A time to mourn...

Grieving with friends in Clarkston and around the world.

Sovereign Lord, our prayer is that you bring beauty out of great sorrow, as You have shown Yourself faithful to do throughout the history of the world.

Deadly van crash for refugees in Clarkston on their way to work

Fires sweep through refugee camp in Nepal

Parents

It’s fun to not just keep up the wonderful friendships that I already have in Clarkston but also to meet the new arrivals as they arrive. America is still new… scary in many ways, and also full of possibility. It’s in the first few months that they are most open, have the most time, and are eager to make connections and open their hearts and homes to an outsider. There are so many questions that an American can be very helpful with. After those first few months, they often (hopefully!) have a job, have rooted themselves into their own culture community, and don’t normally need quite the same amount of initial advice and assistance. This isn’t always true, but generally what I’ve found!

Yesterday I met a group of recently arrived refugees from Nepal. Not long after entering their apartment, I found myself graciously handed a cup of steaming hot chia, which I eagerly and thankfully took. Mmm-Mmm! One of the men had just received info about choosing a doctor for their medical plan, so Michael (friend in KW who introduced me to this family) helped him look at the big, daunting booklet of about a thousand names of doctors. I had fun chatting mostly with the women and children, trying out some Nepali, of course. Always fun!

Inevitably, when I meet new friends, I will be asked the following questions “Are you married?” “Where are you from?” “Where do you live?” “Do you have brothers and sisters?” “Are they married?” “Do they have kids?” “And father and mother? Where do they live?”

Through the typical series of questions, the connection is made that I do have a father and mother and that none of their children live with them.

Their face turns to surprise and confusion. As mine turns to discomfort and guilt creeps in my mind.

“Who takes care of your parents?”

My automatic response would be one of assuring: “No one. No one needs to!”

But that just won’t go over well. To their ears especially, parents just aren’t left by their children. It’s dishonoring and neglectful of one’s duties as a son or daughter. As the last one not married, it’s my duty to take care of them.

So, I try to explain and get across the language barrier. Yesterday, this is what jumped out of my mouth:
“Oh, they are very young! People see my mom and say “Your mom? Or your sister?” They are young! And strong. And I really live here and in their house too.”

Dare I mention that they really still take care of me? Dare I admit who still does my laundry and washes the dishes and cooks? Enh, I think I’ll leave that detail for later!

"There's water. On the floor, water..."

Just had to share the excitement... Amy had left for church just a few minutes ago. Well, she just rushed back in and announced "Makadi (I know I'm spelling that wrong) is having her baby!" Camera in hand, she's off to the hospital. :)

Apparently her husband just called and said "There's water. On the floor. Water." Hm, that's definitely a sign!

Amy had an amusing conversation with them about a week ago. They were telling Amy what date she should come to take them to the hospital for the baby's birth. Amy was a bit confused, trying to understand if she was getting a C-section. Through many exaggerated hand motions, she finally got her question across and the response was "Oh, no!"

It seems that since the doctor gave them a due date, they took that to mean that the baby was coming on the due date. Period. Not approximately then. Their new baby boy would first see that light on that day. American doctors must have some kind of power! ;) Special pill maybe? Only God can call that baby out when He sees fit.

Praying for that sweet couple. And very thankful that Amy is able to be there with them.

A gem tucked not far away from KW

Milan Park is just a couple miles away from Kristopher Woods, my apartment complex. It's a small little park, and unknown to many in the community, I believe. But it's been perfect for beautiful days when it just would seem wrong NOT to enjoy some time swinging, sliding, dangling from monkey bars, and building sand castles! Diya and I, and most recently Modi and Sarah, have enjoyed several afternoons there.

It's also kind of "famous". :) It's mentioned in Outcasts United as a site where Fugees soccer coach Luma and others fought for rights to play and use the otherwise fairly unused soccer fields. Great book. Definitely recommended.

