Some Of This And Some Of That

Yesterday was the 4th of July . In America it is known as Independence Day and celebrated by by BBQ's , cook outs , picnics , fireworks at night , and in general just being happy to be a American .

Celebrating the 4th here in Libya is very different for me . For one thing , no one here cares what day it is , including the embassy . They have decided this year to invite the registered citizens to a thing at the ambassadors residency this year , along with local big wigs , BUT not on the 4th of July !

This is like the 3rd year they have celebrated the 4th on a different day other than the 4th . I just find this weird . Why bother if you can do it right ?And in the middle of a work week at that . If you are going to post pone the event , at least do it on a week end , right ? Well , that's my 2 cents worth on the situation .

This month we have a lot of birthdays in our family . My niece , her younger brother , my son today ; Happy Birthday Kamal, and my oldest grand daughter will celebrate her 1st birthday this week too .

It is definitly beach weather here in Tripoli today ! It is over 100 Fahrenheit . The beaches were PACKED yesterday. On Friday especially it was bumper to bumper cars on the freeway coming back into town from the beaches .Amazingly, as I drove by the beaches today , I noticed the beaches were fairly trash free.It is so nice to see more and more peolpe taking their trash back home with them instead of littering the beaches with garbage .

This year many of the Libyan Boy Scout troupes are having their annual summer camps here in Tagura on the different beaches scattered around. I see their tents and their camps all neatly set up but haven't seen the boys yet .I imagine it is pretty hard to keep them out of the water all the time , lol !Hope they have a great time !

Pot Holes

People are having to zig zag around these pot holes in order to keep from totaling their cars .



When I first saw these pictures I thought to myself , " Oh , look ! A picture of Tripoli somewhere ." I looked closer and realized it wasn't Tripoli at all , it was somewhere else . BUT it could have very easily have been since we do have pot holes even larger than these on some main roads that have a lot of heavy traffic on them . Scroll down to the last picture . You're gonna love this one ! Too bad we can't say our roads are like this too .



The make believe pot holes are moved from street to street often . They are used as speed bumps , to slow the traffic down . In Tripoli this would just be considered a minor inconvenience added to the list of bad road conditions faced daily .

Some Of This And That

Thought I would ask if any of you here in Libya have heard about the anthrax rumors going around ? Some one told me that the professors in the university was informed that there was a out break in the Ben Ghazi region of Libya . They were told NOT to buy or eat any mutton or lamb from Libya . That even though the sheep had been vaccinated , it was unsafe to eat them for the next six months .Then a different source was told not to worry about it , it wasn't a problem . Last night some one else told Moe that thirty sheep had to be slaughtered because they were found to have the hoof and mouth disease , which is a different name for anthrax . This was here in the Tripoli area . So , what with Eid Khabir ceremony coming up next month in which everyone here in Libya sacrifices a sheep , we need some concert information and get it out to the people to prevent a disaster . Of course no announcement has been forth coming from the news networks here , at least as far as I know . So, ... any info anyone ?

I am still so excited over Obama's win Tuesday .Still feeling optimistic for the future . Of course things will change once he is in office and facing the mess that's waiting for him .But for right now , this minute , I am so happy .Oh I forgot to mention to those of you that are interested , lol , that Moe woke up before me on Tuesday , turned on the TV to see how the election was going . Just as it was announced on TV that Obama was the next president , the calls for morning prayers were called out from the near by mosque . Now that is sooo cool !

I woke up late yesterday . The clock's battery was dead . This put me in a bad mood because I had a full day scheduled for myself and because I woke up late , that meant I was already behind schedule . I hate to feel rushed in the morning when I am trying to wake up . I am not a morning person anyway , so this just aggravates me even more .I walked into the living room with my coffee to discover MORE bad news . It had rained while I slept and I had missed it ! OH NO ! I have been waiting for rain for months now it seems and I MISSED IT ! That really depressed me . The weather people also had said it was gonna cool off and that hadn't happened , so more disappointment .

I got Moe to town for his gym date , went on to my luncheon feeling already frazzled by the time I got there . I had to battle my way across town in the Thursday traffic . Every idiot in Libya, and his MOTHER is driving on Thursday according to their own traffic laws .That translates to every person for their own selves .

My friends and I were sitting around talking , as women love to do , when we felt a slight breeze come in the window . Yeah ! At least something is stirring outside . A break from the oppressive weather . I wished it would rain again . Then as if God had read my mind , it starts to pour down raining . We rushed to the windows to watch the rain .Glorious rain .What a present !It didn't last long but long enough to please the senses and to settle the dust .

I went to bed early last night but woke up around 4 AM no longer sleepy . I watched some TV and then Moe got up too . So I fixed us both a early breakfast . After that I straightened up the house up before I made my way back to bed for a long nap .I had opened the house up for some fresh air since it had cooled off yesterday after the rain .As I was going around closing things back up , it began to rain again . I sat down to watched and listened to the rain .

This rain wasn't silent . It splattered , splashed , and pattered .The wind carried a earthly aroma , rich and wholesome . Made you think of fields abundant with crops waiting to be harvested .Dust was washed away and things began to sparkle with newness . I was so tempted to go out on the balcony to dance in the rain , but sanity won out sad to say . Now we have the feeling of autumn since it is cooler then even yesterday . I love it.

OMG ! I just now read up on anthrax and it has scared the you know what outta me ! Things are handled so lax here in Libya , that if there is anthrax here , we are in for some BIG trouble ! Did you know that anthrax is considered to be the sixth plague that will contribute toward destroying mankind as is mentioned in the Bible ? Read what Wikipedia has to say about anthrax and you will have nightmares .Ok , I have to go have a nervous break down now . Bye .