Peymanga Huneri Cwan

The above title is Kurdish for "Art Institute." I have a friend in town who does good work there as a teacher of young Kurdish people. In a culture that tends to value uniformity and even tends to see creative forms of expression as shameful, I really respect the people here who have the courage to express themselves through the arts.

Peymanga Huneri Cwan (Rough translation: "Institute for Pretty Things"). Cwan in Kurdish means beautiful.

Since moving to Kstan I've begun to appreciate beauty more. Most of the buildings are concrete, half-way built, and not even painted. Very few trees remain due to years of war. But the Art Institute building in town is refreshingly different.

The Boot Whisperer

 

So! This month I'm back in Texas! My extended family spent some time together in Wimberley, a quaint little retirement town located in the Texas Hill Country. While there I was almost convinced to buy some boots from a German lady known as "the boot whisperer." Apparently she can look at a person's foot and correctly guess his boot size. She and her husband own and operate a successful second-hand boot store in town. Check out the ones I wanted... too bad they didn't come in my size ;-) just kidding!

Pumpkin

It's fall and I'm missing Bonnie and Russ and friends back home carving pumpkins and roasting the seeds. There are some pumpkins that are grown here in Kstan, but they aren't quite the same as pumpkins back home.

Fortunately, my roomies and I share a love of pumpkin products. Every time someone from the states comes to visit and asks "what can I bring?" we say; "canned pumpkin!" Recently we helped our neighbors "gut" and boil some pumpkins. Then we introduced them to eating the boiled pumpkin with brown sugar and butter, mmm! As they were about to throw out the seeds I asked if I could have them. The first batch I burned to a crips, darn propane oven without any temperature control. But the second batch turned out really good.

Masha'Allah

Beautiful country-side. The mountains of Kstan in the fall! Masha'Allah!

Masha'Allah is an Arabic phrase that expresses appreciation, joy, praise or thankfulness for an event or person that was just mentioned (definition from Wikipedia). It is used to remind people that all things come from God. People also say it superstitiously to ward off the "evil eye," believing that admiring something about another person in an envious or covetous way could cause something bad to happen to that person. So if you compliment a person or their things, always tack on a "Masha'Allah" afterwards so they know you're not saying anything out of jealousy or envy.

That's what neighbors are for

Project 365 Day 26: Our neighbors often send children over with plates of hot food fresh from their stove. It's really nice to know they think about us often. Today was a particularly neighbor-food-full day. From left to right: Lentils, Kitilk (meat and rice stuffed inside rice cakes and fried), dates, honey, fried green beans. We usually send the plates and bowls back with baked goods like pumpkin bread, zucchini bread, and banana bread.

Bubble Tea

Project 365 Day 25: I was craving bubble tea today. Reminds me of great friends back home.

Happy Birthday, Dad!

Project 365 Day 24: It's my dad's birthday! In his honor I'm posting a picture of a father and daughter. I took this photo in eastern Turkey last year.