Spring picnic

In a world lived behind walls, under a veil and hiding from the darting eyes of the crowd, freedom is something that can be a rare experience. A woman's life is all about hiding, not standing out. But then Friday rolls around and the entire city bursts out of the walls into their cars and taxis and drives away from the city to enjoy the beauty of the rugged landscape. The time is limited...if you don't go now the scorching summer sun will beat you there, rendering the landscape brown and you wasted by the heat.

But springtime means hills are green, the weather is cooler and people are ready to get out after having tons of relatives staying for the new year.

So, this last weekend, me, some teammates and my staff headed out to the green hills in the shadow of the craggy mountains. We were in an area that was heavily trafficked by fighting about 8 years ago. Now, thankfully, the mines have been cleared and the tanks have rolled out, leaving just overgrown memories of tragic days.

I love days like these, when I have the freedom to be outside the wall, without staring eyes, the sun shining down (not beating down) and the wind blowing. I can let my scarf slip a little to my shoulders and I can race my teammates up the foothills and toss a frisbee around and play soccer to my hearts content. I was so at peace. I wish I could get out like this more often. I also wish I would not have taken my time in Colorado so much for granted and gotten out hiking and skiing more. So, I hiked until my calves were stiff and ran around until I was out of breath and took advantage of the beauty of a day of freedom, out in the hills.


Riding donkeys


The beautiful scenery


The ladies

A bit of the language learning process

Believe it or not, it has been a whole month since I left American soil! Returning to this place has been quite the adventure with it’s ups and downs. It’s a good thing I like life to have a bit of advenutre and the unexpected, because that’s what I get every day.

But, in the process of getting settled in here and back into life, I have started up with language lessons again a few days a week. I’m very conversant in my language but I’m finding that I tend to use the same words and grammar structures over and over to make my point. People understand me, but I was getting in a rut. Thankfully, we are connected with a woman who is an amazing teacher, and I’ve been working with her. She doesn’t let one object marker or one mis-conjugated verb slip by. Frustrating sometimes, but so helpful!

So, yesterday we met again and rather than just go into sentences and the picture story we have been working through, she spent some time telling me about the customs here surrounding New Years. Many of them I was familiar with but there were some things, like the things that they do at home that I hadn’t heard much about. So, there I was listening (and feeling pretty proud of myself that I was picking up probably 80-90% of what she was saying) and asking questions.

Then she tells me about what happens at home the night before New Years day here. The young children will put henna on their hands and wrap cloth around it overnight so that it sets in really nice and dark. They then wake up early, pull of the cloth and run around showing everyone how beautiful their hands are (My opinion is still to be decided on that….I love henna if it’s the decorative and intricate designs, but here also, they just cover their entire palm in it…so their skin is a brownish/orange. They think it’s beautiful…often I just think it’s, well, orange.)

Then my teacher tells me that they spread out the dasterkhan which is a giant tablecloth put on the floor for eating. Then she tells me that they fill it with things that have seen in them (not the english word seen but a word here pronounced the same way). Now I was wracking my brain to try to remember the word seen. I didn’t know this word. So, I kept listening to her story to figure out if I could pick up the meaning. She gave me some examples and then continued on telling me the whole family sits around these things, and they are really good things and they pray for the New Year together that God would bless it, that they would have health, etc. Now, my training from Wheaton was kicking in and I was thinking, well, this sounds a bit like folk religions, and I bet seen maybe means something like a magic power, or something that has strong characteristics to it. I wrote these notes in my language notebook and made a mental note to check with a local teammate of mine.

My language lesson ended and I went to talk to my teammate about it, thinking I’d hit on some deep meaningful thing in the culture. As I told him the story he said, “oh yeah. Seen…as in the letter S. They are all things that start with the letter S.” Sure enough I looked over my list of things she mentioned: sabzi, safed, somoloq, etc. Not the deep spiritual meaning I was thinking for sure! But my next question is, “why? Is there a meaning behind it, or just a tradition?” I’ll have to find out and get back to you. (although, I’ve figured out “why?” is a frustrating question to ask here because you usually don’t get an answer, or not an answer that seems conclusive!)

New Years is coming!

I took a couple pictures while I was out and about in town this week. The streets are more full of people than normal, both from the warmer weather (it was up to 80F this last week!) as well as preparations for the New Year festivities which will happen a week from now. The city is full of energy, they are beautifying everything and planting tons of trees and flowers, repaving the streets, and I keep waking up to the sounds of my neighbors beating the dust out of their rugs and cushions outside every morning.

Myself, I'm also expectant of the year to come. There is lots of energy here, lots of expectation and lots of anticipation for what this year is bringing. I know that I too have to do a little house-cleaning, some preparing and some time just sitting with Him.

What a wild two weeks!

It has been quite the whirlwind being back here these last two weeks. I feel like I've been here for a few months with all that's been going on! About a week after I was here one of the short-term team members ended up having to be brought into the military hospital because he had a seizure in our bathroom. It was an incredibly scary day and one of my worst fears as a team leader was realized.

However, the peace of God was upon all of us as we sprang into action and got on our knees. The photo above was the day that the student was released from the hospital. (the sign says welcome back). He's currently on his way out of the country to get further care. We were very sad to see their team leave.

This is a new season here. I'm realizing how much more my focus is on equipping the team and getting ready for our school in May. I am enjoying it in that a lot of my giftings in the area of leadership and teaching are going to be used, but I really miss having as much time with the local people as I did before. I am hoping to get some visiting time in this week as I've been in the house having meetings all day the last few days.