this is my life!

doesn't this look fake? this is near a city called dukhan...this is the ice cold river...no joke, apparently the only cold thing...i don't really get why it doesn't ever warm up, i mean i realize it is mountain run-off...but still it is blazing hot here...so it was a nice change.
we loaded up all the white people and stuck them all in rafts and away they went downriver. it was fun for them...but we had to drive them there and then drive back to the stop where they got off. it was a lot of twisty, turny driving.
but then we got to play in the river when we got there and there was even a little kids raft. the boys were loving it.
so after we played in the water, we had an awesome picnic with great food. you don't mess around with picnics here, we had huge rugs spread out and a pit and we roasted amazing chicken on it and it was the bomb! then the kids played around and got absolutely filthy and while they were sitting on this rock, over the hill comes a shepherd and all his sheep and goats...they all look like sheep, but if you look close tail up is goat, tail down is sheep. anyway, the kids got surrounded on all sides by these guys. they were loving it! it was straight out of the old testament...felt like an odyssey trip! gotta love that about this country!
so i have been worried about doing laundry here, but it hasn't been so bad...however i let it build up while we have been moving because i haven't had a washer or a place to hang clothes, so last night i was finally able to do 2 of the 4 loads and this is what my hallway looked like. i still really miss having a dryer and downey for that matter, but i feel like i have really worked hard after i have done the laundry. i think the worst thing is having crunchy socks and stretched out underwear. boo.

so i thought it might be fun to state the top 5 things we see here that you don't see in america...i wish i had pics of all of these, but you will have to use the good ol' imagination. maybe sometime i will have the camera at the right time.

5. cars that still have the manufacturing protective tape on them, except they have been driven around for months or years even and it is all peeling off and brown, but apparently if you leave it on, everyone will notice that you have a new car and think you are so cool! they also leave the tape on their bikes and even on the inside of the car on the seats and steering wheel.
4. a trash can next to the toilet full of your dirty toilet paper...you can't flush it here...but the kurds actually don't use it, they use water and their hands...not sure which is worse.
3. stray donkeys and random cows in the street. today we saw a boy being pulled by a cow down the street. the boy was no match or the cow.
2. overcast skies, but not from clouds, DUST! the other day the sun set and it looked like the moon was rising because it was so obscured behind a thick layer of dust.
1. water tanks and satellites on every roof. power switches in your house to switch from city power and community power or no power sometimes...you just never know when.

i am still not unpacked all the way...but it is looking much more like a house. everything takes much longer here...when there is no walmart to go get everything at one place, it takes forever. we have had so many little missing parts to things that we think we have all set up and then it doesn't work or we can't get it all set up, so it is just a slow process...maybe i will finally be cured from my need for instant gratification! i will post pics of the house all set up...soon...inshallah!