Wednesday, August 20, 2008

slacker



hi there,

sorry i've haven't been updating every day as planned! i must confess that over the last 3 days, i've found myself with my nose stuck in a book at every free moment possible. on the way over to afghanistan, i was bound and determined to finish the last 50 pages or so of Three Cups of Tea, which i did on the flight to atlanta. after finishing that, i thought for sure that i would pick up A Thousand Splendid Suns, which Joyce (my mother-in-law) gave me to read on the long flight over but i didn't find the motivation...that is, until 2 days ago. i started reading it on sunday, and on monday night, i stayed up until it was finished!!! i loved it and would definitely recommend it :) it was so funny how much more of the culture i understood after having been to afghanistan than i did when i read The Kite Runner. i also didn't realize how much i have really missed reading. i guess i was a little burnt out after college so i took a little hiatus, but it's all over now!..anyways, enough about my nerdish habits and on to my trip:

so, i have been keeping busy during the days around here too (when not reading). on monday, because of the national holiday - afghanistan's independence from the british in 1919 - we were sequestered to the guesthouse for most of the day. since we were staying in, we figured that it would be the perfect time for our staff planning meeting with the american and afghan staff. we met from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and then again from 2:00 to 4:30 which made for a long day. Things did however seem to move along quickly and were very productive. i think everyone was pleased with the outcome and the meeting reminded me of what an amazing organization that i am blessed to be a part of!! it's so awesome to see how God has truly pulled 2 completely different cultures and countries together, yet we're united with a mostly common purpose :)

yesterday, i went with the polish team and bob to S.D. community. we were able to see the clinics that we run in 2 different villages. the staffs at the clinics were very professional and seemed passionate about their work. there were many women in burqas holding sick babies waiting in the lobbies to be seen and i was glad to see that they actually had somewhere to go. it was encouraging to see what B.A. community has to look forward to when we are able to complete the clinic there this fall (hopefully)! we also went into one of the schools and were able to observe and introduce ourselves to some of the classes. knowing what the taliban did to discredit the education of girls in afghanistan, i was soooo happy to see the girls in the classrooms being attentive and hungry to learn. i never thought i would value my education as much as i do now knowing what a gift it really is...


last night we were supposed to have some guests from the ISAF (international security assistance force) over for dinner. unfortunately, on their way to our guesthouse, they realized that we are not in the "green zone" (aka - where it's safe for them to travel) so they had to turn back and return to the base. while it was a little disheartening that they couldn't join us for dinner, it was even a little more disheartening to realize that we must be in the "red zone"!! oh well, i still slept good last night :)

anyways, i think that's all i can write for now! i'm sleepy and my new book (finding faith by denise hunter - which i found in our guesthouse library) is calling my name. i'll try to update later tonight if i don't get drawn into another serious match of phase 10!

love y'all~

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