Photos

PS. I just added a few new pictures (the ones I've edited so far), so check out the link on the right. Also, if you open the album, you should click on the little "Photo Locations" map on the right. I had a bit of fun with that.

Enjoy.
~Nikki

Desert Safari, Take 3

Time for another post. :o) Did I mention it's report card week? I so thought the final reportcards were due on Thursday. No, no, they're due tomorrow. All 26 handwritten reports, due tomorrow. Oops! So, this post might be short, but I figured it was about due as well.

After National Day we were scheduled to go on a desert safari with some friends from church. Unfortunately our crowd--which included Luke and Cara Rumbaugh (who happen to be Grove City grads, I think two years ahead of me), their friend who was visiting from Canada, young Rachel Cousino (the Cousino's are the American family whose oldest daughter was an El. Ed major with me), myself and Neal, as well as Johani and Michelle (we all had buy-one-get-one vouchers)--ended up being two large for one vehicle. Since Cara is now pregnant, she skipped the dune bashing and went straight to the camp with the photographer, while the two guys got shuffled to a different vehicle with another group of people. I managed to get quite car sick again, which was too bad, and poor Neal had to spend half the time with people he didn't know. It wasn't the best safari ever, but the food at the camp was pretty good, and we got to dress up in local garb again.

Oh. And I got to both hold and pet a falcon. How cool is that?   :oD

National Day '09, and a History

December 2nd is the UAE National Day; here's some sparse history for you.

This area of the world is still quite tribal in many ways, which is true to its roots. Is-lamb spread to the region somewhere during the decade of 630 AD during the time that M' ham mad was still alive. One of the major wars of the time was acutally fought in Dibba, which is on the eastern coast of the country (Meka is next door in present day Sawdi A, which is not too far from here). Following the defeat of the non-mus lambs, the people began observing the new way of life.

 In the early 16th century, the area came under Portuguese rule after Vasco de Gama pushed through the territory. That rule last for 150 years.

Later the area became known as the  "Pirate Coast", largely referring to what is now the emirate of Ras Al-Khaimah in the north. Despite many partolling navies, raiders plagued the Brittish and Indian trade route. Eventually, in the 1850's, local sheiks (pronounced "shakes") signed a treaty with the Brittish agreeing not to engage in maritime hostilities. The skeikdoms then became known as the Trucial States in reference to the alliance.

The pearling industry rose during the 19th and early 20th century, then fell again with the depression of the 1920's and 30's, as well as with India's heavy taxations on Arab pearls, and even worse, the Japanese invention of the cultured pearl.

In the 60's, oil was discovered in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. The seven ruling sheiks at the time agreed to create a joint council to deal with oil contracts and other matters. By the end of the decade, the United Kingdom had decided to end it's treaty of protection with the Trucial States (which included the seven sheikdoms, as well as Bahrain and Qatar). In September of 1971 Bahrain and Quatar became independent countries. On December 1st, at the termination of British protection, the ruling sheiks of Dubai and Abu Dhabi formed an agreement with one another and drew up a constituion, which was completed by December 2nd. They then invited the five other ruling sheiks to join their union, naming themselves the United Arab Emirates. The final emirate of Ras Al-Khaimah joined in early 1972.

Now that you know a bit about what National Day is, let me tell you what we did. Supposedly the world's largest fireworks display ever was to be held in the capital of Abu Dhabi. So, Neal, Johani, myself, and another teacher from school--Michelle, packed up the car with goodies and food to grill and ourselves and drove on down the coast. We checked out a mall in search of some charcoal and lighter fluid at the supermarket, but it seemed that everyone had the same idea we did, so they were out of lighter fluid. After that we picniced outside and watched this maaaasive UAE flag get flown around above the city, towed behind a helicopter.

Us eating the awesome cold pasta I made with pesto , spinich, chicken, and red and yellow cherry tomatoes.

This is the flying flag. Note the one on the pole in the foreground. It used to be the largest unsupported flagpole in the world, but then I believe and Asian country had to go and steal that record. So sad...

After lunch we headed for the beach. Sadly, when we got there, we found out that we weren't allowed to grill. So much for our dinner plans. But, a good time was had by all. We played in the water... and in the sand.

And we watched the sun set (over the Emirates Palace Hotel).

Finally it was time for fireworks. And pretty soon it was 15 minutes past time fore foreworks. Then it was 30 minutes... 45 minutes... Finally an hour and some change later, the first firey umbrella lit up the sky. I really don't think it was a record breaking show (we heard 100,000 devices in 45 minutes, coregraphed to music. That works out to over 37 fireworks per second, and that definitely wasn't the show that we saw), but it wasn't too bad. Here are a few of the somewhat decent picture I managed to take (thank goodness for the 8G memory card I'd just bought! 1G was soooo not enough).

I love the colors in this one.

At 45 minutes on the dot, the show finished and we made the hour and a half drive home. Not too bad a day.

100

Welcome to post number 100.  :o)

Following our trip to Al Ain (I believe Ain rhymes with "aim"), we headed the other direction and went north up the the Omani version of Alaska. There is a peninsula at the very tip of the Arabian Peninsula known as Musandam (see map), and while it is entirely surrounded by the UAE, it belongs to Oman (kind of like Alaska being attached to Canada).

The trip up took longer than we had hoped, and we began to realize how poor a job this country does with road signs. Eventally we made it to the border, though, which was another "experience". Clearly marked instructions or signs would just be too much to ask. After figuring out where to park, handing over passports, being sent out to the car for registration without getting the passports back, returning to the man who had our passports, being sent away again to go pay at another counter, being told our car insurance was expired, finally getting our passports back and walking back outside and driving through the first gate, getting car insurance (after finding out that our insurance wasn't expired), driving through another gate, filling out paperwork and walking back through the second gate to stand in line to get our visit visas, and lastly driving through yet another checkpoint, we made it onto Oman soil. It must have been 3:30 ish at that point, and Neal and I were starting to consider spending the night in Oman, which didn't thrill me. Too many complications. On top of that, we still needed to figure out exactly what we were going to do in Oman and how. Friends had told us that we should take a boat tour to see the "fjords" and hopefully some dolphins. I think we drove for another half our or so, at which point we were in the town of Kasab--our destination--and I needed to go to the bathroom. We pulled in to a little rest area and I headed over to the petrol station while Neal went into a little building that advertised dolphin tours. To make this long story short, after a frustrating experience getting there and being so late that we were worried we'd miss out on any possible tours, we had probably my favorite experience of this vacation handed to us. This dolphin tour company gave us 25% off, then took us on a speed boat out to the cruise boat that had left an hour or so before. We boarded the old dhow, which had cushions all over the floor and wonderful, hot sweet tea. We even saw a few cuddling couples, which meant we didn't have to keep total daylight between us at all times (more of a concern here). The scenery was amazing, and we did indeed get to see dolphins after a while. But just getting to motor around for a few hours, leisurely soaking up the sights and even watching the moon rise--that was just awesome. If you look at the little map above, it looks like there's a fairly large island just north of the peninsula. That land is actually attached, and it's the inlet on the north western side where we were touring around.

It looks like Oman is the only thing you get to read about tonight. I just finished chatting with my roommates, which took a bit, and my computer has been misbehaving, which means this post has been taking longer than expected. And now it's time for me to go to bed. But I promise another post tomorrow. Check back for details about the UAE National Day.

