Adventures in Hagerstown

At the end of the film Indiana Jones Raiders of the Lost Ark, the Ark of the Covenant is placed into a large U.S. government warehouse. The camera zooms out to reveal endless rows of wooden crates packed tight, deep, and high in a dimly lit warehouse.

I am almost certain the final resting place of the Ark of the Covenant is at Hagerstown, Maryland. This is a long-term storage warehouse run by the State Department. Foreign Services officers heading overseas are allowed to send their personal household belongings to this warehouse. Their belongs stay frozen in time until they return to the U.S. to take a domestic assignment or leave the State Department.

Five years ago, as we were preparing to leave for Mexico, Shelley and I sent our furniture and many of our other treasures to this warehouse. Now that we are returning to the U.S. and needing to furnish a large house, we went to the Hagerstown warehouse to pick up all our belongings. I was impressed with the size and efficiency of the operation.

What to do with those chickens?

We are less than three weeks away from leaving Jordan. In preparing to leave, we are deciding what to take to the U.S., what to leave in storage, and what to leave behind. One of the most difficult decisions is what to do with the two chickens that we've had for the past two months. A few nights ago, we asked each family member to give their opinion. Here are the responses:

• Gaby: "Please, please . . . can we take them with us to the U.S.?"
• Andrew: "What chickens?"
• Colin: "We can sell them for lots of money."
• Shelley: "We should give them to a local Embassy employee who has a farm."
• Alex: "Let's advertise and sell them along with our barbecue grill."

Memorial Weekend in Aqaba

We headed down to Aqaba with several embassy families for Memorial Day weekend. We headed to our favorite hotel for one last time. The kids always have a blast when they are on vacation with friends. I love it because there is always someone for them to play with, and they tend to whine less in front of their peers.

Colin caught with chips from the mini-bar. Luckily, the contents of the fridge are complimentary. Unheard of, huh?

The kids must have gone down the waterslides a million times. It is nice outside of the U.S. when there is no one enforcing "pool rules". The kids could go down as many times as they wanted in any formation. On the big slide they let Colin go in his water-tube. He is still learning to swim, so he was so happy to be able to participate!

While there we celebrated our friend Leslie's birthday. We had a great time with great friends. We are really going to miss the fun friends we have made here in Jordan.

Leslie and Stephanie worked at the school with me this year.

These are some very talented ladies, and they are a lot of fun too!

Memorial Weekend in Aqaba Cntd.

The entire weekend we were sitting on the beach watching (and hearing) this stage be created for a wedding reception. They had a huge crew of men that started the construction with one small 2X4. It was quite the ordeal that took three days to build, and then it was taken down in a few mere hours after the celebration. We had the pleasure of witnessing the beginning of the party from our lounge chairs. The bride tried to arrive by boat, but the Red Sea was abnormally rough that night so she could not get from the boat to the pier! They finally parked the boat in the marina and she arrived to the party by golf cart. They had a full band escorting her and fireworks going off. It was quite the show!

Room service on the balcony of our room. Does it get any better than this? Best part, the burgers cost about the same as McDonald's!

And Colin topped off his meal with some ice cream at the beach. This boy LOVES ice cream. Well, actually, he loves ALL FOOD!

We went snorkeling at the public beach and ran into our friends the Hoffmans who were scuba diving. As you can see from the background, the best view at the Red Sea is under the water! That is Saudi Arabia behind us.

The below picture is of the locals at the public beach. I got a lot of funny looks that day. I thought it was because we were Westerners. But later I realized they were just watching Gaby and I enter the water in the wrong spot. We had to carefully try to get into the sea without stepping on any of the coral reef. This resulted in me losing my balance and falling on a very large and sharp sea urchin. I am sure the locals thought I was super classy! It was very painful and I had a black speckled bottom afterward. Later at the hotel Alex tried, unsuccessfully, to remove what I thought were black sea urchin particles from my injured area. Word to the wise: I learned on the internet, a few days later, that when you fall on sea urchins they leave black dye in your skin. It may "look" like you have little "splinters" in your skin, but in actuality it is just dye. So, basically Alex was trying to remove nothing! Yes, you may stop laughing now!

Wadi Rum Trip with 5th grade

I have been meaning to write about the field trip I went on with Gaby and the 5th graders. We went to Wadi Rum, the desert area in Southern Jordan. We had a great trip. We rode in a tour bus to get there, then we had to ride in jeeps to get to our camp. The kids had a blast hiking, climbing sand dunes, and sleeping under the stars. We had great weather and a great group. I loved the buffet dinner they served us at the camp, it was quite the spread of yummy Arabic food. We did not get much sleep, but it was a very wonderful trip.

Alex's Meritorious Honor Award

So, let me brag about Alex for a minute. He received a meritorious honor award this week at the embassy. This is the second time he has received this award (he was a recipient in Mexico as well). I think he received a cash reward with it, but he is not telling me too much about that part! Alex does not like to be recognized, but he should be more often. He always excels at everything he does. I have heard from many people here that he has helped them in one way or another. Congrats Al!

Modern Technology

The kids really enjoy talking to friends and relatives on Skype. In this picture Gaby is showing my dad her pet chicken.