Author: Robin Chartier

A writer at work

I’ve been reading a book this week 7, An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess, and she writes like I would want to write . . . if I were a writer. Some self deprecating humor (lots of it, in fact), a first person narrative style as she describes her challenges and successes at simplifying her life in an attempt to draw closer to God’s will for her life, overuse of ellipses
(. . . these guys . . . love them), and a reader who learns something in the middle of their laughter. All elements that I adore in a writer/book and would emulate them . . . if I were a writer.

As I was describing a favorite part to Josh over dinner (about her adventures in organic gardening during month 5 in an attempt to create less waste) and lamented that she had a gift — he stopped me and said, “You are a writer.”

Um, no I’m not. Or did I miss the published books floating around the house with my name on the cover?

He said, “Being published doesn’t make you a writer. You are one because you write. You edit. You revise. You’re good at it. I write stuff for work all the time, but I’m not a writer. You are. In three weeks it will be December 1st, three years to the day that we left the United States for Egypt. You’ve been writing for three years. That makes you a writer.” I just about leaped across the table and hugged him. Wow. Three years. If that makes me a writer, I better not stop now.

So, stories from Motherboy XICXV last night (I can’t be bothered to figure out the Roman numerals, especially since it’s an Arrested Development reference and you’ll either get it or you won’t and the fake numbers don’t matter anyway). Josh was/is out of the country (visiting Oman, weep for me) so I took Calvin to the Marine Corps ball as my very handsome date.

I am not photogenic (I had the man at the base retake my ID card photo 3 times and it still looks like a chipmunk with crossed eyes) and Calvin is hoping to overtake me in height in the near future, so we took 1001 photos of me trying not to smile too hard and him trying to stand on his tiptoes without me noticing. It was fantastic.

We mingled, we ate, we didn’t dance (more on that later) and had fun people watching. It turns out that after 16 years in, most of the special uniform pieces are still foreign to me and I don’t know why one guy wears a gold cord around his shoulder (lie: I actually do know that one — it’s because he’s an aid to a VIP), or what all the different ribbons mean and if it’s an Army or Navy uniform? Forget it. I don’t know why one guys has blue lapels and another has gold (though if I had to guess it’s probably dependent on their job/unit). I missed having my military guide Josh there, to answer all my questions, but Calvin and I texted him a few times and that was almost as good. 

He wanted to be able to say that he ate a piece of the birthday cake

Then he realized he was trying to cut it with the back side of the knife.

One of the official candids from the night.
We were about to leave and we hadn’t danced yet (I couldn’t convince Calvin to go out with me to do the Electric Slide) when the first slow song came on and I seized my opportunity: “Do you want to dance one song before we head out?” He was a good sport and agreed. I was looking for a place to stash my purse when I recognized the song as “I’ll Make Love to You” and decided that was a bit too skeevy for a Mother/Son dance. A little “Afternoon Delight,” anyone? 

Then we came home to these monkeys who were fast asleep and the girl monkey who was wide awake. (Josie was babysitting. No need to worry about child neglect.)

henna time

Back in September we went to a rug flop and they had a lady there doing henna. It’s a dark paste that is piped onto the skin and left until it dries and flakes off. The henna stains the skin and the design lasts for about 2 weeks. Basically it’s a long lasting temporary tattoo. I’ve gotten henna before, but Camille has always looked at these strangers suspiciously with her trademarked side-eye glare. Surprisingly, this night she was game. 

A butterfly!
Not related, but since we only have about 6 months left here, Josh and I have been looking for some Bahraini pieces to add to our eclectic household furnishings. We’ve been wanting a Bahraini bench and loved this one in our friends’ house so we took a picture of it and have “a guy” who is either going to find one or make one like it. 
Ever since her first taste of henna, Camille has been asking to “get another butterfly.” This week we walked to the salon near our house and I got a pedicure while she had henna painted on her feet. 
It took about 30 minutes to draw out the design — all freehand
You can see the henna on the artist’s hands. It starts out bright orange and deepens in color over the next few days. 
All finished. Now she aims a fan on her feet and we wait for it to dry.

After it is dried and the henna paste is removed.
After a few days the color gets deeper. The end result — two weeks of pretty feet!

Crazy life

What a week — between Halloween, making travel plans and all the normal kid and pet care, I am wiped out. I blinked and it’s almost a week into November. At least all hotels have been reserved, intra-Turkey plane flights have been booked, and my updated guidebook should be in my hands tomorrow so I can brainstorm another list of must-sees for this trip. Of course of all the guidebooks that I have, the only one I couldn’t find is the one for Turkey.

