Thursday, August 28, 2014

Almost

Almost a Full Week of School!

Aug. 28: Here it is Thursday already and I have been lax this week. The boys have so far this week: given presentations in Business class, shoveled out 3 truckloads of rock for a neighborhood beautification service project, helped me make 11 quarts of chili starter, helped me make 16 pints of salsa (super hot to me, almost hot enough for them!), been to the doctor to flush out an ear (this tickled), been to the trainer for tendinitis (ouch), swam in gym class, attended a cross country meet, signed up for Key Club, and run a combined total of about 19 miles.
 

Monday, August 25, 2014

Yet Another Service Project!

Yet Another Service Project!

Aug. 24: The boys completed their trifecta of service projects today! Saturday was the community day, Sunday was the bleacher painting, and today was the rock hauling! We are working on a neighborhood beautification project, and they helped fill in a dry creek to channel flooding waters. Of course, it would be super hot now while they are doing all of this outside work!! That's OK- they have been drinking lots of water and are very good sports. Plus there was a little nap in there, too! We were surprised that they are bothered by the heat- isn't it hotter in Africa?- but we think it is actually the humidity that is bothering them. Jermaya's region gets 1 mm rain every 5 years. Yes, you read that right!!


Service Project Countdown: 95 hours to go!

The boys have also been working on the International Food Prize essay. This is a huge deal that they want to complete. It is due a week from today, and they have only been in the States a week or two! What teenager wouldn't be excited about writing an essay right off the bat, right? We have been impressed that they are willing to do this, as it is a very time-consuming project. Five students will be chosen to attend the conference in Des Moines later in November. If any of you out there remember Ndeenga, she went to this. It was very exciting, and the speakers were very good. If I remember correctly she  took part in the Kids Against Hunger project while she was up there. It is a fantastic experience, and we wish the boys the best of luck!



Sunday, August 24, 2014

Meet the Dancers

Meet the Dancers

Aug. 24: 1. So today started out like any other Sunday, with church.  The boys put in 2 more service hours painting the stadium bleachers. Yay! Jamo got all painty within 5 minutes so he failed to take any pictures. :( It was Alex's first time painting, so he got to do something new! 
2. After dinner, we played Sequence for family game night, then moved onto Sergeant Major, a simple trump and tricks game. Our goal is to teach the boys Euchre, but Alex had never played American cards before. They have cards in Nigeria, but they are very different, so we thought we better start out with the basics!


3. After we put the twins to bed, the boys started dancing for each other, and doing all of these tribal and native dances! Not sure how they got started on this, but it was so fun to watch them all! I love these kids!


Jermaya went into great detail explaining his dances for me. There are 4 basic cultures in Egypt. He learned about them in school. He learned about the dances doing different programs like Yes! and IRIS. The Nuba culture dances this one for celebrations. The boys face the girls. The Nubians live in southern Egypt, mostly.


This one is from Jermaya's culture, the culture of Saeed. These people are located from the middle to the southern part of Egypt. The men dance with a stick and do different moves. The women do shoulder wiggles and hip wiggles. It is called the Tahteeb dance.

In upper Egypt, they dance with fishing nets, since they are a fishing culture. They throw the pretend nets down and do all kinds of moves like gathering up the nets. They act like they have fish in the nets. The girls were acting like fish in the beginning!


Alex's dance is from the Nigerian Middle Bell. The native dance is called the Tiv Dance. It reminded me a little of ballet.


Jamo's dance is all about the fancy footwork. This can be done to any fast song, mostly hiphop.

The boys spent almost an hour demonstrating dances for each other, watching videos of dancers. Jermaya asked Jamo to do the moonwalk-he was impressed! Twerking somehow also came up. They watched it on a video, and Jamo said it was bad! :)

I was really impressed that they were communicating through dance! It was so cool to watch them and listen to them. They even let me take these pictures, even though they were a little shy about it.

 

Saturday, August 23, 2014

A Day of Many Firsts

A Day of Many Firsts!

Aug. 23: We started out the day by taking the recycling into GRRWA. The boys helped Jim unload the cardboard and plastics. We found out that recycling is very similar in Egypt and Nigeria. We also were able to drop off our dead stove, so Jim explained that process as well.


Since they were in town, Jim took the boys to see the Mighty Mississippi. We will have the corresponding geography lesson another day, when we visit the fort and traverse the world's largest swingspan bridge.




A few days ago I asked the boys what their goals were for their stay here in the States. Jermaya was adamant about wanting to do service hours. (As part of the requirement for IRIS, the students are to do 2 service hours per month.) He was very excited about doing service, and the goal he set for himself was 100 service hours while here in the States. He will earn an award from the State Department if he does manage to achieve this. Alex decided that he, too, wanted to try for this award. So, Jim got the boys signed up for Key Club and today we started out the day with a trip into Fort Madison to attend the Riverview Games. The boys first participated in an attempt at setting the world record for the largest human chain hula hoop pass. Very cool, even if we didn't make it! Then, Jermaya timed the children running the obstacle course, and Alex repaired the course as needed. Yay! 2 hours down, 98 to go!