While I'm on that tangent, my school, where I teach, is launching a new summer reading program; all the teachers pick a book and every student in the school signs up under one teacher to read his/her book over the summer. Then we'll discuss it in the fall. Great idea, but just a little skeptical as to how it will really pan out. Hopeful, of course, but just a bit unsure. My first book choice was Crazy Love by Francis Chan (you haven't read it? GO READ IT.) but that didn't get approved. So, I decided to pick Outcasts United instead! :)

Returning back on track... Saturday morning was georgeous - Modi, Sarah, and I headed off to the park before 1:00 Bible Study! (Which was SO fun! Bible study was definitely highlight of the... week, probably. Wish I had pictures of that. I should post about that later.) Diya was having fun at Goodwill with her dad and recently-arrived aunt and couldn't come to the park with us. :( We missed her!

Modi and Sarah happened to meet some friends there - a dad and his 4 youngest. Modi and Sarah go to their house on Sun afternoons for Bible study. The kids had a great time together, and I enjoyed playing some and taking a few breaks for studying Nepali since they easily amused each other.

It's been great meeting some random people at the park. It's such a relaxed, safe environment for the most part that it's easy to chat and get to know people while the kids are playing together. Last time we met a mom and her little daughter Juniper (Couldn't forget that fun name!). Modi and Sarah were so sweet and patient playing with her... and talking with the mom was fun for me. Turns out she was in Africa a couple years with the PeaceCorps and learned French! As I like to tell my students, you just never know where you'll be and get to use French! :)

I'm very thankful to have somewhere very nearby as a sort of "escape" from the apartments that can seem like a jail at times for those refugees who just don't have many opportunities to get out. Of course, even better is Stone Mountain, which isn't all that far away, but a bit more of a trek. :)

Driving...

I was leaving the apartment complex on Tuesday afternoon when I roll down my window to wave to Tukala. With a big grin, she proudly yells over at me "Hannah, when can you teach me driving?" I excitedly respond, "Really?? You got it?"

Getting past the written test to get the learner's license is a huge hurdle, especially for refugees who don't know a lot of English. Good grief, I don't even understand some of the questions sometimes and have a hard time memorizing strange figures about blood alcohol levels and details for when to yeild to blind pedestrians and how many feet before turning I'm supposed to turn my signal on. It's been an almost insurmountable obstacle for some of my friends, that has sent some on 2-day road trips to other states where the tests are given in their national language (Nepali or whatever else). While some do pass on the first or second tries, I've known some to take it a dozen or more times before passing. It gets discouraging and can make very intelligent people feel somehow unintelligent. It's also not something their pocketbook enjoys having to pay for over and over again, it's humiliating having to ask for transportation to try yet again, and it's never fun to have to give up another morning waiting in line and trying all over again.

So you can imagine that when the questions are successfully answers and the screen reveals the awaited message:

PASSED!

there is much rejoicing!

I'm so happy for Tukala - no more studying and worrying and frustrations with that side. Now just learning how to drive! Which is a whole other new obstacle, of course... She did well her first time! She was nervous but quite enjoyed it. I was nervous about communicating through language barriers, but it seemed to go pretty well. We had a good time!

Let's try this again, shall we?

Hi there! It's me again. :)

It's overwhelming thinking of blogging again. As I contemplate what I could post about, a million ideas rush at me at once. But for the sake of NOT overwhelming any potential readers out there (Hello! *waves* Anyone out there? *peers out*), as well as myself, my goal is to start out slowly.

What has lured me back? I was recently talking to someone who's been helping me as I'm starting the process of preparing for joining Wycliffe (more about that later!), and she encouraged me to really pray through how I should be preparing myself now for departure and ministry, even though I'll likely not leave for more than 2 or 3 years at least.

Wise. So I've been thinking about that off and on, what that means, what I need to work on and through and try to accomplish.

