Pizza and Girl Talk

Every week  I get together with a Tajik friend to just visit and practice talking in my new language.  Our conversations range from our children to how we met and married our husbands, but our favorite topic is cooking and recipes.  This week we decided to make pizzas.  My friend Keebrio had made pizza before but wanted to see how I did it.  Our house helper Gulzoda was also at our house and joined in on the fun.   We made the dough and I did the best I could explaining the process in  Tajik.   They, on the other hand, filled in the gaps for words I didn’t know; like the word for yeast and the words for letting the dough rise.   As we let the dough rise, we enjoyed some leftover chocolate cake and Nestle instant 3 in 1 coffee.  Noel, in the meantime, decided it was safer to stay in the other room.   After the pizzas were cooked, we sat down to enjoy the fruit of our labors.  Before we ate, I explained that I wanted to bless the food.  This always makes my Muslim friend nervous, because they say their prayers at the end of a meal.   After the blessing, we discussed how praying before the meal might be good so you didn’t forget, but we recognized that either way was good.   The important thing is that God is given thanks.  I had a good time  talking  and laughing with these two special ladies.   My prayer is that one day each of these ladies will come to know the Savior like I do. – T