La nouvelle femme francaise

BONJOUR TOUT LE MONDE!!!

It has been a long and eventful week here in Quebec, but I am feeling great and am very excited that I get to spend the next couple months living here. Honestly, it feels like I am in a dream. To be in Canada and be surrounded by a whole other culture, language and history is surreal.

I arrived here last Sunday after a full day of travel. Upon my arrival at the Quebec airport, I quickly got acquainted with 3 girls who were also from Calgary. Not only that, but all from the NW part of Calgary - I mean, what are the chances of that!? I have really hit it off with one of these girls in particular, it is so  nice to have made a good friend right away! She came to Quebec knowing no french at all, but is learning so quickly! She has asked me to help her practice her speaking and pronunciation, which has ended up being great practice for me as well. Not only that, but she is from Calgary! WOOOO!

The Laval University campus is bigger than I thought, and beautiful. My dorm is right across the street from a park and I am about a 10 minute walk from the building where all my classes are. I am also about a 5 minute walk from a huge mall, and have quickly fallen in love with the store, Simons (I now get what all the hype is about!!). The mall has become a place in which to practice my french, I am getting really good at ordering a coffee. My dorm room is small, but adequate. I have been doing all I can to give it some homey touches so that it feels like a welcome place to come back to after a long day of classes. It is amazing how simple things such as a rug or or pictures make a place feel warm.

The Explore program (the language program that Laval runs in the summer) is great! I am really impressed with it so far. There are 7 levels (7 being the highest) and I am in level 3. A lot of what I am learning is more like review for me, but so far it has been great and is refreshing the french that I have lost in my memory somewhere. My comprehension is a lot better than I thought it was, I am finding the problem for me is just forming complete sentences as I so badly want them to be perfect. I talked to my professor about this and she said this is normal and by the end of my 5th week I will not have this problem anymore. So I am really looking forward to seeing this side of my french improve in the coming weeks. I already can tell I am improving. I am constantly thinking in french (just like when I used to do my jr. high school in french) and the more I push myself to have conversations and ask questions, the more I can feel my confidence growing.

In the mornings we have classes (grammar, phonetics, corrections) and then afternoons there are activities (movies, art classes, dancing, soccer, etc.) and free time. Once a week I have a mandatory conversation class, and a mandatory "fun" activity. Every weekend there are excursions around the city and surrounding area. I am trying to do a lot more of the historical excursions so that I can get to know the culture more. This past week I did something called "Cabane a Sucre" which is translates to "Sugar Shack." Its a farm where they make maple syrup. We went and learned about how they process maple water into syrup and then enjoyed a Quebecois dinner, with everything covered in maple syrup. It was delicious!! They had live traditional Quebecois music and then we spent the rest of the night dancing.

During my free time I have been trying to listen to french music, watch french movies/tv shows or read french articles. I am finding this is helping my french a lot. My vocabulary from prior french studies is starting to come back and as frustrating as it is to not be able to communicate verbally as fast as I would like to, I can tell that each day I am improving!

This week I also met up with my internship mentors, and I love them. Troy and Lorilee are great, and have really made me feel welcome and at home. They have 4 children and I seem to have bonded with them well because I speak english! Over the next couple weeks, I will be working with Troy and Lorilee to figure out what exactly I will be doing while I am here in Quebec and look forward to sharing what we come up with in the coming weeks. They live in Levis which is across the river from Quebec. We walked along the river and heard Skillet playing on the Plains of Abraham from across the St. Lawrence. One of Canada's biggest music festivals (Festival D'Ete) happens here in Quebec each year and it is a full week of musicians from all over and people from all over. Pretty cool. After our walk they took me to a place called 'Chocolat Favoris.' It is really famous here in Quebec. Basically they invented chocolate dipped ice cream cones. But not like what you get at Dairy Queen. These ones are dipped in pure chocolate that is still soft and doesn't crackle like the DQ stuff. It is amazing! (PS. Anyone who comes to visit me while I am here, I will take you to this place and you will love it!). They have 12 different flavors of chocolate to try and I have made it one of my personal goals to try each type while I am here.