I am not a really good long-distance communicator. I don't like it. I want my loved ones close to me, like in Clarkston. Visiting, spending time in person, doing activities or just hanging - that's the language I naturally use to show love. Phone, skype?... :/ eh, no thanks.

But if I do go overseas one day, finding myself cut off from family and friends, I feel I cannot ignore this problem and eventually find myself in bad straights because I've gone lax. That would be a huge opening for Satan to attack with discouragement, self-pity, and loneliness.

So, that's what got me thinking about blogging again, a potentially good tool for me to use in long-distance communication. Why not start practicing now? Plus I'll really enjoy sharing about what's happening here and now... as long as I get into the habit of doing this!

My goal is to be informative, encouraging, and interesting. Please give any advice on how to succeed in such a goal ! It doesn't really come naturally!

What makes you enjoy reading blogs? Feedback would be helpful!

I thought I'd end with a quote from a dear friend here:

"Back in the camps, I didn't really feel like a refugee. But now that we're here in America, I do."

And then another quote from a fellow partner in ministry:

"I've been asking Jesus to show me how HE would show hospitality to ME. I think He would always lend a listening ear, always welcome me in His home if I came to His door, always love me and care about my problems."

We've been called to be the hands and feet of Jesus. That's a huge honor and daunting task at the same time. May God give us grace to grow more like Jesus... because I sure DON'T feel like Him AT ALL most of the time! And may arriving refugees find in us a welcoming attitude so they don't feel like outsiders who are invading "our" country. Truly aren't we all refugees here, awaiting passage to our Eternal Home?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFLGOBvE_q4

a quick update

I really did aim to sit down and finally write a real update. I've been neglecting this lately. So that was my goal. And then I got to talking with one of my wonderful roomies. And then a couple sweet girls dropped by and we played "home". We took turns being babies and crying for peanut butter. And now I'm finally getting to writing a post and I'm looking at the time thinking "I get up early, I still have a couple things to do to be ready for tomorrow... bed time soon!"

So here we go... a short update, but an update nonetheless.

The internship is over... it seems so long ago. Changes are made, people gone, others have come in, an entirely new schedule is taking over. Early rising made bearable only by my famous peanut butter-banana-plain yogurt-and-amazing-Mommy-home-made bread. It's truly my motivation to get me out of the bed in the morning. It was wonderful being back to them.

Classes are going fine. It's an adjustment having more than twice as many students as last semester. Large class sizes plus one more class than before means LOTS of students! I'm still trying to get names down. This year I'm really trying to focus on reaching low enough to reach the students who struggle a lot and teach them skills to help them get through. I wish I could be more personal, but with so many students, it's just hard.

And then after an exhausting long morning of teaching, followed by planning and grading and getting my ducks in a row, I'm trying to arrange my schedule and time so I still have energy to continue getting out and about in the wonderful community I'm living in. I always feel a little like I'm living on the edge, about to crash under the load of everything but still somehow staying safe on solid ground. But I doubt that other people's lives are much different. Job and ministry is a difficult balance. But I still can't fathom adding having a family! (or even a husband for that matter!) I take my hat off to you moms and dads. You amaze me. I don't think I'm tough enough for that.

Well, I have more thoughts and things swirling in my head. But I'm heading to bed. :) I'll leave with these pictures from a fun visit from the parents and Aunt Janet and Uncle Tom this past weekend!

I got a schedule and I'm stickin' to it.

I'm feeling pretty shallow and selfish right now. We were coming home this evening from a very fun time with Sashi and Susma's family making momo (pictures forthcoming), and I'm planning on getting on facebook and then organizing my room. I see a friend coming our direction and hope she's not planning on visiting. I have things to do!

I rush inside and hear "knock, knock". I leave Brandie to open the door; I don't want to bother.

She comes in and comes straight to me and starts talking... Nepali, a bit fast, so I don't catch on. I have things to do! She better not stay long.