Thanks,

~Nikki

Take Off

Well, Neal's plane should be taking off right about now--it's 11:30 pm here. It was hard to say goodbye, but it was certainly a fantastic trip. I think I left off on the Friday after he got here, so I'll pick up on that Saturday (Nov 28).

Saturday we went to the Festival City Mall to do some grocery shopping etc. We had some good lunch, took a few pictures (like this one in front of a neat little waterfall thing in the mall--the water runs intermittently down this sea shell covered slope), then headed back to the apartment to grab our swim stuff so we could head to the beach for a bit.

The beach is always entertaining. I took him to the ok beach rather than the nicer beach, just because it was late and easier. The funny thing about the ok beach is that we automatically beaome the minority. That means we got stared at a lot, but I guess that's ok. Neal found some shells, and this hilarious little plastic figurine in the water. Neal was going to bring it home, but I convinced him that a picture would be just as good as the real thing, so I'll go ahead and put that up as well. Honestly, what are the odds of finding this thing in the water, here, of all places? Anyway, I liked this picture too.

Sunday was the day that we drove to Al Ain in the emirate of Abu Dhabi. It was down in the south eastern part of the country, which mean about an hour and a half or so of driving.

Not too bad. First we went to an oasis that someone had told us about, which was ok. Neal and I both got out and walked around and kind of wondered what the point was, but it was interesting to see. I believe someone told me after that the natural oasis are used to grow dates. I think we were just there in the wrong season. Someone at we met at Thanksgiving dinner had suggested it though, so we went. This is one of the the one-lane type roads that sort of mazed through the place.

There were also a few palms with some lingering dates, so we snapped a few pictures of those as well. 

After the oasis, we went to the zoo. That was a good time as well. We got to see a few big cats that were absolutely gorgeous, and even some giraffes. Neal and I both like the zoo.

Well, it's now midnight thirty, and I'm exhausted. Tomorrow I'm going to sleep in as late as possible, and thoroughly enjoy it. Along with being a wonderful two and a half weeks, it's also been very busy. I'm excited about some rest.

I promise the next update will come sooner, like hopefully tomorrow. So check back then.

~ Nikki

Eid Mubarak

Or, Happy Eid.

It has indeed been a very happy Eid break for me. Most of you probably don't know that "Eid Mubarak" means "Happy Eid", or that Eid is why I have a week off of school right now. This Eid--there are two Eid holidays--is what you could consider to be the largest Muslim holidays. Anyway, what you probably did know is that Neal is here visiting right now. Let me tell you, we have been having a fantastic time. It's been late to bed and early to rise pretty much every day, which is why it's taken a week for me to get any updates. So, at long last, here is what we have been up to the past seven days or so.

Neal flew in late Wednesday evening, and I got to pick him up in my new rental car instead of by taxi, so it was a doubly exciting arrival. We headed back to my apartment where I relinquished my nice comfy bed to him while I shuffled on over to Johani's room (ok, ok, she has an equally large and comfy bed), then I had one of those strange, newly-engaged-type experiences. There was this man, standing in front of me, and he was hungry. Now, I can have half a pack of Ramen and be good to go, but I pretty much figured that wasn't going to cut it for him. And I hadn't really been shopping for a bit--I was waiting for him to get here so he could go with me. So all of a sudden I have to figure out how I can make enough food to satiate this hungry man in front of me. Thankfully between Johani and I we managed to have some rice and chicken and salad and keep everyone from going to bed with empty stomachs.

I figured I'd have the whole next morning to get up and get some things done while Neal had some intense jet-lag sleep, so you can imagine my surprise when I heard someone in the kitchen around 7:30 the next morning. Yep. Neal was up at 5:30. Apparently he just couldn't sleep after that. Eventually I got up and we had some breakfast, and then got ready to go out and about for a bit. I took him past the beach and my school, then we were going to go grocery shopping before heading to the Thanksgiving Dinner we had been invited to. The first mall we tried going to was a disaster--no parking spaces, one ways and no turn signs, and then traffic driving all one direction down a two-way, which meant there was no getting out. Gross. We finally made it over to another area called Deira, which I later learned was nick-named "Darkest Deira", and rightfully so. We did some quick shopping, then were trying to quickly get back to my apartment to change and head to dinner. Did I mention I had just gotten my rental car? And therefore didn't know my way around so much? Well, let's just say the ride home involved a bridge crossing or two that it shouldn't have, and waiting at a stoplight for about half an hour because traffic is so bad. Dubai is certainly not known for having well marked streets; it's brutal. Anyway, we finally made it back, then out to Doug and Sharon Cousino's house for some really nice Thanksgiving. Doug and Sharon go to my church, and I met them because I went to Grove City with their oldest daughter--they're pretty great people. So, we had a full-on traditional Thanksgiving dinner, followed by some singing and some games. It was a full, interesting, but nice first holiday spent with my fiance.

Friday was church in the morning, followed by Neal's first meal of some regional food, which was thoroughly enjoyed by both of us. I have to say that was a big thing for me wanting him to come over--the food. Neal and I both like food, and I wanted him to experience things from this side of the world. I once worked with a girl whose parents were mishun-aries in Hungary, and she told me on several occasions how gross our bread was--that they had such good bread in Hungary and she missed it. I wondered how different her Wonder bread could be from ours, but whatever. And then I came here and experienced the regional flatbreads. I completely understand what she meant. We have nothing like the bread here, and it's delicious. You can't really explain it, you just have to try it. Needless to say, our Iranian meal was a fun experience. And interestingly enough, I think the bread might have been Neal's favorite part.

Lunch was at the Ibn Batutta mall, which is themed after places the Middle Eastern explorer Ibn Batutta traveled to. Neal took this picture in the Persia court. There is also Tunisia, Egypt, China, and India.

Unfortunately, I need to go get some lunch ready, then we are off for a desert safari this evening with Johani, Michelle, and two other Grove City grads--Luke and Cara Rumbaugh. Since I am trying to include lots of pictures in this update (which I haven't been doing enough of anyway), I'm going to save the rest for later--sorry!

Check back in a few days for more. :o)

The Sweetie Has Landed

Since everyone else has taken to calling him that, I might as well jump on the bandwagon for now as well. Neal is safely here. :o) And on top of that, I have made two successful trips in my new rental car. Amen!

More soon.
~Nikki

An Awaited Update

I've been meaning to post for a while, which seems to be the story of my life lately. Meaning to call people, meaning to return emails, meaning to correct books, meaning to get a rental car sorted, meaning to clean up my apartment. Well, life goes on, I guess. But here's a quick recap of the last month-ish.

Getting sick made for a pretty miserable three weeks. After having the flu for a solid week, I felt something like how my mother described having mono. I'm so happy to have energy again. I've been to the gym 1 1/2 times since then, and it bums me out (the half time was a few days ago when after about 10 minutes, a bunch of guys walked in and just stood around, staring and things I didn't need to have them staring at. We left.)

At the tail end of being sick came our Inspection. A week prior was spent on prepping my classroom and trying to get books corrected. I had a lot of 8:00pm or later nights at school. Some of that was by choice, and some was dependent on when I could get a bus to take me home. The week following was the week the inspectors were at school. The easiest way to describe that is to say that our school is now going for international accreditation, and while last year was kind of a trial run, this year was the real deal. Except that the standards get raised your second year. So if we pretend that our school was awarded points, we got the same number of points as last year, but from the sounds of things, our rating went from "Good" to "Acceptable". The second time around you have to improve from the first if you want to maintain your rating, let alone move up (the school was reeeeally pushing for "Outstanding". What a joke.)

