A trip to the Pyramids and Nile River

 Yesterday we spent a fun day outside of the city. We drove about 3 1/2 hours north of Khartoum to a place called Meroe where there are about 100 ancient pyramids. Egypt is known for their famous pyramids but Sudan apparently has even more than Egypt does! The main difference is that the Sudanses pyramids are smaller, but very similarly built.

 There were lots of fun places to explore and large sand dunes that the boys ran up and down.

 We are definitely in the desert!

 There were a bunch of men with their camels who offered us rides. Josh and I were happy just to pet one but Isaac, Evan, and Eli rode them.

 After the pyramids, on our way home, we stopped at a lovely place on the Nile River for a picnic lunch and a fun boat ride.

It was so refreshing to get out of the city for the day and see some new scenery. And it's so interesting to learn more about this marvelous country!

Lessons in Language Learning

With 4 months of intensive Arabic language study under my belt, I've had a chance to recognize some very valuable lessons I've learned along the way. Allow me to share them:

·         Be careful! It’s really easy to start comparing yourselves to others who are catching on faster or moving faster. Don’t compare yourself!!!! Remember that people progress at different rates.

·         Do the best you can with the time and energy you have and be content with that.

·         When you hit a plateau or feel like you’re not really making any progress, remember that your brain is quickly filling with TONS of new information. It needs to make new channels to put all the new information and make sense of it all, so sometimes it gets “backed” up but it will be able to use the new information eventually.

·         Learn to laugh at yourself and not get too bugged with your mistakes.

·         Take every opportunity you can to practice. Try not to speak English as often as you can (with nationals.)

·         Get plenty of sleep. 

·         Learn to NOT take comments people make personally. I am pretty sensitive and I’ve been offended or had my feelings hurt way too many times. I’m trying to practice letting those comments roll off my shoulders and many times I have to pray about it and ask God to change my attitude so it won’t get me down.

It's not easy learning a new language but boy is it worth it! I've learned so much more than a language.

Reflections

I am a huge fan of reflection. I think our faith and trust in God grows as we look back on our lives and remember how God has been faithful and reflect on what He’s been doing in our lives. Today has been reflection day—looking back at the last 4 months we’ve been in Khartoum, North Sudan.

Looking back through my journal I realized that before we arrived in Khartoum, I had a lot of fear and uncertainty about what life would be like  here: how would we manage living in such intense heat, how would the kids handle another change, and would we really be able to make progress in our Arabic study?

It’s been a challenging 4 months but as I reflect I am dazzled by God’s goodness and provision for our family. The boys have adjusted beautifully, love their Arabic school, are progressing in their Arabic, and have many friends at school and in the neighborhood. God gives us grace everyday to endure the heat and we’re thankful for coolers and fans in the house. As far as our Arabic study, instead of one school we attend 2 different programs and we believe we’ve come a long way. We are complimented in the market and everywhere we go because we can communicate in their language.

I think the most unexpected blessing from God’s hand has been the amazing friends we’ve made here. I imagined we’d be so busy with language school we wouldn’t have a chance to be very involved in our community but God has given us that joy. After 4 months of pouring into our friendships, we feel we have a good base now to share more deeply of our Savior and our walk with Him.

Other things we’re thankful for are:

· our SIM team, though small we’re tight.

· Our comfortable home.

· Full monthly support from those back home.

· A great international church that we attend here.

· Expatriate friends to share, pray, and encourage each other.

Wedding Season

 We've been to 2 weddings in 5 days. I know that's typical in the States especially in the summer months but it's mid September. We recently learned that there is a small window of time between 2 of their special holidays: Eid al-Fitr and Eid a-Dahiya when it is good luck to get married. So this is the wedding season. On our way to our 2nd wedding last night we passed at least 5 other weddings just on one street!
Unfortunately our camera isn't working well at night so these aren't the best pictures but hopefully you can still get a taste of the celebrations. In the first picture above, note that the bride doesn't look all that thrilled.

 This wedding was a Nubian wedding. The Nubians live in the far north of Sudan and are a very unique tribe. As the bride and groom made their grand entrance to the party, a special band and group of 3 lady dancers led the way before them.

 Here comes the bride! A pattern we're noticing is that the bride looks to be at least 15 years younger than the groom.

 This is the band that played a little parade in front of the bride and groom.

 After some nice food and drinks, everyone got out on the dance floor, This was our boys' first Sudanese wedding experience. Evan danced for about 1 minute but Josh enjoyed the dancing and stayed close to Eli in the men's line. The men stand in a long line holding hands with their fingers intertwined, rocking their upper bodies to the beat of the drum and music. The women do the same thing facing the men. It was very cool. The other American woman you see here is Heather our teammate dressed in traditional dress.

 The guys were really getting into it here. The guy next to Eli is Sam, our dear friend who is related to the bride and groom.

The wedding was a splash of vibrant colors. Since we live in the dry dusty desert, I felt like it was a feast for my eyes to see all the sparkles and bright colors. Women came decked out in beautiful traditional toobs, jewelry, henna on their hands and feet, and high heels. This is the back of one of the dancing lines.
We had a wonderful time. There is a law in the city that parties have to die down by 11 pm (especially turning off the loud music the bands play). We were amazed how well the boys did staying out until about 11:30 pm when we finally tucked them into bed. This morning I find myself hoping we'll get another wedding invitation soon. :)

Getting ready for a wedding - Sudanese style

 Our neighbor's daughter got married yesterday and we got to finally experience their wedding customs. The first thing I Bethany got to do was go to a "kofeer" for the first time - a ladies salon. I went with my neighbor friend Maisoon and since it takes some time to draw on and then dry, I got to chat with the other ladies getting henna done as well.