Still with computer on lap, hoping she gets the message that I'm occupied, I do politely listen and try to understand what she's saying. My heart melts as she pours out difficulties and how hard life is for her and her family now. My little to-do list suddenly seems piddly and insignificant.

Her advice to me: "Don't get married and have kids." Fighting and dirty messes - it's just not worth it.

It's specifically hard for their family for two main reasons:

1. They have smaller kids who are no help but rather a burden to be taken care of. She has to stay home with them all day and only her husband can work.

2. They know very little English; the chicken factory is the best he can hope for. And it's hard and draining.

They have little money. And life is simply hard. The kids are rowdy. And it doesn't have much promise of getting much better in the near future. English comes slowly and kids grow up slowly.

My heart goes out to her. And not just her but the many like her in this area. May God grant me His heart to minister. And may our Savior be their comfort, strength, and joy.

Fajitas! American?

We had a great evening teaching Kamala and Hem's family how to make Fajitas! They really enjoyed it! So much fun. What a sweet family.

Open wide!

Just so you know, I told Kamala I'd be nice and take a picture of her without food in her mouth, but she posed like this. Don't think I'm mean to my guests.

So the debate is on... does making Fajitas count as introducing internationals to American cuisine?

Randomness, as usual.

Well, my right jaw/eye/neck have been bugging me particularly unhappily the past few days. And since the computer typically only aggravates that, blogging hasn't been a priority. Moaning and groaning trying to find a comfortable position lying on my bed has. ;) Naw, it's not that horrible, but my poor roommates have had to put up with me complaining about it probably more than is necessary. Amy sweetly offered to message my neck last night before going to bed... oh that had to have been the best message I've ever had. I don't think I could have gone to sleep, at least for a while, without her doing that. And I did break down and take Ibuprofen last night. WOW. That's pretty big for me. I really don't like to have to take Ibuprofen.

I've considered the home remedy suggested to me by my congolese friends. But really can't bring myself to do it. Just in case you ever want to try it if your neck is bothering you... they told me to coat my neck in urine. Yep. Pee. Not exactly the scent I was wanting to smell like. Anyone ever heard that one before? Is there possibly any credibility to that? I also broke down and made an appointment with the chiropractor. I should ask her tomorrow. Or maybe not for the first visit. hehe

This is the last week of the internship! I can't believe it!

Last night Leigh Anne and I had dinner with Longa and Rose and their family. See previous post for spaghetti adventures with Rose. This time we made marinated chicken and mashed potatoes. Their daughter's word for the night was "Wow." She came over to watch every now and then and was quite interested in the process. Baking chicken in the oven was a new thing, and the hand beaters for the mashed potatoes was apparently pretty awesome. Both Longa and Rose had fun working the beaters and seeing the potato mixture cream together.

Another highlight of yesterday was getting to have lunch with mommy at Chick-fil-A! (I love the spicy chicken sandwich!) She's down here watching two babies during the day for an MTW/World Relief thing.

What the oldest coupon you've ever used? Can you guess how old the one was that I used at Chick-fil-A yesterday?

AND... let's see if anyone can guess why I was told by a random person yesterday "You must really like carrots." Took me by surprise. How did she know?

On the schedule for today:

-teaching a group of refugees (and Hannah) how to ride MARTA. I include my name in the "being taught" because I'm going to be learning as well!

-lunch with a mixed group of wonderful people here and from MTW. Including a new roommate who will move in next week when Leigh Anne Brandie move out.

-shopping for dinner and then teaching Kamala and Hem how to make Fajitas!

So, I wish I had pictures of these fun happenings, but I don't. So I'll leave you with fun from Sunday... MOMO! Which we're going to have Friday too! Ah, I love momo because momo doesn't just mean good food (which it IS), but it also means community and taking time to visit... because momo does take time. And it's something everyone can take part in doing.

Nachu also was kind to show me again how to prepare broccoli the way she prepared it before. I'm hoping to make it next week when I'm in CT! I'm going to attempt a Nepali-style meal for Susan and Adrian.