And now we come to this week. Our break for Eid starts after school tomorrow, so it's a short week. On top of that, our National Day celebration was today. But that pretty much got put on the back burner due to the inspection, so there wasn't a whole lot going on, which was fine. I also found a great deal on a rental car, which is awesome and means that I will have a set of wheels soon. But the best and most wonderful thing about this week is the fact that by this time tomorrow, Neal will be here. With me, in my apartment. That's right, a "Sweetie Alert" was sent to me via email today, and I am alert and ready for him to get here. Being able to talk most nights is nice, but there's no replacement for being able to give someone a hug. And I plan on plenty of those over the next two and a half weeks.

Time for me to go to sleep. Because when I wake up, it will be the day that Neal gets here!!!

Speaking of Fighting...

Just now as I was finishing my last post, I had some idea of what people in the Twin Towers must have felt like just before the planes crashed. We can see the commercial airport from our balcony,  and for some reason a fighter jet is doing excercises over our neighborhood right now. I'm talking rolls and turns and continusouly flying over our building and the surrounding areas, sometimes down so low that is disappears behind the one other tall building that's near us. It's a little unnerving, that's for certain.

Joy and Strength

The title of this post is a little book by Mary Wilder Tileston. It's one of those page-a-day devotional type books, but I appreciate this one a lot more than most I've seen. Wonderful roommate Rachel sent it to me a while ago, and I'm enjoying it so much that I'd like to share some of it here. This is from November 11.

I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therein to be content. Phil. 4:11

          Forgive us, Lord, our little faith;

          And help us all, from morn till e'en,

          Still to believe that lot the best

          Which is,--not which might have been.

                            George Zabriskie Gray

Thou givest within and without precisely what the soul needs for its advancement in a life of faith and self-renunciation. I have then only to recieve this bread, and to accept it, in the spirit of self-sacrifice, whatever Thou shalt ordain, of bitterness in my external circumstances, or within my heart. For whatever happens to me each day is my daily bread, provided I do not refuse to take it from Thy hand, and to feed upon it.

Finding joy and contentment in every day is a constant battle, and I find that truest for myself. I know it is a daily battle, and one that no one wins 100% of the time, but that does not mean it is a battle not worth fighting. We must fight all the more, for not to fight is surely to lose. And when the joy and peace is there, we must remember to let it shine brightly when held in contrast to the bleakness of our suffereings.

The Desert Place

Blessed be Your name when the sun's shining down on me
And the world's all as it should be. Blessed be Your name.
And blessed be Your name when I'm found in the desert place.
Though I walk through the wilderness, blessed be Your name.

Every blessing You pour out I'll turn back to praise.
When the darkness closes in, still I will say
Blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be Your glorious name.

And blessed be Your name on the road marked with suffering.
Though there's pain in the offereing, blessed be Your name.

There is much more to say, but it is very late, and since I was at school until 9:30 this evening, and I'll be back at 6:30 tomorrow morning, I should keep this short. But like I said, hearts are fickle things. I guess that's not always a bad thing, especially when someone else is changing the condition of your heart for you.

~Nikki

Fickle

Hearts are fickle things. So are school principals, but that's another story. In my last post, I wrote about attitude. Attitudes can be hard things to control. Mine has been lately. It's a good thing there is already a plane ticket for Neal to come and visit me, or I might have had one to go home. But now I'm looking at buying a car, so...

I'm actually stopping this post here because I've just gone and gotten upset again looking at the school calendar (which we just got, finally.) Oh me of little faith...

Back at School

Wow, what a week. Today is the first time I've been back to school since I got sent home last Sunday. I got hit with some kind of nasty flu, and my symptoms all line up with a certain kind of flu going around right now. The clinic I finally made it to (that is a story that makes me so angry I'm not even going to post it) told me I had the Common Cold and Bronchitis, but that sure wasn't how I felt, so I'll let you draw your own conclusions. Today I'm still feeling pretty tired. I'd love to go lie down on the little bed Johani put together for me in her store room last Sunday, but my classroom is still a disaster, and I feel like there are lots of other things I should probably be doing. So, I'll bear with it for now and go to bed at 7:30 again tonight.

Interesting, I feel like my heart has taken a turn with my health. I haven't posted a ton this school year, partly because there isn't a lot that I've wanted to share, and partly because I've been so angry and frustrated lately, and I don't want to write about that all of the time. Things here have been really miserable--two of our new teachers ran away within two weeks because they couldn't handle it. It's sad when our secretary getting fired is considered one for the plus column. Anyway, after getting so massively sick and after the whole clinic saga that I went through, I called my mother and broke down on the phone. I was ready to pack my bags as well. I'm so tired of being lied to, of our school falling apart, and of not being able to get simple, logical things accomplished. It's frustrating. But I talked with my mom, which was good, and I got some reading done while I was laid up in bed, which was also good, and I was reminded of a very important fact: I get to choose my attitude. I realize that sounds like a very cliche thing to say, and I think most people usually hate hearing that. But I think we often don't like hearing things that are true. What I realized is that, partly due to my new living situation, I've been doing nothing lately except discussin how bad things are right now. And then we discuss it again. And then this person adds something new. And yet another piece of information comes out. And then we rehash the whole thing all over again. I've decided that I'm done doing that, and I let the people around me know. There's just no sense in poisoning my own soul.

So, that's what I have to say today on my first day back at school. Now time to go and get some work done.

~Nikki

Spiteful

Life feels a little bit spiteful right now. I'm not really down in spirits, but I am pretty sick at the moment, and I think that makes me at least a little bit whiny. But first, let me back up.

This past week has been Diwali (pronounced di VA li), which is a mainly Indian (hindu?) holiday. Besides lots of our neighbors (we live in a predominantly Indian area) putting out lights and setting of pop-rocket type fireworks all the time, the four nearby mosques felt the need to remind everyone that we still reside in a musilm country. That means that the mosques turned up the speakers all last week. So every morning, somewhere are 5:30, Johani and I got a nice wakeup call in the form of chanting for morning prayers. Joy. On top of that, some evenings they would go off every half an hour, so we heard them constantly! GAH! I am convinced that the mosques were feeling spiteful.

Returning to me being sick... I think I've got some kind of flu. I've had a number of sick kids in my class, and I've been out of hand sanitizer for two weeks. Nevermind that I've been asking the school to give me more for two weeks, apparently the fact that they want everyone in the school to use it every hour just wasn't that important when it came to classroom 2C. Now, when a very sick version of me cornered the vice-principal yesterday and told her all of this, I got handed the bottle off of her desk! About time! I just wish it would have been before I got sick. As it is, I got sent home yesterday afternoon with a 101 fever. I've pretty much been sleeping since about 1:30 pm yesterday. I'm tired. I ache. I can't make any logical connections, but somehow it feels spiteful that I am sick. Like I said, I get whiny.

Another Week

Nothing too exciting this past week. Things in my class are going well, and hopefully we'll have three more teachers at school on Sunday, which should alleviate some stress. We're kind of placing bets on how quickly the new teachers will run away screaming, but I'm going to do everything I can to keep at least the Grade 2 teacher from quitting in the first month. She'll have the remedial class (unaffectionately called the crazy class), which means the autistic/learning disabled/weakest students in Grade 2. It's going to be rough on her, that's for certain.

