celebrating Life everlasting

i was excited to celebrate R-day and decided to make up another round of sweets to hand out to friends in honor of this special day. i found a couple of recipes i wanted to try and both turned out pretty well i think. here are the lemony sugar cookies i made and i also made some cocoa-chocolate chip merengues (not pictured). i think they went over pretty well.

so, our Int'l fellowship had a sunrise service at the local Roman ruins. it was so beautiful and really neat. it felt like a scene or two out of the film, Pride & Prejudice. it was really neat to see the sunrise and sing together. mmmm. i also got to share a little about my story later that day with the group. that was a really great experience, too.

i was really excited as earlier that week i went to a friend's house and she gave me this gift bag full of goodies you see pictured here. i was so excited to get the bunny as it felt like an E basket! it is also funny to say that i got a set of unmentionables and some exciting perfume as well in the bag. i just love NA'cans:)

we were asked to bring flowers with us on E morning in order to put them on the cross to celebrate new Life. i had picked out the bouquet to the left and after i told the guys at the flower place why i was buying them, one guy insisted on giving me a "gift" bouquet you see there to the right. it was cool. a very beautiful day indeed.

later that day i got to spend the afternoon with a very fabulous NA friend. it was so great to see her as i hadn't seen her in quite some time. she is a gal that i met like my first month here, so it has been so amazing to get to the point to be able to communicate much, much better with her. and i just really appreciate that she makes a concious effort, i know, to speak slower and to even use words that i know:)

so, needless to say, this day celebrating new Life was an incredible one. wow. yeah.

march into april

so, i got to experience a weekend like i never have before. growing up, i didn't participate in youth stuff really, so it was a really neat opportunity for me to get to hang out with some youth from our Int'l fellowship here. i think the kids had a great time and it was fun to have this weekend to build a relationship with them that will continue to grow. here is just one moment from the weekend below. i chose this photo as i feel like it captured a lot of movement as that was something that was happening all through-out the weekend: these kids love to have fun! we did some good times of study, chatting, a scavenger hunt around the old city here (which they did an incredible job at), ate well, and just spent time getting to know one another better. cool.

so, later i had the great opp to go back and visit this beautiful city here in NA. i went to this place back in 2005 when i was here before and was curious of how it would play out this time as now i am able to communicate and exist here. i went with a new friend and we enjoyed taking a fun day-trip there. above is the cistern in the old city. it was more magnificent than i remembered. there was this great layer of water to provide for some really beautiful shots. wow! totally amazing.

we had a great day of mozying around this small vacay spot and timed it just right as we went during pre-tourist season. it was beautiful to walk about the ramparts and take in the breeze. it was definitely a great day away from the big city. one thing that was really cool though: was that i totally had many opps to practice my language. it was cool to be able to be there and communicate with people. i felt like it was a great trip to sorta come to a peace about my trip here in 2005. check out the great view here to the left.

so, going to this city also provided for amazing seafood! we were excited to grub down on all this deliciousness. we had sole, calamari, sardines, shrimp, scallops, and our favorite: eel! yes, the eel was amazing, with great flavor and so much meat suprisingly.

we also had this great spread of veggies. yummy!

so, yeah. it was a really neat day to be somewhere else and just explore. like i mentioned a little before: it was cool to be able to kind of see how far i have come in the last several years. i guess we are always growing and moving and developing. thankfully.

thanks for trekking with me and i hope you had a great March into April, too.

more of march

so, i went to go grab some shoes from under my bed and noticed that they had mold/mildew on them. oh, i was suprised, but not terribly actually cause i figured that my long-lasting "cold" probably had something to do with some type of allergy or reaction to something in the house since my symptoms cleared up even while i was on the plane home. so, i did a complete cleaning of the underside of the bed frame and found all kinds of funk under there and even between my matress and the boards on the frame. i let the bed sit out on the balcony for a while to get a sun cleaning. i was so happy to find the culprit of my sickness! i have recently started to have some cold-ish symptoms and checked my bed today and there isn't anything under there or in the mattress. i think the massive amounts of rain helped with all the funk thriving...it was just so wet this winter.

and then i got introduced to these lovely things: navajo tacos. oh my. a gal that used to live here came in for a visit and wanted to make dinner for us one night and now i know why the others here wanted these so bad. they were darn good!

while walking around with the spring breakers we went up to a lighthouse here. i hadn't been over there yet, so it was neat to check it out. pretty.


so, history was made this last month when i ate my first omelet ever. strange things happen when you live in another country:) my roommate was gracious enough to make this yummy creation for me.

it was good, but not sure if i would order them all the time. i am still a big fan of hard-boiled eggs now though.

this is another one of those laughable moments that come along in living here. we were walking around downtown and came upon this man that decided to take a dip in the big fountain there. it was quite funny. it attracted some attention. when we walked by again later he was no longer in there. not sure if he left voluntarily or not.

fun!

march was great. it was crazy to come back and feel like my trip to the States was like a dream or something. thankfully the weather has been really nice since then, so i am really happy to leave the rainy winter behind.

spring break visitors

so, the rest of march was quite full here. we had some students in town to visit during their spring break. it was fun for sure to have them. i love being able to take people around the city cause i end up learning something (many things) new, too. so, here are some photos of our adventures around the city:

here, i got to help them shop in the market. we try to go back to the same vendors as to build a relationship with them and give them business. i have gone to this scarf store ever since i got here. many of you have gotten scarves from this very place. this day the owner gave us all these knitted hats as gifts. it was really neat.