Last night I finally went down to the Old City with some of my girlfriends. I have been here before, but forgot how beautiful it is! You really feel like you are walking around in Europe while you are there. The cobblestones, the flower boxes, everyone speaking french. We went and had a great dinner (I finally worked up the guts to try escargot for the first time; verdict: delicious!) and then spent the rest of the night walking around, listening to all the live music and feeling like tourists. I can't wait to go back in the next week and take some tours - in french of course!

I miss everyone in Calgary, but I am feeling great and have no homesickness. But, that being said, I do LOVE mail and so if anyone feels like writing a postcard or something silly, I would love to hear from you (even emails are great)!!!

My address here is:

Université Laval 

c/o L’Équipe d’animation 

Rebecca Trask

Pavillon Charles-de Koninck 

Local 1231 

Québec (Québec) G1K 7P4 

CANADA

How to Dance When You're High on Life

I hope to be able to dance as good as this someday...enjoy!

June and July, my, how time flies!

Summer has officially been in full swing here in Kuwait for about the past month, with temperatures soaring into the 50's! Every couple days I try to keep up with the news back home in Calgary and when I went on the Calgary Herald website last week, they had a poll they were wanting readers to fill out. The question was: "How will you survive the current heat wave Calgary is experiencing?" My North American friends, you don't even know the true meaning of heat wave until you have spent the summer in Kuwait, I think it is safe to say this is the hottest place on earth most days!

June and July can both be summed up as months of transition, both for my family and myself. In June, my dad officially finished a huge chapter in his life. It was hard not to be in Calgary during this time. Especially for the farewell night they held in honour of my parents! But, luckily, I have friends who were on the inside of this evening, who asked me to put together a short video message to be played for them at some point during the evening. I was so excited to be able to be a part of this special night from so far away. I spent a good week thinking about what I wanted to say about my parent, what I remember about them. It was fun to be able to go through all the memories of our family together and choose some to share with everyone. My parents called me after the farewell and they were so surprised! I think even a few tears were cried *jackpot! haha*. So now, a new adventure starts for my parents and our family. And don't worry Rockpointe, my parents may be gone, but i'll still be sticking around.

June also means people here in Kuwait start to leave for the summer. Now that it is July, I can understand why no one would want to spend the summer here! Every week people are saying their goodbyes until they come back in the fall. It is very strange to see everyone leave, but still be here. It has also meant that my activities here are starting to slow down, so I have been able to challenge myself to find new things and projects to work on every week. I have become a lot more involved in the Trash to Treasure project, since leadership has now been handed over to my mentor. I also officially finished my last class for my Diploma with Rocky Mountain College at the end of June! Although the satisfaction of being done with school was short lived as I have now decided to go back to school in September when I get back to Canada and finish a degree! A bit scary, but I am also super excited about this! And overall, doing this will enable my to go further and become more skilled in the international work I wish to pursue!

July has been an interesting month. It started off really slow, but is now starting to pick up again. I have been doing a lot of organizing and helping get things here in Kuwait prepared for September when people start to come back and everything in Kuwait starts up again. I have also been paying a lot more attention to the news in Canada this month as July brought with it the Royal couple and the CALGARY STAMPEDE! It has been fun to live vicariously through all the news articles and photos and see the excitement everyone in Canada seems to be having during this time.

So there you have it, a brief summary of what has been happening these last couple weeks. It has been hard to get used to the fact that no one goes outside here during the summer. I am so used to living or visiting places in the summer where you can go out and explore and be free! But here, it is so hot that it is almost dangerous to go outside. You instantly become drained of all energy and prolonged time in this heat is just not good for your body. Basically, if you are going out somewhere, you try to go from one air conditioned space to the next with minimal outdoor exposure. This has all made me very grateful for 2 things, 1) growing up in a country where summer means being outside and 2) air conditioning.

Well, I am off to prepare for my next little adventure. I have to renew my visa one more time which means getting to choose a country to go visit for a couple days so that I can stay in Kuwait a bit longer! Stay tooned to find out where I went! =)

Oh and ps. My sister got engaged this past weekend! Congrats Steph and Martin!

A bit of what happens in Kuwait..

This article was in the Kuwait Times, one of the local English papers, last week. It gives a great and informative look into some of the situations maids deal with while working here. It is important to remember that not all maids are facing employment situations such as this. Some are treated very well, but this is an example of a case of extremity.