Morocco, Tunisia, Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Middle East (big book), and all the dialect phrasebooks for the different regions? Yep, got them. But Turkey went AWOL. After digging through 6 boxes of books, I finally gave up and just ordered a new one.

Halloween: Too much candy, but lots of fun anyway. I felt like Josh and I should get an award, a trophy, or eternal gratitude after seeing the Halloween costumes that we put together for Carter and Caleb.

I knit Green Arrow’s (a comic book character) hood and created the vest out of a sweatshirt. Josh was responsible for the genius bow, arrow, and arrow holder thing — and they actually shoot. 

I created Hawkeye’s shirt (character from The Avengers) out of two T-shirts and a too-small vest from the suit he wore to Wendy’s wedding. Josh again gets credit for all shooting paraphernalia.

All the work on this costume was done by some poor child laboring in a sweatshop in China. 

They had a huge Trick or Treat event on base and various units decorated tents and handed out candy. Calvin didn’t have a costume because he was helping hand out candy. 

She skipped the scary themed tents

The boys entered the costume contest, but the real prize is the bow and arrow that they get to keep after the holiday is over. 

More Halloween fun — visiting Caleb at his class for a party. 
One more thing of note from this week: Our cat is crazy. (In a good way)
We already knew that when we take showers he likes to sit on the side of the tub and play in the spray, but I did not expect him to hop in the tub with me when I take a bath. I started the water running and then went to check on the kids before getting in. I came back to find him walking around in the water, playing in the current. He is one of a kind. 

Pet project

One of the perks of living in this region is that we are entitled to Funded Environmental and Morale Leave (FEML) — a nice way of saying that no one can live here for two years without needing a respite. They will pay for plane tickets for us to go somewhere, we just have to pick the place. We are nearing the end of our window of opportunity since it can’t be used during our last 6 months here. (Are we really moving that soon?!)

We were thinking of forgoing it since the plane tickets are not the only expensive part of traveling when we have to pay for shelter and feeding 4 kids and we’re trying to be responsible and save up for the expenses related to our next move. But the other night I was going back through my blog, looking for posts about our trip to Jordan to pass on to a friend who is traveling there for their FEML. I pored through all the posts about Petra and Jerash, floating in the Dead Sea, visiting the Jordan River . . . how could I give up another opportunity to travel with these kids?

Amman

Jerash
Petra
Petra
Dead Sea
So we’ll be traveling this Christmas. 
Deciding where to go was a little more difficult. We wanted to maximize the amount of money we were allotted by flying somewhere that would be too expensive for us to travel to normally, but I didn’t want to fly very far and eat up 2 days (or more) of our vacation with traveling and jet lag. So no New Zealand/Australia or Bali. We also wanted to travel to a country where we could eat and sleep on the cheap, so we could vacation with as little expense as possible. That ruled out most of Europe — Paris, Spain and Italy. Besides, if we get orders to Germany (fingers crossed), we can hit those countries next year. So that pretty much leaves India. 
I’m sure traveling to India would be very similar to how I feel about eating Indian food. I never crave it, but when we end up having it I always enjoy it more than I thought I would. But no, I’m not going to India for my Morale leave — I’ve seen enough episodes of the Amazing Race teams in India breaking down in the middle of masses of people to know that that’s not what I need for a vacation. 
Sri Lanka is supposed to be really nice, tropical, close, inexpensive . . . I settled on that location until I started researching. 20 bazillion rupees is about 35 US dollars so it might be cheap, but 5 minutes in and I realized that I am too tired to run all those big number currency conversions over and over again. And I was reading something about how you have to hire a driver and they stay with you and you either have to arrange for lodging and food for the driver or just leave your trip in the hands of the driver and he will book lodging for you that has a driver’s room included. My brain can not figure out another country right now and add in the fact that it’s a totally different culture than the one we’ve been immersed in for the past 3 years? Too much work. 
So we’re going back to the country that we’ve talked about returning to since we visited the first time. The location that was my favorite in our year of travel. The place that we spent several weeks and could have spent another several. Now we get to. 
Yep, Turkey.
Hagia Sophia 
Galata Bridge crossing

Grand Bazaar
Turkish bath
Hippodrome
Galata bridge 

And these are just the photos from Istanbul. I’ve ordered my guidebooks and have been living on TripAdvisor for the past 48 hours, dreaming of possibilities. It will be Christmas and cold, so definitely different than last time! And yes, we’re going back to Cappadocia and staying in another cave hotel. It’s the first question the kids asked. Christmas in a cave. Merry Christmas to us.