Check this out! See how many of the 192 countries in the UN you can guess in 10 minutes. Click the link below. I only got 67 and I am so ashamed of myself for my lack of being able to recall the names of countries off the top of my head...

http://andys.org.uk/countryquiz/

The sweet perfume of ....

So tomorrow is Newroz... or the Kurdish New Year... the streets are packed and instead of being a source of frustration it becomes a social event. Everyone is hanging out of their cars with video cameras. Anyway, it seems to be a tradition to make a fire as huge and as smoke producing as possible. Tires are the preffered option... phew!

It is Jilli Kurdi Time

I frighten myself sometimes.

I am still learning... wierd things.

So I have discovered that I have learned many things and that I have wierd conversations sometmes. Take the other day for example, we were sitting around the kitchen table talking about how many amps each different type of appliance requires. Coffee pots take a lot. Refrigerators are about an amp and a half. Splits (AC/Heaters)are hefty, while lights are just about nothing. The reason for this conversation is the never ending conversation about power: how much, when, and what to do with it. Recently many neighborhoods have been putting in group generators... do we want 10 amps or 15? And shortly after that there were rumors that the city was going to cut off power all together! Yikes... maybe they will be cutting down the amps instead... 10 per household? How will we run the coffee pot!? Or perhaps more importantly, how will we run the washing machine? Air Conditioning? Strange quesitons for a strange place. (This pic is of a new generator and a water tank, I think??)