here's the crew with the tower in the background. i really enjoyed spending time with these guys. it was fun to mindfully walk the city. they were always ready for an adventure:)

we had breakfast here one day and these ladies were great. their pastries are really good and totally cheap! this is right in the m'dina from my house. we even got fresh squeezed OJ from here, too. i think for all five of us it was maybe $4 or $5 for our pastries and OJ. yummy!

as i said in the beginning...it is fun to have groups in to visit cause it helps you see the city in different ways than maybe i would see it. like getting asked questions that i may not think of or even go into parts that i wouldn't necessarily walk around in by myself. it is cool, cause you come upon great photos like this one with this man and his little gal.

so, this is like my favorite shot from our city. and thankfully i can go and see this view as often as i want as it is only a 10 minute walk from the apartment. awh.

while they were here, i know they walked at least 20 miles as they checked out our city! it was so fun and such a treat to have them. i actually didn't take these pictures (except for their group pic), but was there for each one of them. one gal is a great photographer, so we let her take all the photos:)

mama, i'm comin' home...

so, my journey home was quite the treat. i am really thankful that i even had the opp to go and be with friends and family for a quick two weeks. of course the time flew by, but i have to say that every minute and each hug was precious to me. so, the first photo may need an explanation, aye? during my trip home i encountered about as many delays as was possible. i had never really experienced delays before, so maybe statistically my time had come. the photo is a great illustration of how i felt when i arrived to the hotel i would be staying at on the grounds of Charles de Gaulle airport, instead of sleeping happily at my mother's home. my flight leaving NA was delayed and this caused me to miss my flight from Paris to Atlanta. so, i was told i would be staying the night. thankfully the good people at Air France put me up and gave me food money for this inconvenience. and thankfully there was free wifi, so i could call my family to let them know i would not be on the evening flight i was supposed to be on. well, the delays continued as my Paris to Cincinatti flight was delayed and then caused me to miss any possible flight to NWA that day, so I, again, got put up by Delta and was given food money. i finally got home on the morning of day three of my travels and was oh so happy to see my family. my sister and mom met me at the airport and my mom was sobbing. it was just so great to see them and hug them. i was able to travel to MH to see my dad and bonnie as well, which ended up being a quick trip since i arrived two days late, but it was great to be in MH. i was totally suprised by the damage from the ice storm. it was really bizarre. and then i was back to NWA to hang out with my mom and talk with a couple of groups. then it was off to down south...

i was really excited to be invited to share a little bit about where i live in NA with a preschool that an HSU/BCM alum now teaches at. below you can see me trying on my caftan for the kiddos. they were hilarious in the questions they asked and of course the gals got to try on the vest and belt and the guys tried on the belt. i was also able to share some of the delicious cookies that my NA friend and i made before i left. not every kid liked them, but at least they tried, right?
and then it was onto some serious visiting with friends! i was delighted to spend my first night down south with a small group of peeps and then the next day the floodgates opened with students, old roommates, great friends, and even my family all gathering together. it was a really special time and just so fun. above are some fun shots of me with Emma (who is growing, growing, growing and will always be seven years old in my mind) and me with Jessica and Zena. wow, what a time to just bask in His goodness and provision. i am so thankful for each everyone of you i got to see while at home. thanks for coming by, driving miles, and even flying in to hang out. what a joy! below you can see the partial crew from down south dining out at a fabulous BBQ place. they didn't even hardly blink twice when are huge group came in and the service and food was incredible. sweet! here is one of the displays i set up over the course of my time at home. i spoke at least ten times and each time was different it felt like. i don't think of myself as a speaker so much, so i learned a lot about how each crowd affects the dynamic. i really enjoyed giving folks a visual of NA through each table i got to set up. my mom was with me just about the entire time of my trip and got to be a pro at setting up the table and tearing it down at each place. i am really thankful for all of her help. in the conical dish are the two cookies that my NA friend and i made (fakkas and shebakia) and then to try and give people an idea of the mint flavoring of the tea that is a lifeline here, i filled the tea pot and glasses with spearmints. it worked out really well i think.

here is a shot with some great ladies! this was after a very successful henna party back up in NWA. we had at least 20 gals there and it was really cool to answer questions about life here in NA. they really liked the mint tea we made and they seemed to enjoy the cookies that my NA friend and i made to take with me to the States. i really had a great time with the folks up in NWA and am so thankful that they invited me back.

and then the final farewell came once again. of course a lot of other things happened along the way during this trip and if you are interested in seeing more photos, please leave a comment or email me and i will send you a link (or links) to photo albums i have hosted online.
i have to say that this goodbye was a little harder than i had expected. it didn't really click until right before i walked through security, so at least it wasn't a feeling i had the whole time. i really loved, loved, loved seeing my family. people asked me while i was home, what's maybe one big thing that i have learned since moving to NA and i would have to say the importance of family. people here in NA do a good job of keeping a tight-knit community and i have to say that it can have its downside, but i have realized that my family is truly important. i hope that doesn't sound like i didn't they were important before, i guess i just am not so convinced of the so-called independence that westernized places can pride themselves on. i guess i am learning that a family, is a family, is a family. and here you can see my beautiful family!