Nachu peels almost all of the skin off the broccoli. It makes it really tender.

Dil, their very sweet recently-arrived niece! Making the momo.

Spices for the broccoli.

MOMO! With the de-li-shus tomato pickle.

Shadrach ate spaghetti at a birthday party

While you’re reading this post, I want you to listen closely for an important word. Whenever you read “Internet”, I want you to *pat* your computer, because, see, my computer hasn’t been giving me Internet (*pat, pat*) and I want to smack it. You, however, are using a computer that is currently giving you Internet (*pat, pat*), so you should show your computer that you appreciate it.

Internet (*pat, pat*) is definitely useful. People like Jay (who fixed my internet today!) are extremely helpful.

craft during kids club

I learned a good tool about telling stories to kids during Monday night kids club. Amy told the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. To get the kids to follow and listen, she started by giving them a 'job' of sorts.

adorable Iraqi girl whose name sounds pretty much just like mine :)

“You have to listen closely for 4 special things." She told them.

FIRST – if you hear King Nebuchadnezzar, you have to put your hands like this on your head for his crown. (put hands on either side of head where a crown sits)

SECOND – if you hear Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, you have to clap your hands together in front of you and bow your head like you’re praying because that’s what they did.

THIRD – if you hear Fiery Furnace, you have to fan yourself rapidly. Because it was hot.

FOURTH – if you hear me say God, give a shout of Hallelujah! because He’s worthy of praise for the great things He does. Like in this story, so listen closely!”

more craft time

It went great! With the motions and her enthusiasm, she certainly pulled me into the story, as well as the kids. I, for one, was listening closely to every word, just waiting to put my hands on my head for a crown, clap my hands together in prayer, fan myself rapidly, or shout hallelujah! And no need to confuse the poor kids with actors. ;)

Amy and Leigh Anne with the younger group and their creations

Yesterday, I was visiting a friend from Sudan/Uganda. She speaks very good English, so it surprises me some of the foods that she doesn’t know – either has never seen or has never even heard of. Blueberries, pasta, noodles, spaghetti, grapes, and other things so basic to me. She showed me cans of tomato sauce and paste that she had been given.

“What is this? What do I do with it?”

Well, we could make spaghetti! She had spaghetti noodles that she had been given as well; perfect! For the sake of time and ease, I decided to bring over a can of already made spaghetti sauce from my apartment. I showed her how to use the can opener and we opened her can of tomato paste to add a little to the sauce. I like my spaghetti sauce thicker. I brought some sausage over to fry up for the meet only to learn that they don’t eat pork. Bummer. Oh well; spaghetti can be vegetarian as well!

Rose and I. See the spaghetti in the background?

So we boiled the noodles and heated up the sauce. *Voilà*! So simple and both so new for her. She admits that their diet is not very wide or broad, so many things are just really new-tasting. But she truly did enjoy it. “So quick and easy! I’m definitely having this for dinner!” Hehe, welcome to the American way – quick and easy, that’s the name of the game. Not as tasty as the amazing beans she prepared for lunch and let me taste, but good for quick, eh?

Yesterday evening was a fun Nepali birthday party with amazing food. I only wish you could have tasted it! Oh the flavors!

Needless to say, I was pretty stuffed after all that. So I walked to the store... to get ice cream. :)

*EDIT*

Miriam asked me to explain the food, so I'll go ahead and post my comment response here:

From my three plates:

TOP PLATE: Red velvet birthday cake, which, by the way, they eat before the meal, not after. And I've seen them feed it to each other before, like in a wedding, but they didn't do that this time.

RIGHT PLATE:

-Sel roti: a very slightly sweet deep-fried bread. Very fun to watch them make. Sometimes they add a little banana to the batter, sometimes cardamom or cinnamon.

