Eid Al Adha

*You may not want to read this post if you are a vegetarian*

Our internet has been extremely sketchy this week (it may have something to do with the fact that it consists of a wire strung outside our window attached to who knows what on the top of the roof), but I will attempt to post regardless.  The blog must go on!

This weekend has been very festive here with the celebration of Eid Al- Adha, one of the biggest feasts celebrated in this area.  It is a weekend full of much light, noise, time with family and friends, gift giving and….slaughter.  As the weekend approached and the streets began to fill with additional cattle and herds of goats were seen running down the road, I couldn’t help but think of the turkey the week before our Thanksgiving.  Surely, if these animals had some foresight, they would feel the same!  According to a local newspaper, this ‘Feast of Sacrifice’ commemorates the willingness of prophet Ibrahim to sacrifice his son Ismail in submission to Allah’s command.

Although the holiday is four days in length, the majority of feasting occurred yesterday and today with fasting last Thursday.  The feasting centers mostly around meat  and said meat is eaten all day, including early in the morning.  It has been interesting to see motorbikes whizz by with several animal pelts hanging off the back dripping in blood.  Some narrow streets have blood literally running down them and we even saw a man crossing through several lanes on a highway with a cow leg slung over his shoulder, tail in tact!

Despite all the blood, it is a festive time.  There are boys making quick cash on the side of the road selling homemade fireworks and party hats and every one is giving gifts.  We were able to give gifts of money to our doormen and, even though we do not celebrate this holiday, one of them gave us a wonderful meat dish that his wife had prepared (he carted it over through several metro stations and it was still hot!).

The girls saying hi to some sheep in someone's driveway.

Eden has her bartering face on at the party hat stand.

Eden in front of one of the butcher shops on our street.

From the Mouth of a Princess

Ava:  "Mom, why is that man always singing from Rapunzel's tower?"

Introducing....

Sheldon and Shelby!

Yogurt and Tissue

Being from a small Albertan town, our girls had little exposure to poverty other than when we took our weekly trips to Downtown Edmonton to work with refugees.  Here poverty is all around us.  Ava has quickly picked up the previously unfamiliar vocabulary of “poverty, poor, homeless, orphan”.  There are many beggars on the street, some who have become increasingly familiar to us.  There is my little friend who sits and plays outside the grocery store a block from our apartment, a girl about 7 or 8 with the sweetest eyes and the most precocious grin.  As part of my routine, I always buy her a strawberry yogurt drink and a snack along with the rest of my groceries.  It has become so much of a routine that when she sees me coming she smiles and sits by the exit door, sometimes with her mom and baby brother, patiently waiting for her treat.  A few days ago when I exited the store she was no where to be seen.  A couple of men were loitering nearby and, seeing my strawberry yogurt drink, asked if I was looking for the little girl!  They set the yogurt and bananas aside promising to pass them onto her when she returned.

Then there is the woman who sells little boxes of Kleenex under the tree outside our apartment building.  I am not sure why, but selling Kleenex is very popular here.  It is like a micro micro business.  In one trip to the market we may come across five or more people selling tiny boxes of Kleenex for change.  Needless to say, we are never short on tissue at our house!  One day we were out walking around the neighbourhood with Izzy and gave her a couple of pounds (approx. 25 cents) to give to the lady in front of our building.  Izzy shyly approached her and handed her the change and the lady responded by thanking her and giving her a little box of tissue from the pile set out on the mat beside her.  Izzy came running back to us with a huge smile on her face and whispered, “That is a very kind lady!  She gave me some Kleenex because she saw me and saw that I have lots of boogers in my nose and needed the Kleenex”.  To Izzy, this woman was more than a street beggar, she was a kind lady, a lady that blessed her in her time of need.  Izzy clutched that little box of tissue for the next hour, so tickled that they were scented and the perfect size for her little nose.  She didn’t use them for days and yet when anyone set foot in our apartment, she showed them off with pride in her eyes and a smile on her lips.  Now when we are out and about Izzy often asks for money, not to buy a treat or a drink, but to buy some more Kleenex from her new friend!

I pray that as we live here with poverty all around us, that it would be more than just new vocabulary to our girls, that God would cultivate within them the powerful gift of generosity.

Time Management

We are starting to realize that life just takes a lot more time living here.  In Canada, if you want to pick up a bunch of miscellaneous stuff and some groceries you may just hop in your vehicle and drive to Wal-Mart or Superstore at pretty much any time of day you please and pick it all up, load your car and return with relative ease.  You need something for your house?  They probably have it at Home Depot and, if not, give Rona a try, after all it is just around the corner. 

