As it gets hotter here, life still goes on just a bit slower. Fans are used at night and we don’t spend a lot of time outdoors in the afternoon. Noel is still busy flying and leaves most days at 4:30 in the morning so they can get to their destinations and back while it is still relatively cooler. Our tea drinking has shifted from hot to cold. We are enjoying experimenting with different kinds of teas. My favorite is a mint tea with a little lemon while Noel prefers a fruit tea that has two or three different kinds of fruit juices in it.
I am enjoying my English conversation class with 4 Afghan ladies. This past week we finished watching the Sound of Music. They actually said they understood it better than the more modern movies. It was fun to watch the movie through their eyes as they got misty eyed during the sad moments and then toward the end were on the edge of their seats as the Von Trapp family made their escape. We talked about words like naive and miserable. We discussed why the Von Trapps had to flee Austria. This week we will continue talking about the movie and many other things.
On Monday, Winter had three of her girl classmates over. They spent all day working on completing visa applications for The Emerging Leaders Conference they are attending in the Fall. It was a pretty lengthy process with a break for lunch and some dancing to Afghan music when they were done. Pray that the girls will get their visas. We will be scheduling their appointments in the next few weeks.
On Tuesday, my previous plans were changed so a former student came over for some help finding a job. I have no experience finding a job here but someone gave me some websites we could look at. We found a couple of possibilities. Now she just has to finalize her CV and get her cover letters complete. Hopefully this week we will get her applications in and she can get an interview. She is trying to earn some money for her family while she is waiting to be married in the next year or two. When she gets married, she will move to Australia and complete her education there. It all sounds kind of scary to me but she is excited about the opportunity.
Even though we have lived in Afghanistan for a while, I still have cultural moments. Moments where I realize I haven’t left my compound since Friday and I just need to get out. On those days, a trip to a grocery store is a real treat especially since the store has air conditioning. I still have many days where I feel the stress of communicating cross culturally. Do they understand what I am saying? How do I say what I need to say with the words that I know? Living cross culturally reminds me that no matter where I live I need to be totally dependent on our savior.
Blessings, T