On a very happy note, Neal is coming to visit me! I've got a break at the end of November/beginning of December, so he'll be putting his passport to use for the first time and heading on over to my side of the world for a bit. He'll even be here for my birthday, which is really exciting. Hurray.

Lastly, you might have noticed a new little gadget/link on the right side of the page. I wrote before that I recently read The Five Love Languages and that I would mention more about it later. I ended up choosing another book first, but I've gone and started another blog where I'll be keeping notes on books that I'm reading, conferences I go to... stuff like that. So, if you're interested, Nikki's Book Notes is now open for public viewing. Scroll down below the archive on this blog to find the link to it.

I think that's about it for now. No new culinary adventures this week (did I ever mention the chicken I made stuffed with ham and topped with halloumi cheese and sauteed mushrooms? Man, that was fantastic...), no major outings, nothing fantastic or horrific. I'm trying to motivate myself to get pictures up, so we'll see if those appear by the end of the day or not. Picassa hasn't been agreeing with me though...

I guess that's it for now. I'm going to go do some more reading and napping. Weekends are wonderful. :o)
~Nikki

Happy

I am really quite happy right now, and I feel the need to share that. My first week of school is over. I was absolutely drained by the end of it, but that wasn't the fault of my kids. I have a good group this year, and I'm really excited about it. We're started things off well I think, and it looks as though it should continue that way. Amen! It's kind of fun, too, to have my old students walk into the room and tell me it looks like a whole new room. Granted, they changed some of the cork boards in the room--put new and bigger ones up, but I also spent a good chunk of money and bought some nice resources. So I have a really great alphabet, number line, "classroom rules" posters, some borders for my boards, and a few other things. On top of that, the school actually bought some decent paper to put up as the background on the boards, and that makes huge difference. Before it's always been dull shades of green, black, white, off-white etc. Now I've got really brilliant blue, lime green, purple, and even some stripey stuff. I like it a lot. As soon as my external hard-drive finishes copying my old computer and I get the files transfered to this computer, I'll put up some pictures.

Last night was really nice as well, and that made me happy. Johani and I went out with four of the new teachers from school. There is a married couple from South Africa--Mark and Yolanda, then Michelle from Canada, and Lynn from Ireland, though she spent the last two years teacher in Qatar. They are all in their late 20's/early 30's; we meshed pretty well. They aren't too wrapped up in the politics from last year either, which is refreshing. So, we went to an Irish pub/restaraunt last night where they had ladies night--free champagne and daquiris. Granted that the daquiris are pretty weak, but that was kind of nice. So we had ourselves a good dinner, enjoyed some free drinks, and even danced a little. It was good to hang out with people and for pretty cheap (Johani and I managed the bus. You've got to love traveling around for less than a dollar a person).

The final item on the list of things currently making me happy is that Johan was able to bluetooth Skype to me this morning, so I now have that on my new computer. For some odd reason, hers came with it already installed, while mine did not. We got the same computer from the same place (though mine ended up coming in from a different location because they were temporarily out of stock). Interesting, but I'm just glad to have Skype again. It felt a little silly and counter-productive to have two computers on at the same time. Glad to have that problem solved. Now I can call home again, and I once again have a backspace and spacebar button that function properly. Life is good.

Oh, I meant to post this before, but I guess I'll do it now. Last weekend Johani and I had to go the the main post office branch for me to collect a package from a certain man in my life. For some reason the man from school who usually collects the mail wasn't allowed to get this piece, so I had to go retrive it personally. I guess I shouldn't say that Johani had to come along--she choose to. But that's beside the point. The point is that you would think a trip to the post office would be no big deal. You would be wrong about that. First, I located a bus map and figured out a route to get there. After, Johani both made sure we had out bus cards, then trekked on over to the bus stop nearest our flat. When we got to the bus stop, we noticed a new machine there. We saw people swipping little gray plastic cards, which looked different than the thick paper ones that she and I had. So, I tried swipping mine, and sure enough, it was now out of date. We needed the new credit-card looking ones. So, I followed the directions, put my 20 dirhams in, and got us a card. We decided that we would just get one card and swipe it twice on the bus rather than get two when neither of us ever take the bus without the other. Then we waited for the bus. The bus came, we got on, I swipped the card once, then tried to swipe it again. It said "Already checked in". I thought, this cannot be good. The driver then informed us we both needed a card. Except he began pulling away before Johani could hop off the bus to quickly get herself one. So, she got a free ride. Not a bad deal, even though it costs all of 60ish cents to ride.

We got off at our connection point where, thankfully, there was another card machine. I had noticed that most of the bus stops did not have machines. We got out more money and went to get another card. Except that this machine was not turned on yet. So, we decided that we would just catch a cab the rest of the way since it wasn't that far. After walking for a bit and not finding a good spot to get a cab, I took a look at the map and thought that we might just be able to walk to the post office, though it would be at least a good half an hour walk. Off we went, in the 95ish degree weather, with full sun and very high humidity.

After a while I thought we'd reached our final turn, but upon consulting the map a little closer and looking around for matching landmarks, I decided that we might not be exactly where I had hoped. Nearly melting from the heat, we decided to catch a cab, which ended up being good because we were headed in the wrong direction. Eventually, we made it to the post office, I got my box, and then we tried to being making our way back home.

First, we had to figure out where the nearest bus stop was. After trying to ask someone in the post office, I finally gave up and we began consulting my two maps. Just about the time I got it figured out and was ready to put the maps away, somone from inside walked out and told us that they stop was just around the other side of the building. Great. So, we walked to the stop. No card machine. No card machine = no bus ride. I knew there was a bus station somewhere in the area, so we began walking toward it. To make a very long story short, after many failed attempts, lots of walking in the heat, and SEVEN HOURS from the time we left, we finally made it back to our apartment. I'm quite glad to get the items that were in my box, but I'm hoping that I don't have to make that trek again soon.

That's all for today. :o)
~Nikki

Undecided

I couldn't quite decide what to call this post, but I think that "Undecided" might just be a good title anyway. I can't quite decide if this is going to be a great year, or a horriffic year. So far, I love my kids. I have a class with lots of personality, and they are pretty well behaved as far as kids here go. Johani said that if she were going to pick any of the current grade two classes as her favorite, it would be the kids that I got. I think I agree with her. It's kind of a nice feeling too that two parents have already requested that their children be transfered to me, and the parents of the one boy who was transfered out are absolutely throwing a fit about it--they want him in my class. It makes me smile.

Unfortunately, while my kids are really doing quite well, as am I this time--I'm going into this with a much better approach and idea of what I'm getting myself into--the rest of the school is falling to pieces. And I mean that quite literally. Johani has two large holes in her ceiling where water just comes through on occassion. The current solution is just to stick a bucket under it--nevermind the fact that it's coming down in chunks. We're still seven teachers short in the Junior section, which is only grades 1-4. A few of the new teachers don't look like they're going to last much more than a month if things continue the way that they are. No one really knows when more teachers are getting here. I have never seen an entire staff look so crushed and defeated after only four full days of school. Our new secretary is certainly not helping any--she really isn't cut out to work here, and she's driving everyone nuts. The poor nannies just hide now whenever possible, and look like they are just at their wits end. We're all sneaking around and doing things on the sly. Today I was such a rebel; I made a photocopy by myself while the secretary was out of the office! Gasp! And I went into the supply room without an escort--I know where they keep the key now! :o) The poor nanny, Jucy, and I were whispering to each other in case she came back, and Jucy quickly showed me what drawer the key is in so I can get it when I need it. It really is ridiculous. We're supposed to submit supply requests two days in advance now. You need staples? Fill out a form and you'll get them in two days. Yep. That's my school.

