Village Funerals

I've been to four funerals in the last two months. It's probably the hardest thing I've done. It's heartbreaking to watch a family mourn the loss of a loved one. The way that they mourn here is different than the way we do in the States.

When someone dies they don't embalm the body. They bury the body within 3 days and sometimes even within the first day. They don't use a coffin, but simply put the body into the ground. I don't know all of the customs, but I do know that they lay the body facing Mecca and I'm not sure why.

This picture is of the cemetery behind the mosque in our village where several burials have happened recently.

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Easter Party

In the past few years we have had an Easter party  for our Arab friends. This year we were excited to do it again! Every party is different and this one definitely took some unexpected turns. My friends in the village suggested that we have it somewhere other than my house so that more people could come. The search for a different place was a headache, to say the least. In the end, we decided to have it in one of the vacant houses in our compound and it turned out to be a good choice!

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April with Arabs

I'm not sure how, but April ended up being a particularly busy month. It was really good and I'm thankful to look back and recognize that God blessed us in so many ways!

I had so many opportunities to be with my friends in the village this month. It seemed like I was leaving the house wearing my hijab (head covering) a lot. I ended up going to several weddings and even a funeral.

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Visiting Arabs w/ Tim's Parents

When our Arab friends heard that Tim's parents were coming they were excited to meet them! It was good for Tim's parents to get to experience Arab hospitality and meet some friends in our village.

The first half of their time here was still mourning time for our friends in the village. So, they came with us experience the mourning. When we go to a mourning service we need to dress respectfully and the ladies have to cover our heads.

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Celebrating New Births!

There's something really special about visiting people in the hospital when their baby is born. Lately I've had the opportunity to visit 3 babies in the hospital and there's a couple more to be born very soon.
I love doing this! I love being a part of their lives in this way, it's fun! I really enjoy seeing the sisters, mothers, aunts, cousins all celebrating the birth of the new family member! Even dads and grandpas are around sometimes in the hospital room and they're obviously happy!

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Festival At The Sea

We live in a very active community, which is a lot of fun! We can't make it to all of the activities, but we try! The people in this village have really embraced us and they seem to love having us be a part of their activities. It sure makes it easy to love them!

Yesterday afternoon before sunset there was a festival by the sea! I hope you enjoy the pictures we took there.

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Visiting

Sometimes we are out and about visiting with Arab friends a lot. Other times they are busy with things and aren't available as much. Lately we've been able to be with our friends visiting more and it's been so much fun!

We've visited in lots of different ways. We have had friends over to our house, we've gone to their house, we've been to the park, and we've been to some religious celebrations. I really love these friends and these memories that we're making!

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Easter Reading

The Saturday after Easter we had an "Easter Reading" for ladies and children from our village. We also invited other Arab friends, so it was a mixed group.

Gathering to sit and listen to a "reading" is normal for our Muslim friends. This wasn't strange at all for them. I had practiced reading Mark 15:42-16:14 in Arabic for a couple of weeks leading up to this event.

Before We sat down for the reading, we colored eggs and gave out Easter Baskets. The children found eggs that we had hidden in the yard! It was such a fun, memorable time!

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Trip to the Wildlife Park

The kids had a two and a half week break from school. I called it their Christmas break, since they didn't get a break at that time. ;) We were thankful for the time together and had a lot of fun! Since the rest of the village was also on break we arranged to go together to the "wildlife park." (It's not as nice as a zoo.) It's about a 45 minute drive away.

So we packed up our lunches and crammed into the van together! This picture was taken before 3 more kids and another mom joined us. We had a total of 8 kids and 3 moms in the van together. We had another friend following us with her three small children. 

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January Christmas Party

Christmas was extended in our house because I wanted to have a Christmas party for the ladies in the village. But, we couldn't have a Christmas party until their mourning time was finished. We had to wait until the middle of January! So, I kept my tree up and put my plans aside until after the New Year.

It was a crazy party to plan because Arabs think and plan very differently than I do. I wasn't honestly sure what was going to happen...if anyone was going to come or not. They were nervous to come to my house because they didn't know what to expect at a Christian's house.

I tried to do things that my Arab friends would be familiar with so that it wouldn't be so weird for them. I was thankful to have my "sisters" come help me with this party. I couldn't have done it without their help!

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Mowlid

In the last couple of weeks there have been a lot of Mowlids at the Hussainias in the village. I have enjoyed being with my friends in the village during these days of celebrating! This is a picture of the place where the men gather. The women have separate places.

Remembrance is something that is very important in Shia Islam. They hold commemeration ceremonies by gathering together and reciting stories. A Mowlid is when they celebrate the birth of prophets or imams, even ladies from the family of their prophet Mohammed.

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tomatoes

Last week Faith and I went to one of my Arab friends' farm. It was really huge and there are lots of vegetables as well as animals. They were really proud to be able to show us their family farm!

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Wedding Time!

It's officially wedding season around here! I love weddings on this side of the world! Over the last few weeks Tim and I have been to several weddings.

It's such an important part of the culture here, but it's so totally different than the way we do weddings in the States. One of the biggest differences is that the men and women have separate wedding parties. The men's party and the women's party can even be held weeks apart from each other!

This picture was taken when we got home from the wedding around 11:30pm. Joseph said, "Daddy, take our picture! We're married now!"

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Ice Skating

During this last session of English classes I had the privilege of being involved with a "Community Group." This is a weekly block of time for a group of students to meet with an American to practice their English. I had 6 girls in my group and grew to love each of them. Our last meeting time was on Monday morning.

For our final meeting my group wanted to go ice skating. I had never been ice skating with Arabs before. I haven't laughed so hard in a long time!

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