Abusive sponsors attack official at maids' shelter

Published Date: July 05, 2011
By Ben Garcia, Staff Writer

KUWAIT: A Philippine Embassy labor official was attacked by five assailants at the embassy's premises on Sunday night whilst defending two Filipina housemaids who escaped from their abusive employers' home shortly before. The labor official was on duty at the Filipino housemaid shelter in Jabriya at the time of the attack. The five male assailants - three adults and two teenagers - who were identified by the women as members of their employers' families - rushed to the embassy upon discovering that the mai
ds had fled. The two housemaids arrived in a taxi minutes after the assailants.

On seeing the employers arguing with embassy staff at the gate, the two traumatized women attempted to rush inside the embassy, but were prevented from doing so by the five men, who grabbed the women by their hair and punched them in the heads and stomachs in front of horrified embassy personnel. The assailants then announced that two women were 'their' housemaids, accusing the women of stealing money from the family's home.

The commotion continued for a few minutes, with the five attackers then directing their rage at the embassy official who was guarding the gate and protecting the housemaids. The man was badly beaten, sustaining heavy bruising and swelling to his body and forehead.

The two women escaped from their employer's house in Jabriya at around 9:00 pm on Sunday, risking their lives by using an improvised rope made by tying blankets and bed sheets together to lower themselves to the ground from a third-floor room. The two traumatized housemaids, identified only by their nicknames "Jenny" and "Maria", were effectively imprisoned by their employers, locked inside the family's home for months.

Maria, 31, had not been paid since she began her second stint working for the family in January this year, whilst Jenny, 28, had been unpaid since starting work there three months later, in April. The two assert that they were regularly subjected to brutal abuse, torture and beatings by both the male sponsor and his wife.

Both of them hit us, especially when there was something wrong with our jobs; they would beat us using belts and cooking pans or whatever hard objects they could find close to them," recalled Maria. "They would also hit our head against the concrete wall. The 'mama' hates dust or any tiny amount of dirt on the table; I think, we scrubbed their house more than 100 times a day. I also used to wash clothes with bare hands so I have this allergy to chemicals. Really, we were suffering severely in that house a
nd we couldn't take it anymore, that is why we just decided to escape in whatever way we could.

Maria explained that she was first hired as a maid by the family in late 2009, although during her first stint with them, she was paid regularly. Since her first week working for them, she endured hard slaps and beatings, with another Filipina housemaid, "Leah", who began working there towards the end of 2010, enduring similar physical and verbal abuse. Leah, after two months of abuse and having received no pay, eventually convinced Maria to attempt escape with her.

During their attempt, however, using an improvised rope, Maria slipped and fell to the ground, breaking a leg. Although the maids managed to get away and Maria was taken to hospital, the employers subsequently filed a case against the traumatized women, accusing them of theft, an accusation which both categorically denied.

In January, whilst Maria were recovering at the embassy's refuge, her erstwhile employers visited the embassy and set about persuading Maria that they regretted their abusive treatment and wished for her to return. Reluctant but desperate for money, Maria went back to work for them. Leah remained unconvinced of their remorse and chose instead to remain at the refuge where she is still living pending the outcome of the theft case.

Maria quickly discovered that her sponsors' promises of kind treatment were wholly false, with the abusive employers redoubling their maltreatment in revenge for her escape. The three months until Jenny's arrival in April were an endless stream of abuse and backbreaking hard work, with Jenny also receiving the same treatment from the moment of her arrival until the two women fled.

I haven't been paid since I began working for this family in April," Jenny told Kuwait Times. "Every day we used to be addressed with cruel words, beaten and sworn at. They even told us that they could kill us at any time without anyone knowing about it. We used to work from 5:00 am until 2:00 am the next morning." As one example of the treatment they received, Jenny said, "We only had very little food - we ate once a day.

Both flatly rejected the sponsors' theft accusations against them. "How could we steal?" asked Jenny. "It was never true. We heard them saying if they wanted to create a problem against us [they could]; they told us that the authorities here would believe them rather than us. And how could we 'steal' money when in fact they weren't giving us our salaries for months?!

