Goin' Campin'

I went camping in the desert this weekend and had a blast. The highlight of my weekend, shallow or not, was the fact that one of the people had found a case of Mountain Dew in a small local shop!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Can you feel the excitement!?!?!) You don't just find that kind of thing here. I also bonded with a few more people which was fun. One of those people was a little girl, about 3 years old, who is girly, loves pink, and likes to wear fun sunglasses- we had fun together :-)

We camped in the middle of the desert, very rustic (if ya know what I mean). In the middle of the desert there are these huge piles of rocks and boulders. The people here call them mountains but if you saw them you'd realize why that is funny. We usually camp in the horseshoe area of one of these formations to block some of the wind at night and give us some shade as the sun goes down. The rocks are fun to climb up and play on though I am extremely sore tonight. We sat around the fire last night and talked and sang, good fun. Then sleeping under the stars was incredible! It's the 2nd time I've done that in the desert and though I don't get much sleep because it's really not all that comfortable, the view is amazing! I can't even tell you how many shooting stars we saw.

Today most of us went on the to pyramids. It's fun to see them because it's an amazing thing to see, but once you've been there and seen it there's not much new to see. The road trip both yesterday and today was so much better than last year. Instead of being in the back of this huge truck with open windows and heat and battering wind we rode in vehicles with A/C. This small change made all the difference! Our friend who drove the van I was in was hilarious- he was constantly making jokes with the guys at the checkpoints (which of course they didn't get) and I was trying hard not to laugh so loud. We also saw 2 huge random trucks full of camels....interesting...

We only have one day of school this week- tomorrow. It's the end of Ramadaan so we have a holiday for most of the week which I am pretty excited about. I had hoped to travel outside the city to a friend's family home but that isn't going to work out. So I will be staying in the city and visiting and hanging out with friends here, and resting of course.

Nothing else new to report really- Hope you all have a wonderful week!

An interesting bus ride...

So, today is Saturday- my day of rest/ day to talk to my family/ day to get things done.

Today on the list of things to do was:

-go to the money exchange place (I was literally down to almost no money in this currency)
-get laundry done
-work out
-go gorcery shopping for our flat (apartment)
-get a little work done
-talk to my family
-rest

So far I have done everything except talk to my family and my laundry is almost done, a pretty productive day I'd say.

Earlier today I went out to run the errands above. I started with the exchange place and that went really well. First of all, it was not AS hot as it normally is when I left at about 1 pm to walk there. Second, the guy at the place was extremely nice and spoke English...though I still tried out my broken Arabic. Anyways, I walked away with small bills rather than big bills which they normally don't give you :-).

Next up was the grocery store. I had to go to one of the more western stores because we were both out of laundry detergent and toilet paper, two very important things in our lives here. I left the exchange place and walked to the main road. Right away I caught a bus, rarely does this happen, and was on my way. I also had exact change for the bus fare, I was excited about this as it is also rare. I snapped my fingers and got off the bus at the supermarket and did my shopping, though the store didn't have half the things on my list...go figure, haha. I did get the laundry soap, a huge 9 kilo bag of Tide to carry all the way home, and the toilet paper.

After I paid and had to explain to the store owner that I had to carry the huge bags because I don't have a car he let me leave. Again, I walked out and right away caught a bus which made me very happy. This bus though was very full and I had to get all the way to the last seat in the back. I think I hit every person on the bus with my huge sack of Tide. As I sat down I apologized to the people next to me as I was grabbing my bags that were in their laps. The man next to me told me to "Take it easy" in English- I have to say, I just about fell on the floor laughing at that but I kept my composure.

Now it was time to pay my bus fare as the money man was snapping his fingers in my face, this time I did not have exact change. I couldn't reach to hand him the money though so the man next to me was nice enough to take it and pay for me. But he paid with his own money and handed my money back to me. I wasn't sure what to make of this at first. Then the money man was still snapping his fingers at me wanting money, though the man next to me had paid for me already. The man next to me told me not to pay and started arguing with the money man saying he had paid enough. They got into an all out shouting match as we kept on driving down the road. The money man wanted me to pay a higher fare because I was a white foreigner and the man next to me was not about to have that happen. It was nice to have him stand up for me but by this time the WHOLE full bus is staring at me...just a little embarassing. Somehow they settled the argument and I thanked the man though he still looked incredibly disgusted at the interchange. I have to say, I have gotten used to being treated that way on the buses and by people because really there is nothing I can do about it. But it's nice that for once I had someone stick up for me.

