Wanted - A life less ordinary

In the last week, while the team was doing some r'n'r after the last month (yes yes I will post about that sometime later too) we went to see the movie "wanted" with Jolie, Freeman and Mcavoy. Like it or hate it, it's a movie that gets you thinking (once you get past the bizarre plot and random violence that is) and in the last month I've been doing a lot of thinking - so this is just to get the ball rolling for you if you've been taking a break from engaging with yourself and the world we're in.

I wouldn't normally put profanity on this blog but I'm (sort of) making an exception to give you the last line of the movie where one character states:

"This is me, taking back control of my life. What the f*** have you done lately"?

I gotta say, I LOVED this line. It's such a powerful question isn't it?

What have you done?

What have I done?

Do you even have any chance of taking control of your life and is it even your life to have control over?

For the last month and a bit I have often felt so out of my depth, so out of control that it's been a question that's played over and over in my mind long before someone else voiced it for me. And now, as I sit back in the comfort of my own home it feels so much easier to avoid the questions than have to confront them and find the answers to them.

Have you influenced the world you're in or just experienced it? When and to whom do you make a difference?

This isn't the week for me to answer all of these questions, but it's been a good week to have off and think through some of these things. And sleep. Sleep, sleep, sleep...

I like this place, but I’m starting to feel like the freak at the show that people stare at without caring. It seems that pretty much everywhere we go people feel free to have a little gawk. So for this reason, the girls have come up with the little phrase of ‘stupid white people’ (ie us) whenever we do something silly that deserves the odd looks. Some examples of this could be; driving the wrong way down the road (I’m happy to say that wasn’t me but any time yankee doodle cos apparently [imagine the drawl, we got all day ‘round here), me telling the checker at the supermarket that “I don’t want a book” (should’ve been bag…der…) or stalling a jeep in the middle of an intersection (ok, so maybe that was me…).

Let me run you through a bit of how our days are playing out at the moment. Around 9.30/10 we head over to an organisation known as the ‘Environmental Friends Society’ (also seen here stuffing us with food on our first day there) and help them with some translation, design, data files and a website to try and help them in spreading their message of how important it is to take care of the resources that God has given us. This country has lost most of it’s natural greenery in the space of just ten years and they don’t seem to understand the concept of recycling so there’s trash piles all around and all of the water comes from de-salination plants (mental note, always go for the bottled water). But it could be worse of course, the guys currently have the chlorinated water from the pool upstairs running through their pipes to shower and wash with.

The rest of the team started teaching English in a village last week but because I was sick I had to wait until yesterday to start my first class in a village that’s about half an hour away from where we live (but then again everything in this place seems to be about half an hour away). There are 15 girls in my class and they are adorable – I’ll try and take some pictures later on in the week but most women here seem quite reluctant to have their photo taken so I’ll wait until they feel a little bit more comfortable with “Teacher”… apparently when you have a role with a little authority you loose your name and go with a title. I’m surprised at how much I’m enjoying teaching English actually but in the past week or so we’ve found that it’s a great way for opening up relationships and sharing a little (a very little) of who you are. Girls here usually get married (to a cousin) by the ages of 17 or 18 so they can’t understand how I’m not married and don’t have 11 children (that’s the average number of siblings that the girls in my class have – some go up to 20 but that’s do-able when the men can have four wives right?). Anyway, it meant that I was able to share with them my belief of only marrying another Christian, which opened up a couple of avenues for discussion.

So in an effort to keep showing a few pic’s of places we’ve been going to or hanging out in, here’s a shot of my favourite café here.


It’s in a small back street in one of the funkier areas of town (can’t you tell by the bright green walls?) called Café Laviano – sounds Italian, looks Polynesian on the inside and serves the freshest mix of Arabic and Mediterranean food in the country… go figure.

One week through

Ever wondered if a whole country could change it's mood over a couple of days? This one can. On Wednesday night a whole lot of people (mostly men) come here for the weekend (remember that church is on Fridays and ppl go back to work on Sunday - weird I know) for a 'good' time of money, alcohol and sex...

As the guys went off to a mass village wedding (our turn is next week) we decided to have a bit of a girly night with some pampering and then a wander around the mall (I know I know, trust me, we are doing mission stuff too!). It was amazing to see how the women around here seemed to change over night. The mall is the place to see and been seen, and the women were definitely out on parade. I'm not quite sure how it fits in with their religious/cultural beliefs to have an abiya that's only buttoned under the bust line to reveal cleavage under a bright red top... but apparently some can get away with it. Although I've only worn the proper abiya and hijab when we went to the mosque - there was a part of me that was longing for the anonymity of it that night. Alex I take it back, these men just stare, a lot, just without making any comments. Although I haven't had to tell anyone yet that I'm worth more than two camels (pictured here because we did actually go and meet the Kings camels - turns out their worth a fair chunk of change each...) I get the feeling it wouldn't be too far off if I walked around on my own (mental note, stay in groups).

Speaking of the mall, we've been able to spend some time there meeting and talking with locals about who we are and what the differences are in our cultures and religious beliefs. I made a friend within my first couple of days here, named 'N', and she asked if she could give me her mobile number so that we could keep talking. We meet up for coffee and desert the other night to keep talking and she wants to keep talking throughout the rest of the month that we're here for which I think is pretty damn cool...

