on dhaish

dhaish means baby donkey in arabic. we have a baby donkey. her name is matilda. if you have never before seen a baby donkey in person, you should make a serious effort to. they are the most precious, awkward, leggy little animals you will ever see. fuzzy ears as long as their face, which is two times too big for their body, hair cropped just above the eyes that dives into a wild mane, and the longest, skinniest legs that end in miniature hooves they tiptoe around on all day. clip clop clip clop clop. amazing.

matilda is still bottle feeding, and we need to find her mother soon. she needs a LOT of food. aziz found her wandering the streets after dark, and rescued her - we put in a declaration at the local government in case anyone notices their adorable donkey is no longer with them. but it is a joy to have her with us for the meantime - kicking around the yard, forcing out her little heehaw. wish you could see her in person!

on progress

we have had quite a productive may, despite the majority of it being filled with rain. some of the things that have taken up our time include building a second bathroom on the roof,

finishing the roof walls with cement,

working in the garden,

painting the outside of the house,

and fixing up some cute second hand tables to accommodate guests.the bed and breakfast is starting to get to the final stages, which is really exciting for us, having invested a lot of time and effort into making it profitable. i posted some pictures of recent developments....don’t judge the house color. basically the paint we use is like white wash (i think) - it starts out as rocks, that you add water to, it heats up, melts, and then you stir it up and paint. kind of scary. you can add color to it if you want, and then you slap it on the walls with no rhyme or reason, and after it dries, it actually looks pretty decent. the only problem with adding color, like i wanted to, is that when you mix it it looks really dark, and when you first put it on the walls, it looks really dark, and then after it dries, it is about ten shades lighter. so you think that you have mixed up a nice dark gray, and then in the morning you find off-white. so....the colors that i mixed were supposed to be a dark blue gray (which turned out fairly close) and a dark rust color (which turned pink). so instead of a bed and breakfast, it kind of looks like we are running a daycare. i am trying to be patient with it until next year, when we will probably have to repaint it because the elements are not so kind to whitewash. i am pretending it is tan with a pink tint. anyway, at least the paint makes the house look cleaner, and finished. so that’s that! more updates to come later - hope you are enjoying the start of your summer!