The Philippine Labor Attache to Kuwait, David Des Dicang, has promised to pursue the case of his country's mistreated workers. He said that he would take legal action against the five assailants for trespassing and assault on Filipino embassy personnel. "The case will be pursued till the end," he vowed. "The embassy, under the leadership of our ambassador, Shulan Primavera, is mandated to protect and defend our workers.

The embassy official who was beaten up at our premises will be dealt accordingly. We are happy that we have an official like him who can defend our workers when necessary. He tried to protect our workers and he was beaten up because of that. It is also totally unacceptable since it happened inside our own premises. The case is now in the prosecutor's office.

On the assailants' abuse of the housemaids, Dicang said that their case would be handled with the proper seriousness. "We will pursue not just their employer but we'll see in what way we can act against their local recruitment agency and hold them accountable," he said. He asserted that there are many questions left unanswered: "Why was the employer able to re-hire runaway housemaids despite his bad records?" he asked, adding "We will review all the possible angles until real justice is served.

Adventure Time!

Where do I even begin?

The end of May marked 3 months within the country of Kuwait, which meant it was time to go for what we call a "visa run." I decided to go to Jordan for 8 days to 1)Renew my visa 2)Reflect on the last 3 months and prepare for the next 3 and 3)Relax and come back to Kuwait refreshed and with a new level of motivation for the next part of my internship!

I started my trip in South Jordan, staying in a small town called Ras An Naqab (about an hour away from Aqaba), with a missionary family who kindly and generously welcomed me into their home. This family is part of a group who works at a clinic in the town, and a large part of their work is with the Bedouin people around the area. The first thing I noticed about Jordan was how different the weather was from Kuwait, cool winds and evenings were such a nice treat compared to the now constant heat of Kuwait (its now getting to 45-50 degrees daily!). The day after I arrived the adventures started! First stop, PETRA! As you might already know, I am a major Indiana Jones fan, so going to Petra was a real treat (think Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, the place where they find the Holy Grail, the outside part of that building is the Treasury from Petra. I also sang the Indian Jones theme song in my head the whole time there, and wore a fedora for the occasion - go me!)! The family who was hosting me for the week have 2 kids who came with me, as well as another guy who was visiting Jordan from the States. The four of us spend the day learning about the Nabetean people, the city of Petra (which comes from Peter, meaning rock) and exploring the various trails and sights. This meant a lot of walking, mostly uphill! I made quite a few friends with the Bedouin children who are constantly following you and trying to sell you postcards. Instead, I opted to share some of my food with them and also ended up giving away a few pens for their schooling. I even let one girl borrow my camera for a bit, she had so much fun taking pictures of me and my friend as well as the various tourists going up and down the trails. After our full day at Petra, our group made a quick stop in the town of Wadi Musa, to the place where they say Moses struck the rock and water came out (although when I went to Mt. Nebo later in the week, the people there were saying it was just down the road from the mountain). I filled up my water bottle and it is actually some of the purest water I have tasted.

The day after Petra was a day of rest, as it was Sunday. I attended church with the clinic staff which is held in one of their homes and we sang a couple of Arabic worship songs, which were beautiful. After church it was back to the home of my hosts to celebrate the birthday of their son!

Monday, the 30th, was my birthday, and I celebrated by going to Wadi Rum with my hosts children (they became my adventure companions!). Wadi Rum is famous not only because of its incredible desert beauty, but because Lawrence of Arabia spent a lot of time there as well. We rented a jeep for the morning and went driving around the desert, I even got to ride a camel too!! The boys in charge of the camel rides took us to the ruins of an old Nabetean temple. I asked them how old the temple was. The hummed and hawed until one of them quickly said in Arabic, "Just tell them its 100 years old!" My friend who speaks Arabic told me what he said, and we started laughing because the visitors center had told us they were around 2000 years old! We stopped in at one of the various Bedouin tents around the area and had some tea, after which I had the chance to dress up like a Bedouin! We also got to see some ancient rock carvings. It is astounding to be in all these places seeing and touching things that have been there for thousands of years! In the evening my hosts surprised me with a cake and sang happy birthday to me which was so thoughtful of them since I was feeling kind of low about not having any of my loved ones around me to celebrate with.