As a team, we finished off the centre we've been working on and I started crying (typical) when we got to take my favourite little friend into the room and let him be the first to see it. He can't speak much but it was very clear and obvious that he couldn't believe that anyone would think that he was worthwhile of such little efforts on our behalf... we had some amazing opportunities talking with the staff of the centre about why we are here. Truth be told, I don't care if these kids never really comprehend all that has been done and said by us over the last week. The God I know, is good, and just and a loving Father and my only prayer is that one day they will know that.

All round - it's been a pretty great first week. We have been stunned and humbled by the generosity of the people who are hosting us - every night someone has either taken us out for dinner or brought food to us, they've lent us two cars and we (Rachel and I) are staying with the loveliest hosts.

Two superficial lessons that I've learnt this week?

1) you can get flu like symptoms no matter what climate you're in - thanks to Rachel getting sick on the plane and having some massive temperature shifts I've got some kind of cold... the good news is you stand outside for more than 30 seconds and you have your own little sauna

2) keep a bottle or two of water in the car for when the radiator quickly runs our of water - I learnt that one yesterday when the temp gauge spiked, the cold air turn hot and water was spitting out of the hood... apparently you need to stay on top of these things in 50+ heat???

Ice-cream, banana, sister, father, slap and beat you…

You’ve got to know that it’s a pretty screwed up world when you realise that these are the only words that an 8 year old autistic boy can say. Actually I have another couple of choice words for it too, but I wont repeat them.

We are in a land of many strange contradictions. I have met local people who are so warm and friendly and engaging (by far the majority) and those who seem distant and suspicious. There are extremes of wealth and poverty, masses of land with big bodies of water and football fields of sand… in the last few days we’ve covered quite a few of them.

The heat was obviously one of the first things that strike's you. On the night that I arrived, and when I went back to the airport to meet the team, it was 37 degrees at 2am. You get used to it but it can be oppressive and we understand why, as off today, it’s illegal to work outside between the hours of 12-4pm. People die. So it’s meant that we’ve needed to be productive when we set to work! For our first week, we’ve been working in a centre for special needs children. It has no government funding (although we did meet a Princess when she came to see what we’re up to!) and so it’s pretty run down so we’ve been doing some outdoor repairs and working on a sensory room – particularly to try and stimulate the senses of the kids who are limited with sight, sound or touch.

As we’ve sat in a padded room (literally, it depressed the hell outta me) cutting out stars I asked the team how is this ministry? The answer is simple that we’re trying to show these kids that someone loves them. Someone cares about them. As I’ve wandered around the rooms that they sit in (pretty much alone with minimal adult supervision) I’ve been praying that somehow they might realise, in however many years it takes them, that Jesus loves them enough to send us. From what our little 8 year old friend indicated, there isn’t too much love in their lives. Today as I drove away I just wept for the broken-ness of it.

We have been blessed with some amazing hosts from the international church here. They have been so generous and encouraging – many of them have lived here for years and so as we’ve gone to their homes for dinner each night it’s been great to hear their stories and learn from their experiences. Most work with international companies and so they're mixing with locals’ everyday and have learnt much about the Islamic culture.

This afternoon we took a drive through one of the poorer areas of the land. There are some photos that I'll dot along the way of this post but they’re a little grainy because they had to be taken a little covertly through the car window – locals can be touchy about pictures.

A big thing for locals is dreams and stories. So I’ll tell you a story – a few days ago I was walking through a mall searching for some shoes and coffee other than starbucks. In an effort to practice my Arabic I walked up to a woman and asked for directions to a good coffee place. God must have sent me to the right woman. She was walking in that direction and so said that she would walk with me. We chatted about all sorts of things covering countries and their differences, clothing, shoes and marriage to Muslim or Christian men. At the end of our wander, she turned and asked me if she could give me her phone number. It turns out that her husband is overseas and her two teenage sons seem to have left for summer and so she is lonely. She said that she felt a ‘connection’ with me and so now I get to meet with her again and talk some more.

Since then, I’ve been praying that God might revel Himself to her in a dream. Unlike for most of us, dreams are very powerful to these people and there have been some stories that I’ve heard that God has used dreams (dreams of bread that doesn’t finish but will feed a whole family) to bring people to know Jesus.


There are a couple of things I’ve noticed about the culture and environment here:

o Men walk down the street holding hands or with their arms around each other.

o There are times that I’m still stunned when someone (who’s giving me directions when I drive) says, “Head towards…” (a country that is just bizarre for me to be heading towards!!!)

o It can be important to factor in sand and dust storms into your day – over the last few days the sky has gone from blueish (when I first arrived) to what is now best described as a sort of beige colour.

o Never look at men in the eye (it’s hard because I feel rude – and by the way girls, then Frenchmen are way worse than the men I’ve encountered here)

o Always, always, always take a map in the car with you – even if you find you come across towns or streets that wont be in the map. In a fit of desperation (after being lost one night driving for an hour and a half) I called my parents and am having my beloved GPS being sent over

o When driving in an Arab country, feel free to think of the signs (indicating driving laws) more as suggestions for you to consider whether it comes to speed, crossing three lanes of traffic without stopping or indicating or driving the wrong way into two lanes of oncoming traffic. If you don’t like that the lights have the stop sign flashing, apparently you can feel free to drive on the footpath instead…

I am exhausted and there have been times that I’ve longed for the hug from someone familiar but I’m so happy to finally be here. Will write again soon (and well done btw if you’ve made it all the way through the last couple of marathon posts – I’ll try and be more regular and in smaller doses now that I’m settled in one place)

xxx
j.