A Day in the Ghor

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So I guess some of you folks are wondering what the southern Ghor is like - particularly the Ghor Al-Mazra where currently reside. I thought I would take you through a day here.

Tad and I awoke around 9am in preparation for classes at 10am. Our breakfast was simple but delicious - the remaining peaches from yesterday and boiled eggs. And a large bottle of guava juice - my new favorite drink. Whenever I walk by the store I buy a bottle. Its almost like a smoothie. And the best part is that it is ice-cold coming directly from the fridge at the store. We boiled the eggs over what is basically a glorified camping stove powered with propane. By about 9:15, the kids are outside ready for class, and we have to finish eating breakfast while they wait. They are driven to class by a driver provided by the Zikra Initiative.

Tad teaches class a few hours per day. On Monday's he teaches little girls and tourism women. The photos below are from the classes. It is quite hard to teach the boys particularly since they cannot focus more than a few seconds at a time. I left the room during the boys' classes to eliminate one additional stimulus. The girls and women are much better students.

Between classes we chill in the air-conditioned room and get on our computers to wile away the hours. It is quite a bit too hot to do much of anything outside - the temperature is well above 100F and the air is so dry that even walking to Ibn al-Basha (the local store) and back, a distance of less than a half mile, is about the limits of what we can do in the hottest parts of the day. To think that people actually live here without air-conditioning all the time is rather hard to fathom. The main agricultural times are during the wet season from October to May, but some limited work is done during the dry season.

After work we usually do something outdoors which is often a little hike. We have a little nearly entirely dry river bed close to behind our building (Wadi Rashahah) and we hike out to it sometimes. Some of the photos are from this Wadi.

After working up an appetite hiking in the Wadi, we come home for a dinner of tuna with a sauce of tuna, foul (beans) and tomato paste. Tastes delicious. And of course, plenty of water. We usually try to turn in around midnight to begin the day anew.

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