The next day was a bit quieter, but still had some adventure of a different kind in store for me. This adventure was going around with my hosts to visit some of the Bedouin people. This was a really cool experience. There is nothing quiet like sitting down and sharing some tea with Bedouins. Our last visit of the day was out at a Bedouin tent to visit a family, our group quickly grew as the lady we came to visit also had her sister-in-law coming over with her family! We all sat down just outside their tent enjoying the last bits of sunshine for the day and talking together (well, for me I must admit it was more like listening). One of the ladies went away to make tea, she came back with four cups (all they had) so we had to drink our tea at different times. I should not have watched her preparing my cup to put my tea in, because when I looked into the water bowl she was using to wash the glasses, I definitely saw some things swimming around in there. But I rationalized in my mind that the tea I was about to drink had been boiled and thus, should be fine to drink, so I manned up and drank every last drop! I find Bedouin tea quite good, but it is very sweet! After our tea and visiting, I took out my camera to take some pictures of the children who were playing with a skipping rope we had given them. This started off one of the best hours of my whole time in South Jordan. Seeing the joy on their faces from something so simple, and having them pose and showing off for the camera was so much fun to capture. They will be photos I cherish forever!

My time is South Jordan taught me a couple of things:

• I need to learn Arabic, especially if I want to continue working here in this area of the world. In Kuwait, everyone speaks English, and the women that I work with speak Nepalese so I haven't felt a need to learn it, but now I am extra motivated to start!
• I really love and am intrigued by the Bedouin people and other groups like them in the Middle East.
• As much as living in a city is great as it has everything you could ever want and need, being out in the countryside, in a smaller setting away from the city mindset is so refreshing and, dare I say, possibly more fulfilling for creating relationships and getting involved in the community.

The start of June marked the next part of my time in Jordan, North Jordan. The day was started by driving up through Amman where we stopped at an olive wood craft shop. My hosts bought my a gift for my birthday there, a beautiful olive wood bracelet. The products are all made by those in need, to help support them. We continued on from Amman up to a town called Mafraq (about 15 minutes from the Syrian border) where there is a lung disease clinic that I have heard so much about for years! I was so excited to finally see the place, and what is going on there. It is a really beautiful facility, and the staff are wonderful. They have a lot of Bedouins with TB and asthma who come there to get treatment. From Mafraq we went straight back to Amman to drop me off at my hotel in historic downtown old Amman. I stayed at a place called the Arab Tower Hotel, I was not quite sure what to expect, as I had only seen a couple of photos on the internet, but it was wonderful! The staff were all so friendly and helpful, it included breakfast, free internet and various day trip that you could sign up for at reasonable prices.

My first night in Amman I went for a walk downtown (which really was right out the front door of the hotel) and ended up walking over to the Roman Theatre to scope it out for my complete Amman adventure the next day. I ended up meeting a tour guide/driver who offered to take me up to the Citadel since the sun was setting. I was a bit tentative at first, but my spidey sense was not tingling so I decided "Hey, I am here to had an adventure!" so I went for an early evening tour. I am sure where my mom hears this story she will be mortified, but seriously, I never felt that I was in any danger, as I knew my protector was watching over me and he was driving slow enough that if I need to jump out of the car at any point I could make a clean getaway. The only downside of the whole thing was that he was trying to make me his 4th wife, and I had to constantly side step from his comments on how beautiful I am (haha). Aside from his attempts to woo me, he did tell me some very interesting things about the city and I got some really great shots of Amman at sunset. Amman is built on 7 mountains, which makes it very picturesque! The rest of my evening was spent in the souq, scouting out some souvenirs and gifts for my family (they are going to be very spoiled when I return to Canada).