As an update on a previous post, I recently had a job prospect at Birch Grove Community School in Tofte, MN. If I could have a dream job, I think that would be it. The position was for a multi-level second and third grade classroom. Really nice school, excellent team of educators, amazing community involvement, emphasis on the outdoors and every child reaching his/her potential, and 16 kids in the class! On top of that, it's five minutes from Neal's (an my future) apartment. Basically, I had a chance to go home. And I didn't take it. I look around me right now, and I see absolute chaos--even the staff who have been there forever say things have never been this bad before. So, I had a choice: to run away, or to stick it out. I chose to stay. I refuse to let happen to my current group of kids what happened to the last group I had. We're already short of teachers, and for me to leave would mean another 27 kids without a teacher for at least a month. On top of that, there are only two other returning teachers in grade two. If I had left, that would have meant four new teachers; miserable. It may not be the easier thing to do, but why are we surprised when we suffer for doing good? In the end, I know that staying is the right thing.

On a completely different note, my computer is giving up the ghost. The mouse has had it--it's just not working so much anymore. On top of that, it takes forever to start up, or sometimes a couple of tries; it freezes a lot, windows has to restart all the time, and you can't really ask it to do more than one thing at a time. Sad day for a computer that's been with me for many years. BUT! The fantastic news is that I'm typing this post on my brand new computer!!! I just got it out of the box about half an hour ago, and I'm really loving it. I didn't think I would get anything fancy whenever it came time to get something new, but Johani just got an HP Touchsmart and fell in love with it, which meant that I did too. She liked my old HP, so she started doing her research on them. Since she was pretty thorough and loved hers after she got it, I did a little research of my own and decided just to follow suit. I was a little nervous about buying something overseas, but after checking out prices and packages and seeing what Johani got, and especially after how my old computer has been over the past week, I'm happy I made the leap. Let us all hope the joy continues for many many days to come.

That's it for now. I'm going to explore the many features of my new toy.
Have a good one,
~Nikki

Gym, Sauna, Swim, Repeat

Or, Let The Chaos Begin

Johani and I are about three days strong on our mission to work out everyday. And we've gotten into this fantastic routine of gymming (as she calls working out), then we hit up the sauna for ten minutes or so, followed by a soak in the pool. It's marvelous. Absolutely marvelous. And I would think it can be nothing but good for us, especially considering that school started today. Ooooh yes. The children are back. Well, sort of anyway.

I walked in to school today to find that my class list was finally in my pigeon hole... in Arabic. Yes, that's right. All 25 of my students names were written solely in Arabic. However, I was able to figure out the names of five of my children. When you see five "names" in a row that all look exactly the same (nevermind the fact that I have no concept of Arabic letters--I could just tell that the shape was the same), I knew instantly that I must have five Mohammads. Yep. That's right. Five. Exciting, huh? When you have doubles (or quintuplets, I suppose), they pretty much just go by their father's name, which is their second name (they sometimes have up to eight names). I only had one Mohammad today though. Matter of fact, at any given time I only had about eight children. One was a clingy screamer-crier who wouldn't leave his mother for the morning, and by the time he came around and joined the class, another girl went home sick. Swine flu is a pretty darn big concern right now. Lots of parents are keeping their kids home for a while--some saying until December. Anyway, that means that the kids have to have their temperatures taken every morning, and the girl who went home sick was running about 100*, so she had to go. The poor nannies and workers all have to walk around with masks on. It's an intersting place to be. I'm staying well stocked in hand sanitizer, disinfecting spray, vitamins, and rooibos tea.

Life goes on.

A Room and a Request

Apparently I like alliteration... Anyway, my classroom is officially ready for kids! It looks so good--I love it. I can't say what a massive blessing that is. There are still a few little details to get sorted out, but kids could walk in and we could have class. And it's bright and colorful and I actually got to purchase and put up some really nice resources. I wanted to take pictures today to share, but unfortunately I didn't have time. You wouldn't think that setting up a classroom would take that long, but you would be wrong. Especially when you suddenly have lots of bulletin boards to put paper and borders on, and then decorate, which means making materials relevant to what you're teaching (which requires working computers, printers, printers with ink, photocopying, and sometimes laminating, all of which can be very tricky to come by here). And then there is the rule that we're not supposed to put stuff on the walls, except for our alphabet and number line. Only, the really crappy double sided tape that they have here, which is the only thing that will actually stick to the walls, completely ruins whatever you use it on, so you don't want to use it and ruin your really nice, new alphabet. Which means you have to bring in your few precious 3M command hooks and put those way up high on the wall above your boards so that you can run some yarn between them, and then stand on a desk (which you have to move every two minutes) and use clothespins to hang the whole alphabet and your 0-30 number line. Yep, setting up a classroom can really take a while. But when you can stand back and look at it afterward and feel really great about it, then it's worth it.

Interestingly enough, I'm not sure how long I'll be in that classroom. I got an curious message today which might change some things for me. So, I'd really appreciate any pry'rs on my behalf.

As always,
~Nikki

Musings on the Moon

Week two an school is nearly finished, which is both good and bad. Allow me to explain. We still don't know what day the kids are coming back to school. It will either be next Wednesday, the 23rd, or it will be the following Sunday, the 27th. It all depends on when the moon is sighted, signaling the end of Ramadan and the beginning of Eid. It should be sighted on Sunday. However, it might be cloudy, which would make the sighting on Monday. If it is sighted on Sunday, the kids come back Wednesday. If the moon isn't sighted until Monday, they come back the following Sunday. We've heard rumors of official declarations by the Ministry (a government agency), but no official word at school. Nevermind the fact that there are still classrooms in the KG section that are less than half constructed, or that rooms in our section aren't finished being converted to needed classrooms, or that we are still missing teachers. No no, none of that matters--the show must go on. *sigh* If you know what TIA means, then you can understand TID. There's no better way to put it.

As for other news... well, there isn't much really. Johani and I are still getting along quite well. We have a nice mix of doing things together, like making meals or renting movies, and yet still giving each other space. Fortunately we both like it good and cold when we're sleeping, which is fantastic, and we seem to like similar enough foods, though she is helping me add spice to my life. I now add small doses of cayene pepper to lots of random foods just for the sake of it. I also find it interesting to learn what different words mean to different people. For example, I ask, "So, do you want to have spaghetti for dinner tonight?" She replies," Sounds good. Want to have it with the pesto sauce again?" At this point, I'm a little confused. Spaghetti is obviously pasta with red tomato sauce, and here she is suggesting that we also make it with pesto sauce. It then occurs to me that when I say spaghetti to her, she thinks of long, thin noodles with sauce. Spaghetti is just the pasta, not the whole meal. Learning little things like that has been fun and enlightening for me.

Give me a few more days and I'll try and get some pictures of my classroom posted, and perhaps my apartment as well.

Oh, and I now have a phone number in case anyone feels like calling me. (218) 206-2678 is a phone number for Duluth, MN, however it calls my skype account. So, for the price of calling Duluth, you can call my computer. Just thought I'd throw that out there.