 Apparently when you have henna done, it's imperative you wear heels to show it off!

 An hour before the wedding I went over to Maisoon's house because she wanted to get me ready. She first took a straight edge razor to my face and removed all my peach fuzz! Then she caked my face with powder, loads of eyeshadow, rouge and lipstick. The finishing touch was putting the traditional tobe (Rhymes with robe) on - what a true married Sudanese woman wears!

Since the wedding didn't start until 9 pm, our teammates stayed home with our boys and Eli and I anticipated a fun date. We arrived to find that men and women sit separately so it wasn't exactly the date we expected but it sure was fun. Eli had quite different experiences, including a special ceremony earlier on the wedding day to witness the signing of the marriage certificates/agreements (only men and by special invitation). He offered to write about his side of the story...more to come.

The grand finale to our week off

 Last week we had a week off of school - both for us and the kids. Since it was a week long holiday we enjoyed visiting our neighbors and meeting new families in our community that we hadn't met before. We finished off the week with a night at a beautiful hotel here in town. Our teammates heard of a special deal they were giving for the holiday weekend so we decided to go together and enjoy some pampering before we all jumped back into intensive Arabic study again. :)

 The next morning we enjoyed a beautiful buffet breakfast including omelets, waffles, bacon and sausages (not pork) and even chocolate donuts!

 Isaac shows off his chocolate donut

We spent most of the 2 days down at the pool swimming and relaxing.

Pray for our Yabus family

This weekend we heard very sad news that there has been fighting (bombing and shooting from the air) in our area Yabus (where we spent 3 years) and the cities nearby to the north. Our colleague wrote a beautiful blog about God's provision for our teammates in evacuating them and protecting them from all harm. Please read her account at: www.africanurse.blogspot.com
   And please please pray for the violence and fighting to stop quickly. We will keep you updated....

A Week Off

 The month of Ramadan fasting is officially over which means we are now in the week of "Eid" celebrations. It's very much like Christmas here. Everyone was out and about this morning in new shiny clothes and neighbors visited from home to home, wishing each other a happy New Year. This has been a new experience for us but we dressed in our nice clothes and did the same, going house to house, stopping in for brief visits in each home and eating an insane amount of cookies and candies! Due to the holiday all of us have a break from school so we get a whole week off.
    Yesterday we spent the day with some friends at the German Club in town at the pool. It was so refreshing as you can see.

We will keep you posted how we spend the rest of our week.

A fun time at the park

 We still get amazed by what we find here in Sudan! Being in the capital city this year, we are constantly surprised by what's available here. A few days ago we went to this lovely park to have a picnic supper at the close of the day's fast - around 7:15. We went with a bunch of friends to celebrate a friend's birthday. We went early so the boys could play.

 It was a hot muggy afternoon so we were a mess of dirt caked on with sweat by the end of all the fun but we had such a good time. The boys even got to ride on a ferris wheel!

Here I caught Eli with that look of, "Where am I again?"

Special times with friends

 With our lives being very full with language study and our busy boys, it is always a joy to spend time with friends. Last night we went out for ice cream to a local joint called 41. We took our friends from our neighborhood and had a fun time. After everyone had their own ice cream cone we stayed long enough for all the kids to run off their sugar high.

This was little Mustafa's first ice cream cone and boy did he make a mess! But isn't he a cute mess?!

Special month

 August is the month of Ramadan this year as many of you know. So the majority of our city are fasting all month long (they eat at sunset and seem to eat throughout the night.) We have been learning so much during this month about culture and our friends' religion.

 A few nights ago we were invited to our friend Sam's house to break the fast with his family. We had a lovely time along with our teammates Jeff and Heather. The food was delicious, great conversation, and Eli taught them all the game: Concentration at the end. We finished the evening with some good laughs!

 Last night Bethany got to go out with a few lady friends to celebrate Heather's birthday. We tried a new Indian restaurant and had a great time.

Something I've been marveling at lately is how so many quality people end up in Khartoum!

A peak into the lives of our 3 MK's

 You might wonder what life is like for Isaac (7), Evan (5), and Joshua (3) here in Sudan. I will try and paint you a picture with these photos taken this week. In the above picture we all worked together to make a chocolate cake.

 We received our first care package in Khartoum and it took less than 3 weeks to get here! The boys were so excited to pull out all the fun treats (even new underwear which Isaac liked so much he wanted to wear them on his head!)

 Evan invented his own new game using discarded soda bottle lids. He had a little checker board going.

 Isaac - being the usual boss - giving instructions on how to play the "game" using a mixture of English and Arabic.

 Joshua found his own toy to play with - he pranced around the medan/yard on a dry branch.

 Isn't this priceless? Don't you wish you could listen in on their conversation? What language are they speaking and what are they talking about? And what's so funny?!

How many kids can get on a bike? As you can see, our boys are happy and thriving and watching them bloom here in Khartoum makes it all the easier for Eli and I to blossom as well.