Day 2 was spend going all around downtown Amman. I slept in and went down to have my breakfast and ended up meeting the manager of the hotel. He told me there was a shortcut to go up to the Citadel which made the usual 20 minute walk into a 5 minute walk. He said he would show me it, but he ended up accompanying me the whole way, and hung out with me as I explored the ruins up there (it is at this point that I am starting to realize what I am going to be spending most of my time doing in Amman; avoiding becoming any ones wife!). It was unfortunate, because with him there, I felt I needed to rush a bit and so did not take all the photos that I wanted to. Regardless, he was a very friendly guy, and it was interesting to discuss the hotel and practice English with him (I ended up teaching him a new word! Influencial. Maybe I should look into teaching ESL?). We parted ways, and I went down to check out the Roman Theatre. While there, I found a little trinket that someone had left with a tag on it saying for the finder to take it with them and put it somewhere new for someone else to find. I brought it back with me to Kuwait, and look forward to placing it somewhere in the next couple weeks. I did a bit of shopping and made some friends with some of the people in the shops. One thing I have noticed about this city is that people really remember who you are. Every morning in the hotel I was greeted by name, and shops that I had stopped in the day before would say hi to me as I walked by! The other thing I have noticed is that the people here can not pronounce my name - Rebecca. I think it is because North Americans pronounce it with a hard R, while here they seem to roll their R's more. So when they say it, it comes out more like - Rrrray-beck-ka. In the evening I went up to Rainbow Street, which is in a most Christian area of Amman. I would compare this street to 17th Ave in Calgary, its where the nightlife happens. I went early in the evening to enjoy a nice dinner at a place I had read about called Books@Cafe. After I went for a walk and stopped in at a coffee shop to enjoy a nice Latte before heading back to my hotel for the evening. Going to and from Rainbow Street also became an adventure since hardly any of the taxi drivers here speak English (yet another reason to learn Arabic!). My first taxi driver kept stopping the whole way there asking people for directions and then wrote them down on a piece of paper for me if I wanted to come again.

Day 3 in Amman was the big adventure day of my time up North! I got up bright and early to go on a day trip with 2 Russian women to Madaba (where there are some famous Mosaics) - Mount Nebo (where God showed Moses the Promised Land, and also where he is though to have died) - the Dead Sea (to float around, cover myself in black mud and take tourist photos) and finally the "supposed" Baptism Site of Jesus (Israel has theirs right across the river from the Jordan site). It was such a great day trip. We had a good driver, and the Russians made for some good company, even though only one of them spoke English. When I was at Mount Nebo, I ended up meeting a group of burn victims. One of them, a young guy, came up to me asking if I could take a picture. I though he meant of him, so I started to turn on his camera and line up the shot, but it turned out he wanted one with me. I obliged and this became the beginning of a long series of photos with every single member of the group, as well as a couple extra people after that. I found out from their leader that they were all Kurdish people from Afghanistan who had been attacked by the Taliban. I am not exactly sure why they all wanted a photo with me, I am guessing it has something to do with me being a female, and a foreigner, but it was great to meet them and encouraging to see them all out, enjoying life, despite their severe burns. The Baptism site was interesting, and regardless if that is where Jesus really was baptized of not, it was a great reminder of what He has done for us, and just knowing that he was in the same area where I was 2000 years ago is pretty cool to think about!

We got back to the hotel and I rested a bit before going out for my last evening in Amman. I wanted to try and pick up a couple more things from the souk so I went and walked my now familiar shopping route. I don't know if it was because it was a Friday night or what, but during my walk that night I was very aware of every single eye on me as I passed by the various shops. It is very uncommon here for a women to walk around alone, especially a westerner. As long as I ignored all the leering and cat-calling, I was fine. Despite this I did manage to obtain, an unasked for, number of the guy who sold me some perfume (he wanted to come back to Canada with me haha) as well as have a guy follow me around for a bit trying to get me to come up to Rainbow Street with him for the evening (he thought that telling me it would all be free, on him, would change my mind), I told him no, so he then decided it would be a good idea to accompany me on my shopping so that I would get better prices! As kind and thoughtful as his offer was, he eventually saw that I wasn't too into the idea, and then asked if it was not good for him to be with me. I told him yes, and that I was married and he instantly apologized and backed off like a gentleman (if I am planning to travel more here, I definitely need to get a more noticeable wedding ring, or perhaps start wearing rings on all my fingers for extra protection!).

The next day I returned back to Kuwait. My taxi driver to the Airport was a nice young man named Fadi, who was probably the most gentleman like guy I met while in Jordan. Even though he still gave me his card (you know, just incase I come back to Jordan and need a taxi driver) but he kept the conversation to a minimum and instead when he did talk, it was to show me things and tell me about stuff around the city, oh and he gave me a discount on the taxi fare to the airport, cha-ching! Aside from the unwanted male attention that you may receive if travelling alone, Amman was a really interesting place to visit, and Jordan as a whole was extraordinary! I really do hope to go back some day!

