A budding scientist?

This past weekend, my (Jessica's) language teacher invited me to go to a nearby village with hot springs for a small trip, just the two of us. She told me that we would need to leave early in the morning to catch the right ferryboat and so I stayed the night at her house the night before our trip.

I hadn't worn my favorite shoes (pink converse low-tops) in a while, and so I decided to use them for the trip. As is the custom here, when I arrived there, I took off my shoes and left them on the porch. We had a great evening with dinner and meeting lots of her relatives. The next morning, we woke up early, packed up our bags, and headed out to catch our bus. I looked down and saw many shoes on the porch, but could only find one of my pink shoes; the other was missing. She and her mother looked all over for the other one while I sat on the porch hoping they'd be able to find it. They were unable to find it, and so her mom offered me a pair of wooden sandals to use for the trip, as I'd packed no other shoes.

They explained that about 2 years ago, a couple of dogs had come around for a few nights barking and waking them up, and they figured that it must've been the same dog that came and got my shoe and dragged it away.

Last night, as I was relating this story to my captivated audience (Doug & the children), I got to this part of the story and Ethan scrunched up his face and said, "THAT's not a very scientific theory. A dog came around and barked two years ago, and so he must've come back and eaten your SHOE???" We laughed and laughed. Maybe we have a budding scientist on our hands. At the very least, he's developing his logic skills. :)

We still have no idea what happened to my shoe.

Little Tomb Raiders :)

We visited Saqqara & Dashur today and were able to go into three different tombs-- an overseer's, the King's butcher's tomb (this is us with statues of 5 of his 10 sons), and then a third one that we had to go underground through some tiny shafts to get into!

The kids all had a great time exploring and checking out this awesome site. Saqqara is pretty much the center for information/archaeology for Egypt's Old Kingdom (the dynasties of Egypt that ruled roughly 5,000 years old).

There were other sites, near the ones we went down into, that had not yet been dug out-- literally, hieroglyphic-covered stones sticking up right out of the sand:

They had fun playing in the dirt too. :)

Inside of one tomb (The Tomb of "Ti" for anyone who's interested), the walls were COVERED with "daily life" sort of hieroglyphics... truly breathtaking.

Walking Like Egyptians #1

Well, we're here, on vacation in Cairo... and it is HOT! And full of amazing sights!

Here we are at the base of the Great Pyramid of Giza, which seems to infinitely stretch upward:

Here's the view of Cairo from the Pyramids:

Doug, Ethan & Maranatha enjoyed a camel ride...

... and we all got to see the famously noseless Sphinx:

It's quite an incredible thing to be walking around in Giza and glance up to see the only remaining wonder of the ancient world:

The boys actually climbed up into the Great Pyramid with Doug (climbing up a shaft to the Gallery & Burial Chamber for King Cheops):

Here's the view from our balcony (not too shabby!):
We all enjoyed watching the sun set for the first night of Ramadan:

It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

Thought I'd share some pics of the kids & a few funny things about our new neighborhood:

(1) A popular star of a Turkish reality show lives just a street or two over from our new place. Though we have yet to see him, he's reportedly always surrounded by a crowd.

(2) There's a car that often drives down the major road in our neighborhood (it's the one our apartment faces)... and it has a horn that plays the theme song from "The Godfather". They honk it far too often, but it still cracks us up.

(3) This new neighborhood is full of people from all around the world, so it's fun to walk around and see the variety of people God has made. In contrast with America, Turkey (like China) is a nation full of mostly one kind of people, so it's unusual to have a place where there are so many different nationalities in one neighborhood.

(4) We live just around the corner from a place that serves one kind of food we LOVED from our old overseas home... loghman! (Click that link to see a large picture.) YUM!

(5) Though it's an older, more working class, neighborhood, it's right by the Sea of Marmara, so it's a great place to live-- fairly cheap housing, right near the water-- very rare in Istanbul!


We're enjoying the new place. Just thought I'd share some fun trivia about it!

And I say to myself, "What a Wonderful World!"

Most of the time, living in another country, it's just "home". Once you get past culture shock, even if it's strikingly different from what you've always known, it becomes your daily norm.

But sometimes there are moments you look around and think, "my kids get to ride bikes by the sea, with cargo ships and very, very old history all around them?"

Or, "I get to make dumplings from scratch with local friends?"

Covered women admire my children while we're out for walks?

I shop at a local outdoor market where vegetables are this beautiful & fresh?

And in my Sunday shopping, I walk past shoe displays like this?

Our children have a perspective on the world that is unique among their peers...

... and we are blessed to be able to spend downtime as a family at parks with tulips and water all around.

And I say to myself, "What a wonderful world designed by an incredible God!"

A Kazakh Engagement Party!

We were invited by some of our new friends to go to the engagement party (really, it's the time when the groom technically goes to "get the girl" from her family) of his cousin today. Doug and Ethan ended up going along, as Ethan is growing to be good buds with the 9 year old son of our friends. Because our friends' family lived in Brooklyn (yes, in NY) for the past decade, the son speaks both great English and great Turkish, which is excellent for Ethan. They've been inseparable the past few weekends.