Now it's off to finish my list of things to do before the day is done ;-)

Elastic and Growing Pains

I'm realizing more and more how God is so mighty to save. I am also seeing how important working as a team really is. One person cannot do something on their own, especially of their own strength. But it is the teamwork that is put in and the foundation that is laid even years in advance. When fruit finally grows you can trace back all the way to when the seed was planted and just stand amazed at the teamwork that came together to bring forth the fruit. I saw evidence of this just this morning and it literally moved me to tears. It never seizes to amaze me how when you are least expecting it you see things in a new light and suddenly something you maybe didn't understand before is made crystal clear.

This year has been more difficult and challenging than last but I realize that I am growing and being stretched. I think back to my childhood and even to my younger brother growing up and know that growing pains hurt but in the end are worth it because you end up only bigger and stronger. Likewise, when you first start stretching it hurts until you stretch more and more and become more flexible. This is what is happening to my spiritual body right now and I am waiting for the day that I am stronger but I know that I don't want to ever stop growing.

Broken Glass

The title of this blog symbolizes several things actually- both light hearted and more heavy. I will start with the more heavy.

Since I have been back this year things seem to be a lot harder for me. Last year, looking back at least, seems like a piece of cake or a walk in the park. Though I did have tough times last year it's nothing compared with those of this year and I haven't even been back a month yet, ha! Really, I believe that God is breaking me down. I am learning that I have to be broken so that the master potter can mold me and fix me to be a better vessel for Him. My mindset coming back this year was that it was going to be a bigger and better year. I was all set coming back with more of the comforts of home and knowing better what I needed here...or so I thought. I think that I didn't prepare as well as I should have spiritually to come back here. When you leave a place for a few months you forget some things, usually the bad, and when you get back they creep up on you. I have been learning just how much I need to lean on and fully rely on God to be my strength because I cannot do anything without Him. When I try to do something of my on will or my own strength I only fail and fail miserably. It's kind of funny, in an ironic way, that in order to see these things and how much you really can't do anything good apart from God you have to be broken first. These revelations never seem to come when you are in your "mountain top" state, only in the valleys- go figure ;-)

On a little bit lighter of a note I was in a car accident last night. One of my friends came to pick me up and I was with some of my American friends on the way to another American's home for a night of fun and just chilling out. We were almost to their home, sitting at a red traffic light, when all of the sudden BOOM! A huge bus slams us from behind. Mind you, we were sitting still and this bus hits us full on. Praise God we were the first car in line at the traffic light because I think we slid about 10 feet from where we were. I'm also praising God because other than my back being a little sore last night no one was hurt and the car had an extended back (like a station wagon) so the glass from the back windshield didn't hit my friend and I in the back seat. The car is still drivable, though the entire back windshield is gone and the back is quite dinged. There were only 4 of us in the car and another friend on the way to the same place stopped as she was driving by and took 2 of us on to the house. The other 2, my friend who was driving and another, stayed to wait with the bus driver for the police- who by the way we didn't not have a number for. They ended up having to go to the police station to write up the report and the bus driver had no insurance. Apparently that's illegal here too so he was put in jail and my friend got her report. We're praying her insurance can cover the damages since he didn't have any.

Other than that, nothing too exciting has happened here, haha. Still in full swing with school. This Thursday is a teacher work day so no students. I have been able to visit with a few friends since I have been back but there are still a few friends that I haven't gotten to see yet. They had basketball tryouts at school for both the boys and the girls. There are two separate teams for each dividing them by ages so this is the younger group of kids, the older ones will try out after Raamadan (September). I'm glad because that means more of them will get to play this year. I'm excited to see them progress as they learn the game and get to compete.

That's all for now!