Day Camp for the Deaf-

Well these pictures aren't the greatest but I wanted to give you an idea of our week of day camp. These kids were great fun!! We had several different variations of sign language going on but despite the possible obstacles, communication was seamless!


Explaining the game-

The girls, including the Americans who had come to help
for the week- (next time it could be YOU in this pic!!!)



The guys-
The kids loved pool time. They were young enough so that
swimming in bathing suits boys/girls mixed was not a
problem. Also, in this picture is a young lady of the deaf
community who came to help that day-
More pool time-

Letter

This is a letter I sent a couple of friends a couple of weeks ago and I thought I would share it with the rest of you. This experience will last in my memory forever....

Hey, guys.... I want so badly to share with you the things I experience here. The only way know how to bring you into this world with me is to write about it. These are some thoughts I wrote down after church this morning. I love being there so much I just HAD to give you a glimps of it......


I returned today, for the second time, to the Sudanese Church. I entered the room after they had already begun and joined in on the song they were singing.... the song that we continued to sing for the next fifteen minutes. Yes, fifteen minutes. My grandmother loves to laugh about the "7/11 choruses", as she refers to them. The new songs the "young folks" like to sing instead of hymns that are seven lines sung over and over and over and over again. Those 7/11 songs PALE in comparison to what we had going on this morning. The great thing about this song is how joyously it was sung- what exuberance, what enthusiasm, what a fun spirit. The people threw back their heads, sang out the words... "Jesus is alive, Amen (amen, amen, amen....)" and didn't hold back anything. We all got lost in our personal worship and forgot that the other was there... each of us clapping, swaying, dancing, stomping our feet in rhythm-- each one to his own beat and yet each beat mingled together in perfect unity forming the kind of rhythm and harmony that seemed practiced.

Eventually, the song faded and prayer time commenced. And these people know how to pray. Again, opening themselves to God and holding nothing back. Each of them spent the majority of their prayers thanking God, praising Him, loving Him, humbling themselves.... only at the end requesting a need be met or a sickness healed or a brother released from prison. THESE PEOPLE... who had no homes in Sudan. Sudanese to not know safety, comfort, ease of life. They don't experience justice from their war-torn country. One almost wonders what they have to be so thankful for?! How could they be so full of life?

Haha..I actually found myself laughing inwardly at one woman whose prayer was especially....heartfelt. She prayed at the top her voice and the longer she went on the more excited she got.... she actually was rather yelling out her prayer. I imagined God saying something like- Woman, there is no need to yell at Me. I can hear you just fine. Of course that isn't very respectful of me (sorry but it really is what I thought).

What I learn from the Sudanese church is how to worship with abandon. How to love God with all of who I am even when life's circumstances seem to make that impossible. Even when "all of who I am" seems to be not very much of anything worth offering to Him.

I loved the prayer of Pastor John who, when praying for a brother who had been arrested by the secret police, said "Lord, you are the chain breaker; you are a captive-free-er.....no matter how tight the shackles. Free him so that he may rejoice."

I love the Sudanese Church..... I think one reason that I love it is because it's dramatic and passionate and I am too and there aren't many arenas (public areas... many of you experience my drama-queen-ness on a daily basis) that I can express that part of me. Here, I can be free... and I throw my head back and sing real loud and sway real sassy-like and stomp my feet and say "AMEN" out loud during the sermon and trust that in doing this, in offering myself fully to God without holding back that He loves what He sees.

Ethiopia

It's been a while since I've written.... partly because there's so much in my mind I don't know WHAT to write and partly because I've been in Ethiopia for a couple of weeks! Now that I'm back in the land of email and internet with new pictures and new stories in hand I thought it was time to give a mini update to what has gone on in my life since I last posted.

There may be some of you wondering just what it is I am doing over here in the Middle East and Northern Africa. Though I can't explain in full detail on the internet (though, I'll be happy to explain in person when I see you) what I'm doing I can tell you that I am a consultant for an NGO (nongovernmental organization) called IDRB and I am to travel the region researching about the deaf. I spent the first 7 months of my assignment studying Arabic and I will spend the next 11 months on the road to research. Like I said above, I just got back from Ethiopia which was interesting to say the least. It was a hard two weeks for me and I learned a lot about myself. There were some great things and not-so-great things- I loved to sit on the floor of peoples' huts and eat food off of the ground. I enjoyed walking down the market pathways even when it means having ten children following me and every eye in the place on me (not my favorite), and I love Ethiopian people- they are sweet and gentle. But I also love to shower every couple of days (unreliable water in E), I need to be connected to friends and family through emails and phone calls (which I was not while there), I like being able to buy dark chocolate (none there), and I do NOT like being bribed for money (which seemed a common occurrence). It was a good feeling to get back to the Middle East where I was much more familiar with language, life, and culture. What a nice feeling it was to be able to argue with the taxi drivers and read street signs and take a bath and eat lots of dark chocolate!
Here are some pictures of scenes from Aksum, Ethiopia.....





Outside our friend, Himenot's cooking hut. She had taught us how to make
the traditional food, enjera-


Coffee being poured. Ethiopia claims to have been the first country
to discover coffee and have an elaborate coffee ceremony....

This isn't the best picture of me but I love Himenot, who is beside me.
I fainted in her arms earlier that week (another story) and she became my good
friend after that....

Our friend Letenesana (who is deaf) and two ladies she works with-

Colourful walls against the backdrop of a drab setting....


The traditional Ethiopian food. I'm not sure what all I was eating...
not sure I want to know. Ethiopian food isn't as good as Arabic food
and the first time I ate it was really a struggle... I learned to like it fairly
well....anyway it's colourful!

The market (women don't like their pics taken... they're
hidind behind the umbrellas)-