Wednesday, May 10, 2006

My first adventure outside...by myself!

I went outside yesterday. At first I just took out the garbage and then took some pictures of the apartment building and some of the trees in the yard. Then I got a little braver and went out into a field to take some pictures (I had to prove to Andrew that I actually went outside). Well, as I was taking pictures, some kids started shouting, "Hello! Hello!" So I smiled and waved and said 'hello' back. (We get that a lot here. People will open up their windows while we're out on the streets and will say "Hello!" or "Welcome!" They love us here). Well, this girl named Iya comes up and takes my hand and starts talking to me (in Arabic). I can't understand anything she is telling me and she starts dragging me around everywhere. We went to look at her olive orchard and inside her house to meet her mom. The whole time she kept repeating, "Rsn...Rsn...?" I was like, "Uhhhhhhh...no hablo arabo....uhhhhhhh..." I was kind of nervous to just be following around a little girl that I didn't know. But it was okay in the end. Everyone here is so nice so I wasn't really worried. Iya took me to this house and asked Rsn came out. (I have no clue what vowels to put in her name so I just left them out). Iya was good friends with Rsn, who is a member of the branch and had been telling her about all the Americans she had met. So, Iya brought her American (me) to show off to Rsn. I hadn't met Rsn so I didn't recognize her, but Rsn recognized me and knew that I had been walking and "talking" with her older sister on the Jordan River trip, so she went to get Lama...that was nice because Lama and I are pretty good friends, at least, from what I gather from our conversations we are.

Lama took me inside to meet the rest of her family and then we went out walking. We went all over the place. She took me to her family's store where her father gave us chips and popsicles. We went to go see her sheep and her brothers made me sit on the donkey (that was in with the sheep). There was no saddle on the donkey so if I look a little uncomfortable in the picture, that's why. We walked out in some fields and picked some "Gelatan" and ate it (it is kind of like peas...only different). I was out for an hour and now have about 20 little Arabic children who are all my best friends.

It was pretty fun...I think I might be brave enough to do it again. Especially now that I know where Lama's family lives. They are very friendly. Her father told me (at the store) that if I need anything at all, just ask. They are here to help me.

Oh, and Lama's mom is looking for a wife for her son. She would like to know if Josie would be so kind as to come out here and meet him. I told her Josie couldn't because she has school in America that she has to attend and she is much too young to get married anyway.

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