Chrmas Morning

chr dinner

Christmas dinner

WE had a good crowd for Chr dinner. The 2 Yezidi men on each side of me were unexpected which is common in this culture. They are not in the Family, but they heard how they could be. There were 7 Am's and 12 K's. WE had a full house and a big feast. We had 2 legs of lamb and lots of carrots, mashed potatoes and gravy, salad, bread, olives, deviled eggs, cranberry sauce and green beans and no rice.

top of temple

When you travel in the Yezidi areas you know you are there b/c all their "holy" places have this roof top.

Lalish Yezidi Temple

This is the Yezidi Temple in Lalish. It is the most holy place for Yezidi's all over the world. They have a tradition that when you go in the temple you do not where your shoes or step on the threshold. We had to take our shoes off and walk on the cold, cold, cold, cold stone. Did I mention the stone was cold. It is a neat place inside, but they worship Satan and have a lot of things in their religion that resemble Islam, Chrnty, and Judeaism. Their most holy "priest" guy does not cut his hair, beard, or take a shower from birth until death. We did not get to see him, but we could smell something like him. When we got there, the people were cleaning the area, and they were not wearing shoes. It was cold.

Ancient Hindu Temple

On our road trip we saw what we thought was the opening of out tunnel out in the middle of a field. We wondered what it was, so we drove out in the middle of the field. (good thing we have a 4x4) When we got there, it looked like a hill, but this is a picture from the ground almost even with the top of the building. Brianna and Megan led the way down for the adventure. Brianna said this is an ancient Hindu temple. You could see where the walls were finished smooth and where they had been burning candles. I think it was probably a church at one time, but who knows.

Creek

We went on a road trip expliring the country. We were up on a mountain and saw a beautiful valley which had a vineyard, creek and orchard. We went and found the road that leads to it. There were a couple of soldiers at a house, and I asked them if we could go down there and have a picnic. They said it was no problem, and so we had a nice picnic in the sun. The area was pretty and the water was crystal clear. It helps to be a tourist some days.

Team pic

WE have a nice size crew here for Chr. The tall girl (6'2") is a student from South Car. The other 2 are from down south.

Gulley

This is a picture of the "gulley" area here north of the center of town. On the left is the area we go mountain climbing. You can see the town if you go to googlearth.com and type in our city name.

Brianna had a little lamb

Behind our compter center in the village is a sheep fold area. They have some new pups and new lambs. Brianna always has to pick them up. She is so cute with the lamb. She told me we had to bring it home since our friend gave it to us. I said what are you going to do with it? She said we could milk it.

City at night

Our city is in a neat valley. One night on the way home we drove up the south mountain to the top and took some pics. It was nice to go up there when the electric was on. One time we went up there to take night pics and the electric went off as we were going up.

WOW ITS SNOW 

mountains close to the Turkish boarder. 

Who says averything big is just in Tx? This is the biggest grass hopper I have ever seen. Worthy of a pic. 

We were way up on a mountain and came down into this valley. There are several villages out there close to the mountains. It was overwhelming to take this drive to see the #'s of villages and people that He wants to touch. 

This is a famous bridge in a city close to Turkey call Zakho. Supposedly they killed someone and burried him in the bridge as they were building it or something. Personally I think its a spin off of Jimmy Haffa. 

We could see snow on the mountains in a distance. We went through this valley and started to ascend the mountain and Megan saw the snow and started whinning like a little puppy. We stopped and played in the snow and took a few pics. 

I took this picture of "Wal-Mart" on wheels as it was going down the road. Notice the head and the hand of the guy on the back of the truck. 

The guys went on the roof to hand out in the sun and have our Kurdish traditional after lunch tea. It was warmer outisde in the sunshine than inside the house. 

Women and kids in the living room after lunch. They are all warming their feet and hands b/c the concrete sucks the heat out of everything. 

Here is the crew we had for Thanksgiving lunch. The girl at the head of the table is our cook. One guy is in the other room answering a phone call. (I told him he was crazy for answering his phone on thanksgiving.) We ate and ate and ate. WE had all the traditional stuff. Our cook took a piece of pumpkin pie home b/c they have nothing like that here. She took it home b/c no one believed her that you can make a pie out o pumpkin. 

Brianna was so excited about cutting the heads off the turkeys and watching them flop around and flap their wings without a head. She is a great hunting buddy. 

Megan took some of the turkey feathers and made her a craft. She took a feather for the tail feathers and then cut the ends off feathers and made the legs. She also colored some leaves b/c most dont change colors here in the city. 

Thanksgiving dinner still walking around in the back of the truck. I had to explain to people that our holiday was not about turkeys it was called Thanksgiving, eating turkey is a tradition, but the holiday is about remembering the great things God has done for our country. 

finally home

The kids were all tired when we finally got home.