Where to Begin

Wow! I haven't blogged in a while and up until today I really felt like I had nothing to share. However, the last two days have been so packed full of things, that I honestly don't know where to begin and what exactly I should share. This week I have had off from school, due to the festival of Korbani Eid. It is during this week that many of my friends are remembering the sacrifice Abraham made of his son. In order to commemorate this, families will buy either a cow or a goat and kill the animal. They keep a portion of the meat and then share a portion with friends and relatives, as well as the poor. Leading up to this week, I had
seen cows everywhere. They were in the traffic, on
the street corner, and even right next to my house.

Yesterday was the day that the killing of the cows began. In the morning men gathered all throughout the city in various locations to pray. Some of my colleagues and I went to an open field where many of the men would gather. We watched as they listened to teachings and then at an exact moment they all, in unison began to pray. They have different positions in which they are to pray and all of the men do the positions at the same time. Women were at the field praying as well, but in a separate tent that was enclosed. Men brought their sons and older brothers brought their younger brothers to this field to pray. The prayers lasted...oh, maybe 10 minutes. It was quite a cultural experience. By the time we began our walk home the slaughtering of animals had already begun. I cannot tell you how many cows and goats we saw killed between this open field and my house, at least a dozen, if not more. Unfortunately we were not able to see any cows as they were being killed, they had already been killed by the time we passed. When we did walk by men would be surrounding the cow and were either skinning it or cutting the meat off. We often saw little boys helping their fathers with this. I will not put up pictures of this, to spare those of you who might have a sensitive stomach.

In the poorer areas of the city, Eid is celebrated the day after everyone else does because they go around on the day the cows are killed in order to collect their share of the meat. So, today I set out with a fellow teacher to visit her students who live in the slums. We were gone for over 6 hours visiting her students. We set out with the intention to visit as many of her students as we could. Now, one must understand that in this culture, when you visit someones home they feed you and you are expected to eat. With this in mind you have to limit how much you eat at each house, or else you will be too full to enjoy the food the other student's serve you. At our first stop we were served rice, apples, biscuits and chinchurie. It was very good and I was a little sad that I had to limit my eating.  At the second home were served noodles! I had been wanting to try noodles because I have seen my students eating them at tiffin time at school and they looked delicious. Looks didn't deceive me. The noodles were great and I ate  the whole bowl full that I was served. We also had noodles at another house and it was interesting to see how they were made differently. Both types were great and I wish I could have eaten more. The second set of noodles were much spicier than the first. At a fourth home we were served more rice and some amazing chicken. At this point in our visiting I was getting a little full and couldn't eat as much as I would have liked. The other 9 homes that we went to served us biscuits and chinchurie as well as 7up or Coke. I was pretty full on soda by the end of our visiting as well. Now if you have been keeping up with the math, you will have noted we went to a total of 13 homes. That means we ate 13 different meals or snacks. I was smart enough that at the first meal, I thought it would be a good idea to document all of the different meals/snacks we had along our journey. I sure am glad I did. Here is a look at what my meals consisted of for the day:                                                                                                                                                 

Meal #1

Meal # 2

Meal # 3

Meal # 4

Meal # 5

Meal # 6 

Meal # 7

Meal # 8

Meal # 9

Meal # 10

Meal # 11 

Meal # 12

Meal # 13

Going out into the slums today was such a good experience! The children who live there are absolutely precious. There little faces and warm smiles are adorable. I was reminded over and over again today of God's great love and compassion for children. How precious children are to Him! I am so blessed that He is giving me this chance to reach out to a group of children on the other side of the world. I am so grateful He has given me a love for these children that I have never felt  before. I so amazed at His love for each and everyone of us. And I am so in awe that He chooses us to be His hands and feet and reach out to children who need to be shown His love. As I finish my time here in the next few weeks, I pray I continue to have opportunities to show others His love and compassion. I thank God daily that He called me to be a teacher and that He is giving me the opportunity of a lifetime by serving Him here.