Times You Wish You Had a Camera

Occasionally you run across an incident where you take a very vivid mental picture, but unfortunately do not get an actual photo.  One such occasion happened to me the other day while Andrew and I were out in town.

To preface this mental picture there are a few things you need to know.  First, here in our city, there are lots of little pharmacies.  You cannot walk very far without crossing one.  Secondly, generally speaking, you do not need a prescription to get medication at such said pharmacies.

The other day Andrew and I were walking downtown.  It was in the evening, so things were fairly busy.  As we were walking, I happened to look over through an open door and window of a pharmacy.  What I saw was priceless.  I saw a man who had picked up his boy (around 6 years old) and stood him on the counter.  The little boy's pants were down and the father was pointing at something on his leg showing the pharmacist.  I find this hilarious for several reasons.  I think it is funny that pharmacists are just like doctors here.  They can diagnose and prescribe right on the spot.  The other hilarious thing is that this occurred in the middle of downtown.  Other people were in the store and many people were on the streets walking by the store.

Oh the joys of living in another culture.

Bob's Red Mill

A couple of weeks ago, Andrew and I went downtown to this local food store that has lots of things that expatriates like.  They have a lot of gluten free pastas and even my favorite cereal.  Unfortunately, he did not have any gluten free flour.  We thought the man seemed very nice and if he knew he was going to sell something he might order it.  So we asked him if he could get gluten free flour.  Yesterday we went by to check things out and we found three of these in the flour section:

Even though we just returned from the big city where we stocked up on gluten free flour, we went ahead and bought one.  I am pretty sure we will be the ones to buy the other two as well.

Thankful for helpful people around the world.

Thanksgiving Day

For Thanksgiving, we went over to some American friend's house.  Since I'm gluten free now and Thanksgiving is what I like to call Gluten Paradise, I fixed my own Turkey, stuffing and pumpkin pie.  Here is what I have to show for myself.

I am fairly proud of myself.  It was the first time I have made anything Thanksgiving and I was cooking under completely different circumstances that I am accustomed to and Gluten Free.  Granted I think I will do better next year, but for my first time I think everything turned out pretty well.

After dinner at our friend's house, we came home to drink Egg Nog and put up our Christmas Tree.

Again, this is not the best tree in the world, but I am guessing for the tree, ornaments and lights we probably spent about $10.  I think that is pretty good, especially considering we now live in a place that does not even celebrate Christmas.

Thankful

This is our first Thanksgiving overseas.  Our first holiday of any sort for that matter.  It is definitely challenging us being half-way around the world today when we want so badly to be together with our family and friends.  In spite of the distance between us, we are still thankful.

Today I am thankful for my husband, Andrew, who is always so loving and supportive.  I am so grateful that we are in this together and I always have him to lean on.  

I am thankful that, for the most part, we were able to find most of the traditional Thanksgiving foods here and have been able to prepare them (even gluten free!).  

I am thankful that we are even overseas.  We went through a lot of challenges to get here, and I am so thankful that we finally made it!

I am thankful for our family and friends (including our small group) back home.  Our family is always there for us, loving and supporting us.  Our friends are more like family in their support and concern for us.  I am so thankful to have such an amazing family and incredible friends.

I am thankful that my Dad is out of the hospital now.  He fell 12 ft. a few days ago and broke his pelvis in six different places.  I am thankful that he is okay, that he did not need surgery and that now he is out of the hospital.

There are so many more things to be Thankful for.  I am so overwhelmed with gratitude, especially on this day.  I am so thankful for the things here that He has blessed me with.  I am even more thankful for the sacrifice of His Son that He made for us, for me, that we might live forever with Him.  Sometimes it is so hard to fathom how great our Father's love for us is.  Thank you Father, thank you family, thank you friends.

The Place Where It All Began

The video posted below is from our quick trip this weekend.  We travelled to a city that I have not been to for ten years.  When I was 16 years old, I took my first trip overseas.  It was to this city!  It was here that He gave me a heart and a passion for the people in this part of the world.  It was so exciting for me to get to go back.  I have travelled all over the world, but I have never been to any place twice.  It has been ten years, many things have changed, but I still recognized the place and believe it or not, it had the same smell.

The Place Where It All Began

Crazy Day

Andrew and I went on a mini vacation this weekend.  I have been eager to post about all that we did and saw while we were away, but too much has happened today that needs to be blogged about.

This morning we woke up late, had plans in mind for a slow relaxing day, recuperating from the exhaustion of traveling this weekend.  The day brought other events instead.  Last week we went to the police station to get our visa extended.  We thought we had everything we needed to get our extension, but when we arrived we discovered that we needed our landlord to sign a paper.  Last week was the Aid, so our landlord was out of the city and we would need to wait till he returned before we could get our extension.  This morning we got in touch with our landlord, he came to pick us up and together we made our way to the police station.  Upon arrival at the station and speaking with the proper authorities, we discovered there were many more things that we needed to do before we could get our extension.  Without knowing what we were doing or where we were going, we loaded up in our landlord's van.  First we went and made some photocopies (figured that out as we stood in front of a copy machine), then we went to another police station.  Got something stamped and paid some money.  Went to anther police station, but turns out it wasn't there anymore so we found the new location all the way across town.  This station was so new nobody knew where anyone was or who needed to help us with what we needed help with (I'm not even sure what we needed help with!).  After talking to several people and waiting in several different locations, we finally found someone who gave our landlord a phone number.  I am not quite sure what happened, but he took us back home and said he would pick us up again at 2:00.

At 2:00 we headed back to the same station, this time with a new paper in tow.  Waited around some more then finally got a stamp on something.  There was something else that we needed at this station but could not get until tomorrow.  Our landlord then took us back to his house where we met his family and enjoyed tea and snacks.  We finally arrived back at our apartment around 4:30 with strict orders that he would pick us up again at 8:30 the next morning.  We had not been back long before a little boy knocked on our door.  He had a piece of paper and on it was written:

Hello.  are you busy I want to visit you if its okay with you at 5.15

                                            your neighbour

This was from the lady who lives underneath us.  A couple of weeks ago I took her some cookies to meet her.  I was excited she was coming!  Andrew and I ran around straightening and I threw some cookies in the oven.  We had planned to go to town and check our mail and do a couple of other errands.  Andrew went ahead and went to town while I was to stay and visit with my neighbor.  She arrived with her three children.  Two boys and one girl.  Thankfully she is very good at English.  She talked just about the entire time, which was good for me because I was nervous about running out of conversation.  The unfortunate part about this was that I really did not get to say much at all.  But I am very excited to have had my neighbor in my house and build that relationship even more.  Hopefully we will get together even more in the coming year.

After my neighbor left, Andrew and I fixed dinner and settled in to watch a TV show.  About halfway through our show, thankfully after we had finished eating, there was a knock on our door.  It was the man of the family I got to visit with during the Aid.  Andrew invited him in and I went to prepare some tea and cookies.  As I am writing this, they are visiting together and Andrew is getting what sounds like an Arabic lesson.

It has been an exciting day.  Quite unexpected but very welcomed.  It's 7:30 here and for locals the night is still young.  I wonder if we will have any more visits today!