A New Experience

As I am writing this post I am using only one hand because the other one is not available at this point and this why:

As we prepare for a holiday we have done a thing we call henna. It is a paint that you put on your hands and it stays there a long time. It is a way to celebrate the holiday. Women do very elaborate designs while men do a simple design.

These are not my hands but this is kind of what my hand look like, my lift hand is the only one that has henna on it. We had a lot of fun doing it, but it is very hard to survive while not getting henna over everything! Sadly, I did get some on my burqa and right by the face!:(

This is what henna looks like.

Other then that I am doing my usual stuff: teaching (which I love), resting (which I love also), learning the language, hanging out with the kids and parents, and cooking sometimes, cleaning other times, Skyping, e-mailing and reading, journaling and reading my Bible.

I have really enjoyed learning the language, my teacher is very patient with me when I don't learn something quickly. In this culture greetings are VERY important, so that is the first thing that I had to learn (and I am still learning them). There are so many things you have to say as the greeting.

The holiday begans tomorrow. During this holiday people go and visit all their friends and family. I am really excited about getting to experience a new part of this culture. Please pray that I will be able to learn the greetings well so that I can honor the people I come in contact with.

This picture is for my siblings:

SKITTLE!!!!!!

I love you guys and am so grateful to have you as siblings!!

Jaynie

Update

I was able to get Internet today, so I decided to update you all back home.

I have really enjoyed the adventures that I have had while I have been on this trip. There are so much new tastes, smells and sights. And I have been blessed by God in that I have had almost no problem with jetlag this trip, which is not a guarantee.

Some of my adventures have been like, sleeping on the roof of the house and getting to see the stars. I have also gotten to see camels. I know my mom was very excited about me seeing camels:) I will try to get a picture that is "blog worthy" because I don't have one right now.

One other adventure has been getting used to the clothes here. I think I could get used to them, they are not as bad as I thought, much better than some of the clothes we see in America. I have enjoyed getting to wear different styles from a different culture.

My dad and brother have left me to return to America. They stayed with me for 10 days which I consider a huge blessing to have been able to spend so much time with them. But I have to confess the good-byes were really hard to say. That is when the burqa could actually be helpfulJ I know that it is what God wants for me and that I actually want to be here right now. But it doesn’t make it any easier to say good-bye to your Daddy.

I did my first day of teaching today, and it went very well. The kids that I taught love to learn which makes it easier on me. I really love working with them, they have great understanding and love for what they are learning. I thought that it was a very productive day all-in-all. Tomorrow we will do one more day of school before the weekend.

I hope to start language lessons soon. I have some teachers in mind whom I have met and I like them a lot. So please pray for me as I try to learn a new language, working with people who know almost no English.

I would like to thank all of you for your prayers during this time in my life. I am so blessed to have so many amazing people in my life. I know that your prayers are making a difference in this trip. I consider it a great honor to have such great prayer partners.

Jaynie

Day 2

Today we traveled on an airplane for fourteen hours. It was very tiring but fun.  But before we started on the long flight we decided to have some sugar.....

Here my dad is pretending that he isn't eating any of the candy.

Here is my brother kindly sharing the Skittles that our sister packed for him.

After we were done having fun we decided to try and sleep. Thankfully, God gave us the grace of letting us be able to do so at least for part  of the time. I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to sleep because on other international trips that I have taken I wasn't able to sleep. That was truly a gift from God.

Here Dad is trying to figure out why the neck pillow is not working right:)

When we arrived to our destination we were amazed by the beauty. It is so very different from home and it is such a gift for me to be able to see it. I have loved being able to see the cultural and the differences in our two countries.

On our drive to the hotel we got to see the tallest building  in the world. It was very beautiful.

Here is my brother relaxing with his slippers, fruit and water. So relaxing!!!!

We had a very luxurious hotel room. And our friend Elephant helped us feel comfortable.

Here is my brother hanging out with our friend Elephant.

Here is our room.

So overall we had fun and loved the new experience of being in a different country with a different culture.

Thank you all for your prayers and support.

Jaynie

Day 1

Today was my first day of travel and it has gone very well. I have loved traveling with my dad and older brother. They make the time we spend together fun and special.

The farewells were very hard. I have never been away from my family for longer than twelve days so it was difficult to say good-bye to them for such a long time. God once again showed me how truly important my family is to me and how blessed I am to have a family.

Here are my brother and I eating dinner at T.G.I  Fridays.

The Beginning

I've begun this blog to share my adventures. Tomorrow I begin my travels--with my dad and older brother--to a Central Asian country where I will be a homeschool teacher for two families who live there.

Jaynie