Oh and don't worry, I returned back to Kuwait husband-less.

It was so nice to have some adventure, as Kuwait doesn't really seem to have much (although I remain optimistic!). Also, it was amazing to be back around mountains again for a whole week, I miss the Rockies so much! And to see green trees that haven't been planted, and wildlife that is natural to the area! It was definitely a nice change of scenery, and made coming back to Kuwait a bit hard, but I feel so ready for the summer months now and am excited to get started on some new projects as things quiet down for the summer.

Ups and Downs..but mostly Ups!

I can not believe that it has been over 6 weeks since I left Calgary already! Time is just flying by here, and I find myself becoming worried at how little time I have left! There is so much I want to learn and accomplish, and I have less than 5 months left to do it all! Time has become my great motivator and I am happy that my outlook is currently one that is counting down the days until I get to return to Canada, but instead is counting down the precious days I have left here in Kuwait. This is not to say that I do not miss Canada, my family, my friends, my church, because I do. Being here in Kuwait has really made me so much more aware of how much I love my country, my family, my friends and especially the church I call home. But I have not yet come to a longing, homesick feeling of wanting to be back in the familiar and comfortable.

These last 3 weeks have again been filled with new experiences and faces. My fourth week here (the week that I sent out my first big email update and blog post) proved to be my hardest week since being in Kuwait. That week seemed to be when all the culture shock decided to culminate, it was hard to find the desire to engage in anything that wasn't mandatory for me to be a part of, and I found myself wanting to withdraw from the girls at the shelter. It was my lowest week, I felt overwhelmed with loneliness and really struggled with pushing my mind and body to get "back in the game." I had a good long sit down with myself during that week, evaluating why I was feeling that way, and came to the conclusion that I couldn't just sit around waiting for these feelings to pass. I needed to be the one to push myself to reconnect with everything and change my mindset back to wanting to be involved in everything going on around me. Whether it was the culture shock, or some other forces at work that week, I decided I wasn't going to let them hold me back from why I came to Kuwait in the first place. Philippians 4:13

The past couple weeks have been filled with many new spiritual experiences. I am finding myself in a very charismatic environment, and have been very challenged in what is going on around me. Even though I often find myself thinking, "Ok, what exactly is going on here?", it has been very interesting to be opened up to a whole different world of praising, using spiritual gifts and being in fellowship with the Almighty. I also went to a big spiritual retreat at the Lighthouse Church called Encounter. The whole purpose of this retreat is to have a realencounter with God. The use the story of Jacob wrestling with God, and during the weekend you are supposed to really wrestle with God. It was a very hard weekend to go through, both spiritually and emotionally, but in the end it was really good. I also met a wonderful little group of ladies from Texas who all live within a block of me! I have started attending one of the Lighthouse services with one of the ladies I work with here at the shelter, I really like this service, the people are friendly and the pastor reminds me of my dad! I have made a couple of friends at this service too! I continue to attend the Salvation Army services as well, and have been involved in the service almost every week. 2 weeks ago I taught the children's story in the service. I had to sing the hymn, "Come with Happy Faces", to the tune of "Puff the Magic Dragon" and didn't find out until 5 minutes before the service that the kids didn't know that tune, just because it is a popular children's song in the West, doesn't mean that it is in India! I thought I was going to have to sing the whole song all by myself in front of everyone, but was blessed to have 2 American visitors who sang along with me!

Sandstorms have become a weekly occurrence here, nothing like the one that happened on March 25th, but dusty enough that you do not want to open the windows or go outside. From what people have been telling me, sand or dust storms are the thing that mark the changing of the seasons, from winter/spring into summer.

