Homestay

Before I get to the details about the special celebration in my host village, I want to tell you guys a little about the new things that I am becoming accustomed to.
We have mint tea everyday...with TONS of sugar. At my homestay I had it everyday with my family right before dinner at 9:30pm.
I have also been getting used to the greetings here. there are a serious of questions and handshakes and hand kissing. Usually its just a handshake and then you touch your hand to your chest as a way of saying that the person is now close to your heart.
There are a lot of ritual like activities when it comes to greetings. for example, we're supposed to start greeting from the right and then move around to the others. The tea drinking also has its share of rituals. They always pour out one cup and then pour it back in and then finally pour out all cups.
We always sit on the ground when we eat and people almost always eat with their hands...usually just the right hand.
Hashak(excuse me) for mentioning this but i've also been getting used to the turkish toilet!!! I'm sure you guys all know that its essentially a hole in the ground. They also have these public bath houses which i have yet to go to.
A lot of these things I experienced for the first time once at my homestay and out of the "luxury" of our current lodgings. I was also able to attend a celebration called Sadaqa. They had this celebration because a guy had been sick in the hospital for about a month, and was now better so he had returned home. It was a two day celebration where the women of the village were invited to a feast on the first day and the men on the day after. I went with my host mom and my host sister. There were about 60-70 women sitting in a courtyard just completely relaxed and socializing with everyone around them. Some women brought out tea various times so we were all able to have tea and cookies a couple times. then a younger girl came around and sprayed us all with perfume. while this was happening, some other older women brought out a metal container with hot coals and took it around to the married women. the married women then stood over it, not on it, so the the smoke would go up into their skirts. once this was over they brought out little tables and large trays of couscous. after this meal i went back home with the women from my host family. this experience has thus far been the most surreal that i have had.
hopefully ill have many more

right now im in the desert in the south of the country
a few of us were just on a few hours long taxi ride to come to our fieldtrip here
i think the heat of the place might be worth it if anything just for the amazing scenery on the ride out here
there were some curvy roads through the mountains and desert that felt like being in a kiarostami film
there were also some amazing palm groves in the middle of nowhere
well time to go explore the area
bslama