After lunch the boys all helped me do the weeding while Jim mowed the lawn. Jermaya actually enjoyed himself and was very proud of the huge clump of grass in his picture. Alex is used to weeding, as he does it all the time at home, especially during the holidays. It was pretty funny, because we thought he said "holy days" at first, and we all looked at each other like what in the world??? Jameson, as you can see by his picture, would rather be doing just about anything!





Then, we went swimming and boating on our lake. It was the first time paddle boating for the boys, and they had a lot of fun! 



The boys do not know how to swim, and are currently taking swimming lessons in gym class (thank you, FMHS!). Here, Jermaya is trying to teach Alex how to float. He was a very patient instructor! Jermaya was also an expert floater!



After we all got showered up, Alex began the preparation of his typical Nigerian meal: stew! We had fresh tomatoes and onions from the garden, and added some jalepenos.

Step 1- Slicing the veggies before putting them in the blender.

Step 2- bringing the sauce to a boil.

Last Step- serve and enjoy over rice!


Nigerian Stew

6 large tomatoes                           1 medium onion
1 hot pepper                                  5 T oil
3/4 t curry                                    1 t Lawry’s
2 t sugar

Slice or chop all ingredients and put in blender. Bring to a boil and boil until thickened and pasty (about an hour). Add oil & stir. Add spices. Serve on rice with steak and salad.


We topped our day off with four more ice bucket challenges and watching "The Phantom of the Opera".


Introduction

They're Here!!!

August 17, 2014: We finally have both of our boys! We were all very excited to meet each other for the first time. We talked most of the 3 hour drive home, and talked about agriculture. We compared our bean and corn crops to those in Africa. We ordered pizza for supper and played Frisbee afterwards. Check off 2 American activities!

Meet Our Family


Back Row: Peyton (22, Lynney's boyfriend), Lynney (21, Senior at Iowa State, History major), Alexander (16, Junior at FMHS), Kayley (19, Sophomore at Iowa State, Dietetics major), Jameson (16, Junior at FMHS), and Jermaya (16, Junior at FMHS).
Front Row: Karley (7, 1st Grade at Richardson), and Kaydey (7, 1st Grade at Richardson).

The International Triplets

Alex is from Nigeria, Jameson is from the States, and Jermaya is from Egypt.

Purpose of the Blog

We are constantly learning new things from our students. This blog is an effort to share what we have learned with others, while making information and photos available to IRIS as well. It is fascinating to hear about different cultures, and to actually live with them is amazing. We want to share with you their accomplishments as teenagers living in a different world. This blog is "a day in the life of" as well as a format for comparing and contrasting the 3 cultures. Please enjoy it and please leave your feedback! We will periodically be posting interesting questions for all 3 boys to answer, so if you have a question, please let us know!

Aug. 11: (Alex came the 10th) Jim took Alex to get a sports physical so he could participate in cross country. He is eager to run with the team.

Aug. 12: First day of cross country practice for Alex. He ran 3 miles and was pretty tired when he got home. We are so proud of him for participating in this grueling sport! Go, Alex!

Aug. 15: We had a fire and went fishing and made S'Mores. Alex had his first S'More! He liked them so much he had another one. He also LOVED fishing and would have stayed out for hours if it hadn't been so dark.


Aug. 19: We went to church and met the congregation, then took the boys to the high school. They were expressing a little nervousness about finding classes. We split up and took the boys on a tour and walked through their schedules for them, so they would be able to find their rooms. We showed them what to do about lunch and explained the lunch account. They felt much better about school after that! We ate lunch at home and then went off to shop for clothes! The boys came with only a few things, so we need to get the wardrobes ASAP! First stop was Goodwill, where we purchased several pairs of dress shorts and running shorts as well as T-shirts and polos for both boys. Next was Wal-Mart, where we picked up some unders, socks, and jeans. We finished up at Kohls, where we found running shoes! It was a time-consuming affair, but the boys really enjoyed it. They were good bargain shoppers, too! We watched a movie while we ate supper of popcorn, cheese, crackers, & fruit, which is a family tradition on Sunday nights.

Aug. 20: The first day of school! Of course, I had to take pictures of all of the kids. I think they thought I was a little weird, but I explained that it is an American tradition to take pictures every year on the first day.
The boys were troupers, and survived the very hot classrooms with no air conditioning. Alex's favorite class is English, Jermaya's is Business Foundations, and Jamo's is Business Law. 




Aug. 21: Jermaya accepted the Ice Bucket Challenge, to help raise money for ALS. We are so proud of him! I promised Jamo and Alex I would call them chicken on the blog if they did not participate. Alex=chicken, Jamo= chicken. I keep my promises! 

We went to our organic garden and I showed the boys how to pick tomatoes, broccoli, and cauliflower. They were amazed at the size of our tomatoes! Alex said their tomatoes are much smaller, about an inch or 2 in diameter. Jermaya said Egyptian tomatoes are more like the size of your fist. Wow! I had to admit that these tomatoes are monsters, even for us :).




Aug. 22: Jermaya challenged Jamo, so he and Kaleb got soaked! The boys had a great first week of school!