Farm

Last week we went to a farm with one of Tim's students. It was fun for the kids to see the animals and it honored Tim's student. It was so different than what we normally picture for an animal farm. We saw dogs, horses, sheep, birds, a cat, and a monkey!

Joseph's favorite part was playing fetch with one of the dogs! See video and pictures below.

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Teacher Tim

Tim has been teaching for a few weeks now. He's enjoying his students, which makes it all worthwhile! He comes home with some fun stories!

He teaches a beginning level course and the students have been learning how to pronounce words correctly. It makes me think about our time as language students. I felt so funny pronouncing sounds that I wasn't used to! 

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What is a village?

We live in a country that has a lot of little villages. My idea of a village is different than the villages here.

It is about the size of a neighborhood, sometimes bigger. But it's very dense with families. Often times when a son gets married the father will build an apartment above the house for the couple to live in.

These villages are all close to each other, not out in the middle of nowhere. This picture of our village shows the city in the background. The city center is only about 15 to 20 minutes away.

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Our Home

We are finally completely settled into our home! God has been so good to give us a wonderful place to call home. We're glad to have our furniture back in place and a few new things too! Here are a few pictures of our place...enjoy!

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New Dryer

A few weeks ago I was excited to get a new dryer!! Before we got our new dryer we were hanging out our clothes on this drying rack.

The problem for getting a dryer in this area is that many of the homes don't have a place to put the vent. So we opted to buy a "condenser dryer" that doesn't need a vent.

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Megan & Jared

In the last couple of weeks we have had the opportunity to have Megan & Jared Breneman at our house!!

We were glad for them to stay with us for a few days when their parents took a vacation to celebrate 20 years of marriage!! Both Megan and Jared are really great with our kids. Joseph and Faith love having them around.

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Mejilis Cushions!!

Yesterday our new Mejilis cushions finally arrived!! We are so excited to have a place to sit that's much more comfortable than the floor! When you walk through the front door in our house there's a big entry way. We decided to use this space for a traditional mejilis, sitting room, with cushions that are on the floor.

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Names

Names are a big deal here in the Middle East. It’s always a great conversation starter when I ask someone where his or her name came from. They like to hear our names, especially our children’s names. Women are not quick to share their names, but it's easy to talk about the children's names. 

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Where did my Arabic go?

We were away from Arabic for nine months and now we're having to start all over again. Ok, actually some things have been coming back to us naturally, but other times I go to say something and just can't seem to think of the word! ugh!! Tim is doing better than I am. I just need to make friends in our neighborhood that I can walk to visit them when Tim is gone.

I feel like I'm speaking like a one year old. Like Jonathan did before he turned two:

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First Week of Teaching!

 I noticed that in my last two posts I used the word "busy." So, I'll try not to use that word again here. Instead of busy, I'll use the word adjustment!

This week was Tim's first week teaching at the English Institute called ILC. It was a big adjustment for our family, especially for him. He teaches every evening for this 5 week session. So, it's an adjustment to have him home in the mornings and gone in the evenings. Three days he gets home around 9:30pm, so the kids don't get to say good night to him those days.

He does some one on one tutoring as well as some classroom teaching. One class has 4 Arab guys who speak very little English. It's an intro class.

I have enjoyed hearing him talk about his students and his experiences! We are proud of Tim for stepping out of his comfort zone and teaching!

There are three other teachers at this small institute and we've only been open for a few sessions now. It's fun to watch this business grow!

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