the roller coaster of life

Living here is so crazy. Some days are just fantastic and other days my heart is so heavy. I don't feel like I have inbetween days at all....makes me feel a bit bipolar some days.

This week, our dog died. Not only did he die, but we figure he was poisoned by our neighbors. They kept tossing food over the wall to where our dog is and a day later, the dog started foaming at the mouth and vomiting. The next day he was dead. I cried. Our dog was great. He was the best dog I've ever seen here in Afghanistan. We have had dogs before but they've always been a little mean and scrappy. This one was gentle and playful and was great with the kids. I have no idea why they poisoned the dog...if he barked too much or if it was something against us because we believe differently. Either way, it makes me sad.
Here's a picture of the dog. His name was Tozik (a Russian name, named by our Uzbek family).



This week I'm also saddened by some more stories I've heard from the women's prison. Some of my co-workers go there every week. I'm not able to go most times because my work doesn't let me. But, this week one of my co-workers was telling me about a woman who was put in there. She was engaged to one man (which was arranged by her family) but she was in love with another man. She was going to marry the man she was engaged to because it would bring shame to her family otherwise, but she didn't love him; she loved this other man. Because she could not love him, she was sent to prison, probably by her family. Aghhhhhh!!! There is so much injustice here. They also told us that the police who patrol the street there saw that there were many beautiful women coming into the prison so at night they come in and "use" them like prostitutes. I cried last night when I heard about that. I can't imagine how heavy God's heart is for this place when he sees all of this going on. This place so desperately needs your prayers. Some days I feel like coming here was like coming to a crowd of thousands who are dying of thirst and I have one small cup of water in my hand. I can give them that water, but there is so many around me who are still thirsting.

So, yeah, depressing post, but maybe people can understand why the ups and downs here. and keep praying!!!