October Happenings

I got invited to what turned out to be a youth rally for high schoolers...and they made me a counselor. This was one of the sweet girls I met with. It's amazing how similiar high school girls are no matter where you are in the world :)
This sign tells us not to throw our trash in the toilet. Forks, Coke bottles, and syringes I can understand, but toilet paper?

We took some visitors from the States to see one of the local mosques... The call to prayer had ended so it wasn't too busy, just this one man sholatting (praying) and a few nappers. Kids attend class throughout the week to learn about thier religion. It's kinda like Sunday School on steroids. Instead of crafts and animal crackers they memorize lengthy prayers and study Arabic. Very impressive.

Takin' it easy after studying it up

My friend Agnes moved up North recently to help out a family member. She will be missed...and so will our frequent ice cream outings. Gotta love that soft-serve!

This is a 40 acre trash dump where hundreds of families live. They make a living by going through the trash each day searching for things they can resell, such as plastic bottles or aluminum cans....

They have a big barn where all their findings are stored...

and keep track of how much they'll be paid. I can't remember how much a kilo of plastic paid out, but I want to say somewhere around 50 cents

A lot of the kids help out to earn money for their families. These are a couple of the cuties.

The village doesn't have a school of their own so a small group of college students take turns volunteering every Saturday to help the kids learn English.

They often go barefoot in the trash dump so worms and other skin infections are a big problem.

The college students, their professor, and a pregnant lady who was convinced her baby would be beautiful if I touched her belly.

Another fun group of college students who get together every week...

They are studying English and asked me to discuss education in America. There were gasps from the crowd when I mentioned public schools don't require uniforms. I'm still not sure they believe me.

Photo shoot afterwards...camera phones everywhere

I've seen some great mullets this month, but this guy gets the gold for best hair

Lena and I hanging out in front of the office space we just rented. More about this next month...The new official vitamin of the Novak family - NOVAKid

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