The above phrase means welcome. We hear it a lot here, because in this culture we are always welcome. The idea of hospitality here is more than just something nice to do, it is a very serious way of life. At any time, we can call up and invite our selves over to any home of one of our students, even if we have never talked to the family before. When we do go to peoples homes we are served only the very best and we are stuffed with food, sweets, and drinks. This is hospitality like you have never seen hospitality before. As a westerner, who was never very good at being a guest anyway, it has def been stretching to invite myself into homes and eat a lot of some very strange foods, but the experiences of stretching has always been good. The hospitality of this culture while challenging is a beautiful door into peoples' lives.
This week I have been pretty sick so life kind of got put on hold. It was work and home almost every day. I did have one awesome home visit with one of my girl's family. I was so not excited for this visit, the girl is kind of a punk in class and the mom is overbearing. Well the visit was brillant. Found out the mom is divorced ( very un-common in this culture) and my students is an only child (very very uncommon in this culture). I connected very well with the mom and by the end we were laughing and joking like friends. She is definitely someone whom I could see myself hanging out with a lot. On the way home we started talking about faith and the mom mentioned how our faiths are so similar. It was a neat opportunity to explain to her the major difference between her religion and my faith is Jesus. I love conversations like those ones.
This week if you think of it be praying for health. I am feeling much better but this was a hard week for out team here. Alot of us were pretty sick, and we are all struggling to pull ourselves back together.
Thank you all for the support and love.
ma salaam (basically its means peace out in arabic),
J
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