-Kir : rice pudding. Nepali rice pudding is the BEST. Slightly sweet, creamy to the extreme, with a hint of coconut and cardamom. They cook it with whole milk and butter, so it's heavy-duty stuff. But oh so good.

LEFT PLATE:

-Two different curries on the left : veggies like pumpkin, peas, onion, potatoes, cauliflower, chili, tomato, etc are cooked up with some oil and spices like cumin, garlic, and mustard seed normally, and maybe a couple others.

-Ochar (sp?) on the right : Nepali pickle - spicy. I think this one had peas, onion, radish, cilantro, tomato, and maybe something else. Definitely chili as well and lime juice.

I really need to find someone to teach me Nepali cooking. Slowly I'm picking up a few things. My goal this summer had been to take Nepali language and cooking classes. But... how? Advice?

chicken cupcakes (well, not together)

So it was definitely interesting seeing the chicken factory, but I have to admit that I got so bored sitting through all the explanation and tedious details... just sitting all day long. I almost fell asleep. They talked about the company, its history, workplace safety, workplace problems and how and when to deal with them, filled out lots of forms, etc. She had participants read aloud many of the boring pages of do's and don't's that they had to sign. It made me realize that reading aloud is a learned skill that not everyone has practiced and can do. Internationals, I understand, but it surprised me how much grown American-born citizens were struggling.

I am glad I went and stayed for the whole day. It gave me a chance to see a little of what many of the refugees are experiencing. I even happened to meet up with a couple friends I know who work there. We saw the lunchroom and I got just a peak into the factory part, seeing chickens upon chickens pass by. The smell in areas was really quite horrid. If I worked there... would I ever want to eat chicken again? I'm not sure.

It was interesting seeing that this company supplies for places I know well - Chick-fil-A, Kroger, KFC, Tyson, and many others. And from what I've gathered and the impression I got, it really is a well-run company who treats their employees well. I'm glad someone does the dirty work! I'm not a huge fan of meat, but I do like my chicken sometimes!

Well, on to an entirely different subject. I leave you with pictures from earlier this week! For ESL Monday morning, we had a "cooking in the kitchen" theme. We started off basic with cereal and basic vocab for that. Then we moved to making cupcakes (box mix), building on vocabulary and verbs. Then we had southern grits!

We had leftover batter after making the mini cupcakes, so I just poured the rest of the batter in a small round pan and baked it. It looked like it needed to be iced and enjoyed with friends! So later that day I invited some girls in to decorate and eat the cake. I was in a random mood. Hehe... so we decorated it with chocolate icing and peanut butter and banana slices! I just added some water to the peanut butter to make it usable in an icing bag. And we even colored some of the peanut butter a bright blue. For fun. :) It was weird eating it. It looked totally like bright blue icing but was really just pure peanut butter with a dot of food coloring. Some of the kids thought I was a bit crazy and were really skeptical. But everyone did end up enjoying it!

ESL and unique cake decorating! :)

See above post for explanation! :)

ESL class

Lys icing decorating with peanut butter, uncolored

Notice the bright-colored "icing" - that's peanut butter! :D

The partners in crime. :)

Back to using the alarm, but just for a day

I'm off bright (er, dark rather) 'n' early tomorrow morning! Leaving at 5:20 to pick people up and then off to the Gainsville chicken factory for orientation! Early morning, just like good ol' school day mornings. :) Complete with... a peanut butter, banana, and plain yogurt sandwich! Just like I have every morning for breakfast during the school year! I'm pretty excited. Actually, really excited. I can't wait to get up.

Probably won't be back until... 6 or later in the evening. It's an all-day ordeal. I'm excited about seeing more of the work environment just so I know more of what so many refugees go through to provide for their family. I'm also excited to listen to the Nepali translator. :)

Aba sutne. Sapailai subaratri. :)

(Now I'm going to sleep... good night to everyone!)

I AM GOLIATH! HEAR ME ROAR!

