaved head.

In Libya it is pretty common for boys to have their heads shaved during the summer vacation. The weather is hot and it keeps them cooler. It's called the 'Garhah' cut - named after a large smooth squash called garrah. Soon all the neighborhood boys will be sporting this popular summertime bald look!

Yusef was pissed off about his new 'do' and wouldn't let me take his picture so I had to wait until he fell asleep. He looks funny with his face sunburned from a day at the beach and a very white, smooth head. But I like it! When you touch his scalp it's smooth as silk!

Music fills my ears

This is a fantastic music blog I found. Lots of interesting music and news about music too. CLICK on the image to see for yourself.