Assimilation

Last week we traveled to another city in country to begin the “language acquisition” part of our trip. Our program was designed to give us very minimal language for the first month so that we’d see how possible it is to live daily life without knowing much of the native tongue. Now that that’s over, however, we’re beginning to be taught Arabic, and let me say how amazing it has been! I feel as though Dad has really been opening my mind to absorb and understand this language, and has even been giving me little victories throughout these last 2 weeks to keep me encouraged. B’smeela! (Praise be to God!)

In the city we were in last week, we stayed in homes with native family called home-stays (creative name, huh?). I stayed with another guy on the team, and let me say how faithful He was. Our family had 9 or so girls and 3 guys, so there was a ton of people in the house. The guys mostly worked or slept day, but 2 of the girls were in elementary school and one knew a few words in English. For the first day, we sat around for 2 or 3 hours just pointing at different things we wanted to know the names of. Arabic has a few sounds that we don’t have in English, so we all laughed a ton as the Americans tried to replicate all these weird words. Having school-aged kids really helped, as everything they were learning, we were trying to learn as well. Another day we sat down and helped them with their multiplication tables. They were learning math and we were learning all the numbers (I may have been refreshing my math as well-it has been quite a long time☺).

One night we somehow got roped into playing a game that is kind of like Marco Polo but without the pool. One person is “it,” gets blindfolded, and tries to grab another person while everyone else pushes or taps or grabs the “it.” If you’re thinking this sounds crazy, it was, but everyone was laughing and joking, and there were several times the older ladies would get involved too. By the end of the night I felt like they were my younger and older sisters and that we were all family.

The food was incredible too, and I don’t every think I’ve eaten so much. Every few hours someone would come out with tea or coffee or bread or pastries or a full-blown meal, and right as you’re starting to feel comfortable from the last “session”, more food is brought to you. But please don’t hear this as complaining. Everything we ate (for the most part) was incredible. The traditional dish is called “tajine,” which is a little like pot roast. One night we had a lamb, potato, and carrot tajine. It may have been the most incredible thing I’ve eaten since being here. At the end of the week I must have been 5 pounds heavier (or maybe 2 kilos, as we say over here☺).

Thank you all for your intercessions and lifting us up to CJ. I can tell that He has been hearing and answering them. I love you all, miss you all, and hope that you all are well, and Inshallah (God-willing) I’ll see y’all soon!

B’slama! (Good-bye!)

-John