So, yesterday we had a blond, female 5'8.5" Goliath (I strapped TWO pairs of sandals to the bottom of my feet to give myself that extra lift.) Since I have no picture, I'll just leave it to your imagination...

My breastplate was a green frisbee, kept in place by an Indian shawl wrapped around my chest a couple times and tied in the front. I had a bright blue fuzzy scarf that went across one shoulder and was pinned where it hung down on the opposite side, by my hip. My battle pants were ballooning Nepali trousers. Adorning my head was a blue paper helmet crafted out of a flimsy school folder. Finally I duct taped my two pairs of Chacos together to finish everything off with a little "towering" effect.

Get the picture?

On another random note, I had two separate people ask me today in Nepali if I die my hair. Is it because it's a bit greasy? And one Nepali person asked me if I was Spanish. Random! Nope. But I taught them some Spanish for fun. :)

This morning was long. 5 hours in the health clinic waiting for a family to get health screening done. At one point in the waiting room, I showed the younger daughter my book for learning Nepali. Oh, that started something! They asked me if I knew a song in Nepali - I sang "Seek Ye First" in Nepali since it's the only one I know. *Boom!*, practically the whole waiting room (almost everyone there was Nepali) was crowding around, leaning in, asking me questions, laughing, giggling. It was fun, but I have to admit I was feeling a bit smothered. I tried not to let that feeling overwhelm me and just enjoyed the opportunity to practice Nepali and learn more about them. Fun!

So, here (posted below) you can see our 4th of July evening in pictures! Huge thanks to mommy for taking most of the pictures. And for mommy and daddy coming, chillin' with all of us, and taking care of the food.

Amy's dad and his wife graciously opened their home to 29 of us. What fun! Eating, swimming, walking out on the neighborhood golf course, picking blueberries and trying them for the first time for some, playing horse shoes, and, of course, watching fireworks! One poor little girl was quite scared, but most enjoyed seeing them for the first time.

4th of July in pictures

Journey (Congolese) & Eklas (not sure what country she's from)

Leigh Anne with Sarah (Sudanese)

With Journey, Eklas, and Lys (also Congolese)

Amy with two little Kareni girls (I think?)... from Burma. :)

With Rose (Sudanese)

Two sweet ladies, from Burma

Waiting by the lake for fireworks to start

Sparklers! Always a hit.

Nun and sister Husna

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July!!!

Happy 4th of July!!!

Nepali church this morning...

American party tonight! Swimming, cookout, fireworks... friends from Uganda, Burma, Congo, Colombia, Sudan, and possibly other countries. And here of course. :)

What are you up to this 4th of July?

WalMart, the alphabet, and broccoli

One of my biggest pet peeves (I do have several) is reading recipe blogs or recipe books without pictures. If you don't have a picture, I pretty much won't even glance at it.

So, what am I doing today? Sharing a "recipe" without a picture! Aargh! What's happening to me?? Really, this is so that I remember the instructions to make later. Then I'll take a picture. :)

Yesterday was filled with fun! In the morning I hopped home and we went to the park (yay!) and went to Kroger to prepare for today (Happy 4th of July, btw!) The afternoon and evening were filled with a run to WalMart and the Nepali market with friends. That took quite a while - for some of them it was their first time in WalMart. Definitely an "important" part of experiencing the US in my opinion. They liked the price of milk and got 8 gallons of whole milk. Wow! It is cheaper compared to other stores they usually shop at. But 8 gallons?

Anyway, the recipe - I'm getting to that. We got back and Nachu made Khir (rice pudding), broccoli, and radish pickle in the kitchen while Git and I studied the Nepali alphabet. The food was a-maz-ing. So delicious! The alphabet was extremely intimidating. I don't get it. Any ideas for studying an alphabet completely and totally foreign? The spoken part is a challenge but fun. The written part just seems impossible.

