Eid

We just finished a great week with our friends here. Ramadan has ended, and what follows are three days of celebration called Eid. This is a fun time because everyone is in a good mood and wants to visit you and be visited by you! Scott and I did it a little differently this year in splitting up our time a bit. I went with our new colleague, Stacy, to visit some female friends of mine on two different mornings and then Scott spent the afternoon visiting some of his guy friends with our intern, DJ. This worked great because Zeke could come with either one of us for visits while Ethan stayed home and napped. We all went to one of our students’ homes for a meal one of the days.

We are realizing that we are getting more and more accustomed to cultural traditions and what is expected of us. This is the third Eid we have been through here and we look more forward to it because we are acting in less and less awkward ways! I however made one mistake at a friend’s house. I got confused because they served 3 rounds of different drinks (usually there are only 2 at most houses) and then a long period of time afterwards. We had more visits we had to make so I thought we could excuse ourselves at that time. Apparently I was wrong, though, and had tried to go too soon. My friend’s mother put her hand on my shoulder and physically sat me back down. Then they brought some cookies out for us. However, by this time now I was all thrown off and had no idea when it was okay to go. Fortunately, some of their relatives had come to visit at about the same time we did, so when they got up to go we were able to make our exit as well.

Another fun thing that comes out only during holidays are these crazy swings that hold huge groups of kids. They look so crazy and dangerous! They pile kids on these big metal contraptions that look like those pirate ship rides at theme parks and then swing it back and forth for long periods of time. They also have donkey and four wheeler rides. Zeke so badly wanted to ride on the swing, but I just couldn’t bring myself to allow it. I’m sure a couple more years of this and maybe I’ll be on that swing myself right along with Zeke! We continue to strive to be in a position of teachability, even as our experiences and knowledge of the culture grows. Even if we spend a lifetime here I don’t think we’ll completely run out of new things to learn!