Thanks,
~Nikki

The Weekend

My first weekend is here--hurray. :o) The week at school ended pretty well. We have three new classroom teachers (of the six needed), and so far I like them. One is Palestinian, one Irish, and the other Canadian. I'll still have the same Arabic teacher from last year, which is both good and bad, but I suppose there are worse things in life. Gd knows what he's doing. So, I've been getting my classroom arranged, boxes unpacked, and I'm starting to get my bulletin boards ready to go. And tomorrow, I get to pick up the rest of my things from Sharjah. That makes me happy.

Not much else worth mentioning. I just finished a new book, which I'll write more about later, and I'm still loving my new flat, as well as my new flatmate. In that I have definitely been blessed. I had a great person to live with last year, and this year looks to be just as good. Speaking of which, I think she and I are off to do a little exploring of the area, and to pick up a few things for the apartment.

Have a good one,
~Nikki

Another Day

Last night and this morning have been better than yesterday was. Transportation to and from school is getting sorted out, Johani and I rearranged the living room then went shopping and made dinner in the apartment for the first time, and I have nearly everything unpacked and put away in my bedroom--I just need to get my desk from Sharjah to finish. One foot in front of the other, breathing in and out. "Normalcy", or as close as it gets in a place like this, will get here eventually.

Back in Dubai

It seems that I find myself once again on the other side of the world. Coming back has been both good, and immensely difficult. Settling in to my new apartment felt good, and walking around the streets last night in the 95 and humid weather made it feel like I had never left. Yet coming back to school today made me want to hyperventilate. I know that right now I'm being overly pessimistic, and that I'm looking at everything that could go wrong (the people I have been around have not helped that at all). But I feel like a tsunami wave is about to crash over me, and I don't relish the thought of drowning. There are so many teachers that didn't come back, it's ridiculous. I'm praying that they fill all of the spots before school begins. But we still have three weeks to find out. Today, we're required to be at school, but that's it. There is nothing for us to do. And I mean that literally. Even the Head of Department doesn't know what's going on. We don't even know if we're going to be in the same classrooms as last year, or where we'll be getting moved to. They needed to create extra classrooms because of all the new students we'll be taking in, and that hasn't happened yet; they're still doing major construction over in the KG section, too. So, we'll show up every day for the next two weeks, have a little time off, then start back on the... 27th maybe? Who knows.

*Sigh* I promise to work on being more optimistic for my next post. I know that the will of Gd will never take me where His grace cannot keep me. But I'm lonely. And I'm nervous. And I just wish that someone, somewhere knew was going on, and had some idea of how to run a school.

Ok. Enough for now.
~N

Motorcycles, Michigan and More

Hello from Michigan. Wednesday morning my dad and I took off on a couple of motorcycles, heading for my grandparents' house in lower Michigan. We got here Thursday afternoon and spent the evening relaxing, then yesterday my Aunt Laurie and crew (her husband, four children, one daughter-in-law, one girlfriend, and two small dogs) came over for supper, which was a lot of fun. Today my Uncle Joe and Aunt Marsha are coming over for the same, so it should be a good time.

Tomorrow we'll head out again and make our way home. I have to say that I really like my little Suzuki, but after 13 hours on the road, your back gets a little sore. My dad did a little better--he's borrowing a friend's Harley. Rough, right?

And I didn't previously post it, because we hadn't decided at that point, but many of you know that Neal and I were looking at July 17th as our wedding date. We found out that's a bit conflicting with at least one other family wedding, so it might be more like the middle to end of August, but I'll put out an official date when we get there...again.

Hope your day has been as lovely as the one here. Enjoy the waning weeks of summer!

~Nikki

Summer News

So I guess I've been on summer hiadus for the past month or so. I didn't expect that I'd have quite so much going on, but I guess I was wrong! Between the mad-dash last-minute packing job that I did the day I left Dubai, flying into Indiana and spending a week with my grandmother, swinging home to see my family and my "new" nephew Kaidan, working for a few days, helping out with Vacation Bible School, helping teach an ESL class at church for the foreign students in town, flying to Montana for a week to be in the wedding of one of my best friends from high school then coming back home to visit with my Aunt/sister and her two boys, family friends and their four boys plus one dog, and now being in Green Bay to pick up my younger sister who is at my older sister's house, it's been a pretty busy month and a half. Whew! But I've enjoyed it, and that's a good thing.

And now for the really exciting news. Somewhere between traveling around the country, visiting with friends and family, and helping out with this project or that, the man I'm in love with asked me to marry him. I'm now officially engaged to Neal Meyer, who's from here in Minnesota. I've been trying pretty hard to call lots of people in the last... 48ish hours (he proposed on Tuesday the 4th) and I feel like I've done a pretty good job, but there are lots of people to tell! So, in case you didn't know before, I guess you know now. :o) Here's a picture of us at Palisade Head on Tuesday.

More Good News

Well, my phone currently isn't working, facbook isn't working, and email is scarce. But! It's official--I have place secured in Dubai for next year! Mr. Sharif gave Johani and I both the go ahead, which means good things for her as well (her flatmate is nice, but seriously dfficult to live with--so she'll be out of there!). And Johani is heading home in a few hours, so I'm happy for her. She has been such a enormous help to me over the past few weeks; I really don't know what I would have done without her.

Ok, more of a real update when internet and computers are better, and when I'm safely home in MN.

TTFN,

~Nikki

Packing!

It's been an interesting week at school, but there have been good ups along with the downs. I got my summer pay all worked out--hurray! And right about now it is paying off that I haven't upset the wrong people, and that I have kept some of those people on my side per se. You would be amazed at what has been going on lately. Anyway, today I got to start packing up stuff in my apartment... to move to Dubai!! Yes!!! So, my classroom is packed, my things to go home are just about packed, and now my apartment is also largely packed. Life is good. :o)

H

This post is brought to you by the letter H. H, as in:

Hot. It's been anywhere between 43* C and 50* C the last few weeks. That translates into between 110* F and 122* F. And no, it's not a dry heat. Because the letter H is also begins the word Humid. Sometimes I think you could wring the air if you really tried to. But thankfully, in an amazing and extreme act of grace, I am acclimating extraordinarily well. Freshman year of college I went to Guatemala for a week, where it was 104 in the shade and very dry, and I had serious issues with the heat. But this, well this weather I'm handling just fine. Yeah, it's hot, but yesterday I went walking around outside for a while and I could actually do it. Not that I wanted to be out much longer that I was, but thankfully the air is often pretty thick here, so at least you're only being baked and not fried as well (though two hours at the pool without sunscreen may not be the wisest idea...)

Thankfully, H also begins the word Happy, which is what I have been lately. :o) I had a fantastic weekend hanging out with Johani and adventuring around Dubai, as well as a great day today. On Friday we went to Jebel Ali, then to the Ibn Batutta mall,where I got left without a ride for the first time in a looong time. That wasn't an awful thing because I knew there was a bus stop there... somewhere... It just took us two hours to find it... But! we had a good time. We eventually made it back to her place, went to the Sahara Mall right near her flat (which is usually where I catch a taxi to go home), and did a little shopping there. Then I decided to just stay at her place for the night. By the end of the day I found myself with a new purse, which I needed, and a new dress, which I didn't necessarily need but which I fell in love with. It's green. :o) Yesterday, we went swimming on the roof of her building, then to the gold souk and the heritage village where we found some fun things as well. It was also a very good day, and thankfully we didn't have any trouble finding bus stops.