Things are different here. 

If you need something there is a great chance you can indeed find it, but it may take days of looking at various different stores (most of which do not open before noon and may be closed any random time), talking to numerous different people all the while trying to express in a different language what it is exactly that you are looking for.  Although frustrating at times, it is wonderful language practice!

For example, the other day we were in search of a drain plug for our sink.  Not only would this allow us to keep water in the sink while we are washing dishes, but we were hoping it would deter the many cockroaches that still insist on climbing up our drain pipe to visit our kitchen.  Over three days we looked at about five different places in search of this much- desired plug.  We spoke to several different people and never did discover the actual word for “plug” in Arabic (although we did have a few people attempt to explain to us in Arabic what the plug was used for).  We finally did find our plug.  A friend was on the look out for us and found it at a tiny hole-in-the-wall shop.  It was the only one left.  The plug doesn’t totally fit, but with a slow leak we can still manage to finish the dishes or thoroughly wash our fruits and veggies before the water has completely disappeared.  Life just takes longer. 

We had moved in and were (are) still trying to get the upper hand on the cockroach situation when our air conditioner decided to take a break (there are all sorts of stories associated with that experience that would have our electrician friends cringing).  It took us two weeks and several phone calls, visits and conversations to get our internet hooked up (we needed an address or a telephone number, but we couldn’t seem to find either and when we finally did get it hooked up they took an old cable, strung it through our window, up four stories to our roof, used a screw driver to punch a hole through a cinderblock wall and wired our internet into the main electrical box.  Good thing it doesn’t rain often).  Even heading to the nearest grocery store or open air market, both about a block from here, takes a lot more time and energy as we maneuver our way through the busy street dodging cars, people, tuktuks and donkey carts, attempt to read Arabic labels looking for hidden gluten (most labels are very vague though, they may just say ‘carbohydrate’), or realize what we went to buy is no longer available.  To complicate things a little more, it is not ideal for me to be out by myself, particularly at night.  That means Dave must always be with me, which means usually the kids are with us too.   Then there are the regular hurdles of the random, almost daily, power and water outages.  

Yes, life just takes a little more time here.  But, in all this, one beautiful thing that takes time and precedence here is relationship.  People never seem in too much of a hurry to spend time greeting one another, making conversation and even bartering to build relationship and community.  It is a beautiful thing and something very worthy of our time.

 Dave buying some fruit and veggies.

 Sheep and goats.

 The outside of our apartment building.

Ava and some chickens at the market.

Navigating

Whenever possible we try to walk wherever we are going.  Walking is often a lot faster and easier than attempting to give directions in a foreign language in a foreign city.  Thankfully God has provided us an apartment within several blocks of both schools that the girls attend.  Even though we’re so close sometimes walking those several blocks can still get us completely lost as streets merge this way and that and roundabouts converge with six streets or more and all the signs are in Arabic.    

I thought I was well prepared for Izzy and Eden’s first day of class.  I had received directions from the school principal, checked google maps twice and even brought along a photocopied map of the area.  Even with all those preparations it didn’t take long to get completely turned around.   I wondered, was this road 70 or 71?  Was this street 9 or 9b?  Sweaty and frustrated, standing in the middle of a dusty intersection with two crying kids, I pulled out the map app on my phone only to watch the blue dot jump from one street to another as even Google couldn’t figure out where I was. 

After whispering a prayer of sheer desperation, Help God!, I turned to a nearby doorman (every building here has a doorman) and asked as nicely as I could, ‘Do you speak English?’  He immediately jumped up, gave a long stream of Arabic and signaled he was going to run inside for help.  I doubted anyone inside would be able to help and began to apologize but he insisted and was gone before I knew it.  We stood there for only a moment when a woman poked her head out the door and asked, ‘Are you Dave & Jenn?  Are you here to see the school principal?’

We stood dumbfounded for only a moment before whispering, ‘Thanks God!’

Off to school parade with friends

Getting ready to cross a busy street

Izzy especially loves nap time

Eden eating breakfast at school                                              Izzy and Eden's 1st day of class

Eden with her breakfast/lunch bag

Eden especially loves puzzles

She also loves 'Garden Time'

  

Felluca

One way our family likes to get out and de-stress is by heading out on a lovely felluca ride. If you time it right, you can also catch a great sunset!