You can see Ethan & his friend Barish here, as the groom's family went to "get" the girl.
(Click on any of the pictures to see them larger.)As the groom's party walked down the street, they met an old patriarch from his side of the family and stopped for a chat. This Kazakh elder was probably giving words of wisdom before the couple came together.
Here's the happy couple, meeting their guests together:

They served tasty fried breads, cookies, cakes, and muffins, and plenty of milk tea. It was the first time Doug had tasted milk tea since we lived in our previous home in Central Asia several years ago, and spent regular time drinking milk tea with Kazakh friends there. Milk tea is made with a special type of tea and milk is added, seasoned with salt and drunk from a bowl.

The couple and the party guests left the one house to go into the bride's family home for a ring ceremony and exchanging of gifts.

The house was packed; Doug said at one point there were nearly 100 people in the one apartment.

Their rings were connected with a ribbon, and they placed them on their fingers and the bride's brother cut the ribbon. We still aren't sure of the meaning of this tradition, but we'll keep asking questions and learning as we go.

Here you can see the lamb boiling to be ready for dinner. You can also see, up on the far left, what Ethan's friend Barish looks like from the front. :)
Yummy palao. It's been a while since we've eaten it, and it really is delicious!

It's very fun to begin becoming a part of the community here... Doug's brain is fried after hearing & speaking Turkish (& small bits of Kazakh) for nearly 10 hours today, but our hearts are full of joy to have friends and be able to share in the celebrations of their joyful moments.

One more note: we were excited to learn that the bride & groom will be moving to our neighborhood once they are married, so we hope to get to know them better as time progresses.

Amazing Ephesus

I have no idea how I overlooked sharing these, but here are some of the pictures from our visit to Ephesus. It was a trip of a lifetime, to be able to walk where the Apostle Paul walked, see where Aquila & Priscila may have sold their tents, and sit on the benches in the ampitheater where the riot in Acts 19 happened. The boys had a blast exploring the ruins, and we all marveled at seeing history come alive. As one of the best preserved cities of that period, it is in amazing condition, and it was a real wonder to walk through the city and see the biblical setting in front of our eyes.

Everyday Things

Here are some pictures taken around Istanbul, to give you the flavor of daily life here.

This first picture shows a classic outfit style worn by conservative women here-- black underclothing (fully length pants or skirt) with shoes, long overcoat, and headscarf:

Here's one of what must be hundreds of these little food shops found around Istanbul.
They sell simple sandwiches, drinks, and chips (and ice cream in the summer!).

A classic grandma type here in Istanbul
(in front of a Starbucks, which are also fairly plentiful here):

She's less conservative (see the pants? and the hair showing?).

Fishermen are plentiful here:

I may have mentioned this before, but cats are everywhere here. And I mean everywhere. To people who are new to the city, it takes some getting used to... but I can tell you-- I'd much rather have cats than rats. And though I've seen plenty of the former, I've never even seen one of the latter. :) So give me cats anyday!

And this last picture is of the gypsy class here... they often carry around these big trash bags (you really can't get the scale of it from this picture- it's very large when full) and dig through the smaller dumpsters in each neighborhood/alley to find recyclables. We sort our recyclables separately so they won't have to dig for ours. So virtually nothing goes to waste in this city that can in any way be reused or recycled!

Baxter on future plans, money, & work

So I (Jessica) was in the kitchen talking with Baxter (our 4 & 1/2 year old) the other day, and asked him, "Do you think you might be a daddy one day?"

B: "Yeeesss..."
Me: "How many kids do you think you'll have?"
B: "Sixty-seven or ninety-four"
Me: (raised eyebrows) "Hmm... how will you make money to feed all those children?"
B: (confused look on his face) "I don't know."
Me: "Well, it takes money to buy food, and that would be a lot of kids to buy food for. What will you do to have enough money to buy food for your family?"
B: "I will ...(pause)... just walk around ... (pause)... and look and find it on the ground."
Me: "Hmm. That sounds neat, but pretty unlikely. What will you do for a job?"
B: "Like find treasure... gold coins... and dollars, stuff like that."
Me: "That'd be cool... But what kind of job do you think you might like to do?"
B: (another confused look, and a long pause)
Me: " How will you make money? What kind of work will you do?"
B: "I don't know what you're talking about, 'work'."


Hmmm... we have a lot of training in reality ahead of us. :)

Evidence

Sometimes when people leave your house, you'll find evidences of their visit: a toothpaste tube left behind, a note left on the table, or mussed sheets asking to be changed.But here's the evidence Nana & Papa left behind:

• a freshly cleaned kitchen, from Nana as a blessing to Jessica
• a little girl who, while coloring, pauses every few minutes to mention Nana & Papa because they took time to stop and color with her so many times while they were here.
• a baby who probably wonders where that man who flew him around like an airplane a bajillion times got off to.
• a full coffee cup, that Papa meant to drink but left behind because he was busy doling out hugs and loading up bags
• tears in the eyes of this daughter who is so overwhelmed by her parents' love for her children.
• coloring pages on the fridge for the children, colored expressly for them by loving grandparents.
• hearts more full than they were three weeks ago, made full by lots of love and lots of memories of special times together.

THANK YOU, NANA & PAPA, for coming to visit us. We LOVED getting to have you in our home for the past three weeks. We love you!!!