Today was also most excellent. I did not get to school at the usualy 6:15: because I stayed at Johani's again, I got there at 7:40. After that, I journaled for a bit, took a walk over to the Kindgergarten section with Johani, gave a guitar lesson to another teacher for a least an hour and a half, then did some scales on the piano and had a mini voice lesson with Johani. The day flew by--it was great!

Lastly, H is for Home, which is where I am heading soon! Go ahead, ask me how that feels. :o) I'm at the point where I'm ready to slowly start packing things up--I have to have everything ready to go when I leave in case my things get moved over the summer instead of when I get back. So, the I get to pack up everything in my apartment, not just my stuff to go home. But I'm ok with that. Fortunately I don't have tons and tons of stuff.

So, that's life with me for now.

:o)

-> Reply

I love it when people make me think, especially in response to something I've written here. Thankfully, God puts wise people into my life to help keep me from swinging too far to one side of the spectrum or the other.

Unfortunately for me, I cannot read what I write with eyes that are not my own, and posting here just does not allow me to convey everything that is in my head. That's why I think it's great to have feedback every now and again about what I write. Anyway. Here is my latest personal lesson.

I have a friend who likes to question me and share things with me very very often, and who nearly always about the same topics. The heart of this person is in the right place, but I often feel like I get grilled or lectured about the same things over and over again, and sometimes I wish this person would stop (unconsciously) expecting me to be passionate about all the same things. It is not wrong for me to be dispassionate about some things and more excited about others. Perhaps, however, this is something I also need to apply to myself. I am at a point where I am really thrilled about what I am learning, and about the ways that I feel God is moving in my life. But that is my own person journey. As much as I want to see a revival, especially in American chr'ches in general, I cannot expect everyone else to be at the same place that I am. I hope you will forgive me if you feel beaten over the head with a Bib. le--that is most definitely not my intention. I realize that to anyone reading this blog who does not believe what I believe, I probably sound something like a fanatic. I will hope not, but I guess that's a risk I'm willing to take at this point.

That being said, I also want to hedge part of my last post. I think all of us know people who are overly zealous to share their hope, and in doing so, they end up driving people away. This is something I have always been scared of, which is one reason I have kept my mouth shut for so many years. I've always been concerned with offending people. I still think this is a legitimate concern. However, if I could sum up what I really hope to see in my own life, and during my time at home this summer, it would be a greater openness and readiness. Hospitality is very important to me, and, in my opinion, should be important in a body of believers. However, our aim should not be to trap people in a situation and then put them on the spot--I think that can do more harm than never saying anything at all. But hospitality is the openness side of the coin. It is a way that I see all of us being able to fulfill the Comision, rather than just leaving that work for "professionals".

The other side of the coin is readiness--not that we necessarily launch convrsion campaigns, but, at least for me, that I would "always be prepard to give an anser to everyone who asks you to giv the reson for the hope that you have. But do ths with gentlenss and respect"

I'm know that there is a difference between being positively radical and destructively fanatical; may I learn it well, and not do too much harm in the meantime.

Thanks,
~Nikki

Because you do not ask

Ask and you will receive.
As you may have noticed, God has really been stirring in my heart lately. I know my last post was pretty heavy, and I have had several others recently about fruit in our lives, prayer (by the way, sometimes the title of the post is a link to another site. Just thought I'd mention that. :o) , and other similar things. I have been convicted lately of not praying enough, but man is it a difficult thing to do when you just really don't feel like it--when your thoughts are distracted and you feel like you keep repeating yourself, or you don't know what to pray for and you don't want just a bunch of empty words. This is item number one. Item number two has been for me to realize how timid and faithless I have been about certain things. I know that I want to do "volunteer" work in Africa (read: mi shuns work), and I have sort of been saving that mindset for when I "go there." I'm just in my current location to work and earn money so I can pay off my student loans and "go there." Then I realized how much I should be growing while I'm here, and that I should really try to bless others. But sharing what I believe as boldly as others do was just something I wasn't ready for. WRONG! Oh how very wrong I have been. It is a sad thing that, with only a few weeks left this time around, I finally want to be doing what I should have been doing all along. But let me back up a bit.

Perhaps it is just time. It seems that I always come to things just when I ought to, almost like God had a plan in mind all the time (shocking, I know). As I have said, I've really grown a lot these past months. This time around, it has been a culmination of a greater desire to pray more, being hit by the immensity of the go-spell, and a desire for more boldness especially when sharing, which all sort of came together in the audio clip of my last post. I mentioned my prayer struggle a bit, so allow me to take a moment to expound upon what I mean when I mention the go'pel. At the ch.ch I'm currently attending, I hear a lot about being cross centered and about hearing the gos' every week--if it isn't brought out in the message somehow, then it wasn't a message appropriate for corporate worsh'p. If you're anything like me, then when you think of the g'spel you probably think about the story of Js coming, dying, and being raised to life again, and a need to pray the "sin.r's prayer." It's like the door that you have to walk through to get to the rest of it, not a place that you spend much time. But take a moment to think about it. Without the gosp., nothing else matters. It's everything! Every instruction in the Bi'l for right living is just a weight on your shoulders if the gos' is left out; it's the law we can never live up to. Chrs'ity without the gos. is just Morality, and Morality never saved anyone. I firmly believe this is why so many people, especially those who grow up in "Chr'n" homes, ultimately reject Ch't. Without understanding the mindblowing love and sacrifice and work that was done on the crss, it's just silly stories and one big guilt-trip, and who needs that? Let us never become so "spirt'l" that we think we no longer need the fundamentals. The fundumentals are everything.

Getting back to the original thought of the last paragraph, I have struggled with prayer, been blown away by rediscovering an "old" truth, and have felt the need to be more "bold and stouthearted". So, even though it was like trying to pedal a bike with a rusty chain, I asked God for help. I asked for a desire to pray more, to never lose sight of what is really important, and to put a fire in me so that I would long for opportunities to share, and that I would act upon those momentary feelings of boldness. I want plain evidence in my life of the amazing transformation of my heart--of the grace that has saved me. While it is true that we are sav'd by our faith, it is also true that faith without works is dead.



I also have to add this to my post. Some people think it's really great and brave that I want to go to 3rd world countries to be a miss shun airy. You want to know the truth though? Sometimes I think it's more cowardly than anything. The greatest problem we face when sharing our hope with others is not convicing them that they need to be saved, it's convincing them that they are lost. Now, you tell me which is easier: convincing someone with a steady job, nice house, two cars that run well and a golden retriever that they need to hope in something beyond this world, or someone who lives in a mud hut and has one change of clothing? I pick the mud hut. Granted, there are many other trials and challenges to the work that I look forward to. But what I really want to say is this: the m field isn't just "there". It's everywhere. It's here in D, where there are people from over 200 different nations who come and go regularly; who are hearing and believing and taking that hope home with them. It's in your workplace, with the people you see everyday, or with that woman who always rings up your groceries. It's in Tofte and GM, which are really like mini Dubais. Think about it! How many students come every year, from all over the world? If you work with or near them, have you ever thought about what a unique position that puts you in? Think about Olga from last summer--she came, heard, believed, and took that fire back to Russia with her. How many people have now had the chance to hear who might not have otherwise? Please! I beg you! When you are in a foreign place where you don't know anyone, it is such a bl'ssing when someone reaches out to you. Being invited over for lunch is just about the greatest thing ever! It's really frustrating when you feel like you can't get around anywhere, and intimidating when you feel like you have to invite yourself along places. Reach out to them--make it easy. Arrange transportation both ways with set times and expectations, or at least a wide open invitation that allows for flexibility. And if you're thinking, "I'm not ashamed of what I believe, but I'm the sort of person who can just strike up a conversation about it," firstly I say you're wrong (I was! No one picks up a new instrument or tries to learn a new skill and is immediately excellent at it...), but secondly then at least get the students to someone who will share with them. Eternity is hanging in the balance, and each one of us has been given the same Commission.