Broccoli Nepali style:

Since this is Nepali style, don't expect exact measurements. :)

Broccoli (a large head I guess)

some oil (2-3 T?)

about a 4th of a red onion, sliced small

part of a little red or green chili pepper (more if you want spicy), diced

some ground cumin and ground mustard seed (don't know how much, so however much you would like!)

salt

Heat a sauce pan with the oil to high. Put in sliced onions and fry for a bit. Add chili pepper. Add broccoli and constantly stir to coat with oil and onions. Add ground spices. Cook to taste; not too much. Until no longer crispy, but still not really limp. Add a dash of salt to taste (maybe as much as a tsp?).

I'll try that soon hopefully and see if I remembered everything.

So, I have a new Indian outfit that is all red, white and blue. I'll try to get a picture. It seems wrong not to wear it today!

First, I'm off to walk/run. Toodles!

Welcome to the newly-arrived Dahal family!

No pictures! Why even post! Aargh. :( I love pictures! But am too lazy... And I'm still not sure about my poor camera.

Through volunteering with World Relief, I've had the chance to meet many very newly arrived refugees. It's a fun experience! But I had never gone with a case worker to meet a family at the airport. Reason being that flights typically come in at night, and it had just never happened.

Well, I decided that late night or not, I needed to go! So we went last night. Fun experience! I'd like to go again, maybe when it's a family who speaks little to no English and for a family who has no relations already here in America. Just for a different experience. This family already has all their family here (some met them with us at the airport) and the husband speaks good English. They're already somewhat "westernized", so they knew all the basics - how to use light switches, open doors, use plumbing and locks, read and write, etc

A couple things I did notice that were slightly surprising:

-While opening they can do, closing a car door from the inside causes problems, without fail. The handle that is used to open the door, they also use to close it. Which means that they are pulling on it while it is closing, thus not allowing the door to really latch. The poor guy was quite

confused at first as we tried to explain that you use one handle to open the door and the other, right under it, to close. I've never even thought about it before!

-Going into the World Relief office, the husband and wife automatically took off their sandals and left them outside the office door. I thought that was cute! And showed respect and care.

-The apartment is in an apartment complex a mile or two away from where the husband's parents and siblings already are. They were very disappointed and wondered why they had been placed "so far apart". They were just reunited having been on opposite sides of the globe! A couple miles seems trivial. I walk that distance all the time, and I know they're no stranger to walking such distances either. My own brother and sister are as far away as they possibly can get (slightly exaggerating) while staying in the contiguous US. I hard-heartedly wasn't feeling much sympathy.

-Their little 14 mo old adorable daughter had thick eyebrows painted on her. I don't know if I'd ever seen that before. Quite an interesting effect. Was it supposed to make her cuter? I thought her cute despite the dark markings.

Anyway, I am looking forward to working with this family! Today was a lot of orientation, as well as tomorrow. I've loved sitting in on that and hearing the translator. I'm starting to pick up more little bits and pieces of conversations in Nepali. Plus I got to learn more about case work files, Match Grant, DEFACS, orientation, etc. So much! So overwhelming and intimidating! But this family was very courageous and had an admirable "go get-'em" attitude. Quite inspiring.

Time for ice cream.

:)

Avocado funeral

The avocado I had been dreaming about... appearances can be deceiving. When you peel back the skin, you never know.

We have had so much free food around lately. It's been great! I'm enjoying saving money in the food budget category. My precious avocado that I bought a couple weeks back has been sitting in the fridge for almost two weeks, taunting me. But I wanted to save it. Why waste it while there were other free things to eat? It still looked good on the outside, wasn't squishy. Every time I opened the fridge, I gazed longingly at it but refrained myself from cutting into it.

I finally cut it open last night. Ah, the joy of finally being able to eat it! Excitement!

Brown?? Through and through, completely brown. Rotten. *whimper*

Eating free food is great, but not if that means letting my own food go bad. I hope I never do that again. That poor avocado had to go straight in the trash. Do you know how hard that was?