Beautiful Feet

So here's a picture of my feet.... the dry dusty climate is rough on the feet!!

It's amazing how cracked and busted your feet become if you wear anything open-toed.

Haha. It brings a whole new meaning to washing each other feet. ;)

I usually walk every where that I can, to the office and back, to the store and back, to the bazaar and back. Carol and I go on walks just about everyday-- to get out and say hi to all the neighbors. The women just sit on their driveways in little circles, just watching people and cars go by, gossiping and sometimes laughing together. When the kids see us walking, they all yell "What's your name!?" or "Helllo!". I guess those are the basic English phrases that they are learning in school. "How are you? I'm fine, tanks".

Although, sometimes we hear basic phrases from American movies.... which is really unpleasant to hear as your walking down the street, and they don't know what it means.

A Surprise Visit

Carol and i have a lot of adventures and funny stories, the latest was the surprise visit at 9pm last night.

I was actually feeling kind sick from some blisters on my hands that I think got infected... I mean there is so much dust and dirt in the air right now that even fruit left on the counter gets infected. But I was just feeling kinda blah. So I watched the movie Cast Away in the living, the fan full blasting, wear my "house clothes"... which in the summer consists of tank tops and shorts. I was at the really climatic part of the movie, when Chuck makes it off the island and is reuniting with the girl, who was the only reason he survived those 4 years on the island. So anyway, Carol comes in, kinda stressed, and said 'Chra's here'.
I ignored because I didn't understand and was really into the movie.
"Chra's here".
'Who?'
"Chra"
"who?"
She shakes my ankle, "get up, Chra's here'.
"Chra??" Oh wow. So i get up, still kind confused, and scramble into my room to change into clothes... I see Chra, my sweet co-worker from the oil company walking in through the kitchen. She looks just as confused as I do.
But she sits down on the couch.
Carol and I rendevous in the kitchen, panicing a little. We don't have any fruit, we don't have any cold water, ahh, what snacks do we have? Do we have any cookies, anything? (There's the whole visit protocol in this culture). You must serve a cup of cold water, to the brim, when the guests first arrive. Serve nuts next. Then a round of soda or more cold water. Serve tea, strong and sweet. And then finally served washed fruit. The fruit tells the visitors 'ok, go home now... i'm out of food for you'. haha. Usually guests leave within ten minutes of being served fruit.

Anyway, I sit down with Chra and was like 'so.... ? what's up'... and she's like 'you didn't get my message? Tolaz, Farah & Ahmed, Lilo and Ruhi are coming, too."
'oh, everyone!?!'

Within 2 minutes they all came over. I'd been asking them to come over sometime and so they did, spontaneously. Haha, it was fun, and Carol and I pulled off a surprise visit! She did have to sneak out and drive to the store for fruit and nuts.

It was funny, just another surprise of living here. It's really normal to have people drop in and stay for the evening. And I adore these two friends, so I loved having them over.

The pics are just fun pics of me and Carol and our jili kurdis.

Here's my team.
We are having an end of the year party on Friday, just for fun to celebrate... The team is changing soon with some returning to America, some moving to different cities in Iraq, some staying in our city. It's sad.
But also totally worth celebrating.
I'm totally a believer it's always better to have loved! Even though it's sad and we're doing different things, some leaving and going, but we LOVE each other!

We're going to have a video slideshow contest at the party, to challenge our creative abilities to make slide shows... or at least to make them funny. Maybe I can post the winning video. We'll see, we'll see.

Jili Kurdi Fashion

I said once that I would write about my Jili Kurdi... so i will attempt to explain such an delicately mysterious thing! Girls wear Jili Kurdis on special occasions, such as dances, weddings, graduation, picnics, parties, etc. They are BRIGHT, beautiful, decked out, sequenced, bulky, itchy, and yet so enchanting. At first, I felt obligated to wear one... actually, no. I always liked them. Like two days after I landed in Iraq for the first time we went to an engagement party and I wore a borrowed bright pink jili kurdi. (below) and danced with the best of them. I've gotten better at dancing! yikes!

Usually, girls get a new Jili Kurdi for special events, so it's normal for a girl to have quite a few jili kurdis in her collection. Newroz is the debut of your dress for the season--- and rain, shine, or wind, everyone wears a jili kurdi.

I had one made for myself this year, instead of wearing a borrowed one.

My friend told me about this website that had pictures of the latest in Kurdish fashion. So my idea came from that website. (kurdishfashion.com if you want to check it out!)

I went to this man's shop and bought the material in the bazaar. Don't worry, I did ask if I could take a few pictures. I think he was confused enough anyway.
So many colors to choose from! This is actually the more 'drab' selection... but I was working with an idea in mind! You'll see what I mean.
He cut it meter by meter. He's so cute and old.

Then I had my neighbor, Jwan, make it for me. She actually has a business out of her house. Around Newroz time she converts her kitchen into a shop and sews jili Kurdis. This year she made over 100 dresses! way to go, little entrepreneur!
This is how it turned out.

I like it. It's flowing and princessy.

Here's pic with some more girls. See, I told you, they are so BRIGHT. Most of these girls are sisters. haha.. big families!

This was the idea I was kinda going for.

Fun, huh!?