Wow. That was a lot. For a quick update on other things--it was a good weekend, and it has been a good week so far. I finally have boxes to pack up my classroom, and we're basically done already with the science and math planning for next year. Awesome? I think so. And pretty soon, I'll be packing up a few things of my own! Now to decide what to take and what to leave here...

Lost

I am shaken to my core, and for that do I rejoice. As I continue this post, keep in mind that I first and foremost ask all of these questions of myself.

How do you know that you are saved? Is it because you prayed a prayer once? Because you believe in God and Js Chst? Because you are bapt eyezed? You take communion? In your heart of hearts you just know? Because you believe in the work of the cross? I ask you, HOW DO YOU KNOW? What does the Bbl say? Is that a question you can answer? I am ashamed to say that I could not. But I have since looked, and here is what I have found in just Matthew.

Now a man cmae to Je and asked, "Teahcer, what ood thing must I do to get eterhanl life?" "Why do you aske em about what is good? There is olny One who is good. If you wnat to enter life, oby the command mints." 19:17

What are some of those commandments?
You have heard, "Do not murder." But if you are angry with your brother, it is the same . See 5:21
And you have been told not to be an adulterer. But if you look with lsut, you are guilyt. See 5:27
Love your ene my and p'y for those who peresecute you. 5:43o
Donot judge. 7:1
Forgive. 18:21-35
And lastly, "Be perfect, therefore, as your hvn'y Fahter is pefrect." 5:48

These are commands we cannot keep. What, then, must we do?
"From that tmie on Js began to praech, "Repent, for the knigdom is naer." 4:17
And "Produce fruit in keeping with repentnace." 3:8

And what will happen to those who do not bear fruit "in keeping with repentance"?
"The ax is already at the root of the trees, and evrey tree that deos not porduce good fruit will be cut down and thrwon into the fire." 3:10

Again, I ask you, how do you know where you will spend the life hereafter? How do you know? Do not be deceived. You cannot prey a pryr one day, and continue living as you did the day before. You cannot sit in a service on Sundays, or simply confess Js with your mouth. "Woe to you... You are like white-washed tombs, which look beautiful on the outsdie, bit unside are full of ... hypocrysi and wickadness." 23:27, 23:28

Many will say to me on that day, "Lor Lrd, [a repition of this term indicates these people spent their lives professing his name] did we not...?" The I will tell them plpainly, "I never knew you." See 7:22

I prey that your heart would be seared as mine has been. Give an hour of your time, and listen to this semon (it is not the exact one that I heard, but it is the same speaker and the message is essentially the same). Believe me, it will not be an hour wasted. Yes, I know, an hour seems like longer than you want to commit. But, really? Is one hour of your fleeting life really more important than an eternity of ever-after? Can you answer assuedly, with sound Bibcl evidence, exactly how you know? Is the fruit in your life good, and plain to all men? You may know and profess Chst, but does he know you? I plead with you, turn off the television, stop surfing the internet, put down the magazine and spend an hour listening to this. You might ask, "Aren't you being a little overly-dramatic and macabre?" Am I? When was the last time you really considered the magnitude and importance of what is haninging the balance?

What signs in your life show that you are the "salt and light of the world"? (5:13, 5:14)
"Make a tree good and it's fruit will be good... a tree is recognized by its fruit... For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks... men will have to give account... for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquited, and by your words you will bee condmend." 12:33 - 12:37

This post is not laid out nearly as well as in the provided link (it's late and I'm tired, but this is important), but I hope you're feeling uncomfortable enough to take the time to listen. It's not a feel-good message, but if you are serious about desiring to call yourself a Chrstn, it is one you won't regret hearing.

~Nikki

The Big and the Small

I have to add a quick note to this morning's post. As I was typing it, I was also chatting online with one of my best friends from home, who happens to be getting married in just over a month. I was telling her about my "tight-rope" situation, and that I just sent an email I'm not sure I should have sent. Certainly not the end of the world, but one of those "Should I take action or wait patiently?" situations where I chose to take action, then questioned it afterward. She told me the most wonderful thing. Before she officially got engaged, she spent a semester studying in Ghana. During that time, she knew that an engagement was coming soon, and she and her boyfriend were of course discussing many things over email. Here is , essentially, what she told me. "You know, some of my most controversial emails didn't make it to him. He just never got them." WOW. God is sovereign over everything, even emails! Right now, I'm trusting that God is going to work out a couple of really big things in my life that seem almost ludicrous. But I firmly believe that He is going to do it. How can I then turn around and not trust him in such a small matter as an email? Hitting "send" feels so final, but He has the last word. We make our mistakes, but his will prevails. Hal-lay-lou-ya and a-men. :o)

That just really made my day, so I felt the need to share it.


love ya KJ (KC!)

Growing and Going

I'm more than half way through my first week of no kids, and so far it has been great. I have time to do my paperwork (much of which has to be submitted, checked and give back before you can do the next step with it), to write up report cards, and to try to meet with some people who always seem to be unavailable. But, it's been very laid back, which is wonderful. The last two days some of the teachers ordered a whole spread of Lebanese food for breakfast, though you wouldn't think of it as breakfast by our standards. They use lots of bread. A girl I once worked with who lived in Hungary told me that in the US, we had really bad bread. I didn't understand this at the time--how could other bread be so much better? Now I understand how limited my experience with bread has been. :o) Anyway, you have to imagine bread somthing like pita or a thin pizza dough that's soft, shaped in ovals that are 6 inches long and three inches wide, some that are more pinched at the ends, some folded into triangles and stuffed. They have cheese on top (really good cheese that we don't have. Reminds me of a cross between cheddar and mozzarella), meat minced very finely with some spices, or spinach stuffed inside. They also have hummous (chickpeas well mashed with tahina sauce, I think) that you eat with thin lebanese bread or with the carrots, lettuce, and cucumbers. There was a round bread with something red and spicy on it too, but I didn't try that one. Oh! And yesterday they have little savory 'donuts'. I think filafel and sesame, but I'm not quite sure. They were really good though. Anyay, that has been breakfast. And school.

So, as my dad mentioned in his blog, this year has been extremely hard, but also a time of amazing growth for me. I told him that if my growth in the inside could be seen on the outside, I'd be at least 5'9" instead of 5'4". I know I've done my fair share of complaining, but I really am thankful for the benefits. So, you may ask, how is all of that changing now that the school year is over? Well, there are still admin issues that I'm trying to deal with, so right now it's finding that balance between ranting and raving like most other people, or getting walked on. How do I live in a way that shows there is something different about my life while still being firm? That's my current quandary. I'm sort of walking a tightrope in that area, and with a few other things right now. I'm trying very hard to believe that G will accomplish his plans through/for/inspite of me, while also trying hard not to screw up. It's that line between take action and waiting patiently, and sometimes it's not so clear which of the two you should be doing. I have more thoughts on that subject, but I need to collect them a little more so I think I will save them for another time and another post (maybe my next one. :o)

Enjoying my remaining time, but counting down the days,
~Nikki