Houston, Saudi Arabia, Austin....cowboy?!

One of the highlights of our trip to Houston was meeting up with a couple of Hilary's students from the summer, Ibraheem and Yahya. It was such a fun evening. They made us a traditional Arabic dinner, followed by some traditional Arabic dancing. It was such a wonderful evening. These guys were so sweet and so generous.

Here is a picture of Hussain, he was a quite the character! He would come out of the bedroom each time with a different hat on!
He had two different cowboy hats and also a Davy Crockett hat!!
He was hilarious! He made the Kabsa. (the dish we ate for dinner)
So here he is with his Arabic robe, his cowboy hat, drinking his tea!!

They also treated us to some cake! Before the meal!

Here is the Kabsa. The traditional way of eating it is on the floor. They set up a rug with plastic laid down and they bring out the meal and set it on the floor. You eat on the floor and you use your hands! It was a mixture of rice, chicken and vegetables. It was very good! And it was fun to use your hands, no utensils!

Here we are eating with Ibraheem. I made a mess!

This is Abdul, he was so funny! We had the same hair!!

Yahya and Ibraheem. (the cowboy hat got passed around during the dance!)

At the end of the night they wanted me to sing them a song! So Hilary and I got to sing "Amazing Grace", "Faithful" and "I Cannot Hide My Love". They all got their cell phones out to record us singing! It was funny!
Then they sang a couple of songs to us! It was so precious!
Just before we left they gave us each a rose. They are so sweet!

It was fun to meet new friends, eat new food and learn a new dance! These memories I will cherish!