I have been continuing to have opportunities to interact with Kuwaitis, which has been great! My mentor and I went to a Kuwaiti school to sell some of the crafts the girls make. It was really interesting not only to see what schools are like here in Kuwait, but to get to talk to so many Kuwaiti children. The whole theme of the morning was Old and Traditional Kuwait. I learned so much from being there. The children sang traditional songs, and the girls performed a traditional preparation for a wedding. Everyone was wearing old Kuwaiti clothing, and looked amazing! There was also a tent where an old Kuwaiti women had brought some of her things to sell. She wove bags and rugs, spinning and dying all the wool by hand; she had to be at least 80. Her things were beautiful. I saw a bag that I really liked, it was different from all the rest, and not made as well as some of the others, but all of its imperfections just added to its beauty. All the other bags were 8KD (about 30$ Canadian) so I was assuming this one would be about the same. The only problem was this bag didn't have a handle on it, I asked if there was any way the lady could put one on (her son had to translate for me) but she said no. So I stood there, contemplating, and decided that even without the handle, it would be a really interesting keepsake from Kuwait, as it was handmade and traditional. Just as I was about to say I would buy it, the lady told her son to bring it to her, and she had sound some extra yarn to put a handle on it! And on top of all that, this bag ended up being only 2 KD (because it was older and not made as well)! I tried to pay her more for it, since she did the extra work, but she wouldn't take anything extra from me. Every time I look at this bag, I will think of her.

Speaking of shopping, the malls here in Kuwait are amazing! I can not believe how big they all are, and elaborately decorated. Kuwait is a very materialistic country, and as there is not a whole lot to do here, people go to the malls. It is where they socialize and hang out. Also, I have never seen so many fast food restaurants as there are in Kuwait! I bet you can guess what the people mostly look like! It has been fun watching how the Kuwaiti people socialize here. One of the most important and noticeable forms of socialization is Diwaniya - this is only for men. As you go around Kuwait, you will see that almost every house has a little tent or a bunch of benches outside the front door. Every night men get together for Diwaniya, which is basically male socializing time, they drink coffee, talk politics and other current events. Whenever I pass by one, it generally looks like a party and can be just a few men, or a really big, loud group!

This past week, I went with a friend of mine to the Filipino Embassy to help out with her "Trash to Treasure" ministry/project. These Filipinas are domestic workers who have run away from their employment and are just waiting to go back home. This is my second time at the embassy, and again, sooooo many girls are living there, it is so hard to believe. But despite their tight surroundings, these girls are filled with joy! The lady in charge of Trash to Treasure has taught these girls to make toothbrush rugs, which she then sells and give the girls some of the profit, and then uses some of it to support the embassy. The rugs these girls make are amazing! The night I went, we held a design workshop. We had just been given a bunch of new materials, so we told the girls to try and come up with some new ideas that they could make with these materials! It was so much fun to work with them and see their talent in action. I hope to get more involved in this project in the upcoming weeks. After our time at the embassy, I went back to my friend's house, and stayed the night and most of the next day with her and her family. She shows me hospitality, but also makes me feel at home and useful to whatever is going on around the house. Helping to price rugs or making dinner, it is nice to be put to work and feel productive! She has 3 kids, 2 daughters and a son. Her oldest daughter is in her first year of university back in America, and her other 2 are in grades 11 and 9 (i think). I stayed for dinner, and it was wonderful to sit around a table with a family and have conversation and joke around; it reminded me a lot of my family dinners back home.

That is a basic rundown of the last 3 weeks. I am in the midst of my last two classes of my Global Studies Diploma (as of June I will be all done!). It is nice to be learning, but is hard to find the balance between school and my duties here. Also, we have had a couple girls from the shelter go back home which is such a good thing, but leaves the other girls upset and depressed for the rest of the day because they are still "stuck" here. Seeing these girls leave tears my heart in two ways: 1) I am filled with sadness to see them leave, and sorrow for the girls who are loosing a friend and reminded of all the reasons they are stuck here in Kuwait, not knowing when it will be their time to go.

2) Filled with joy and hope that the girls who leave will make a better life for themselves and be re-united with their families.

I think seeing them go will become harder the longer I am here.

Next up is a big fashion show that the girls have been making Jamaican Carnival Head dresses for the models to wear. I am so excited to be a part of this and promise to take as many pictures as I can!

Run for cover!

Well, I am currently in the midst of my first SANDSTORM! Wow, this is one of the strangest weather occurrences I have ever seen. It was such a beautiful day, I went to church, then went to watch some outdoor baptisms, then out for lunch with some new friends on the patio at T.G.I Fridays, then over to the Chocolate Bar for a sweet treat, and the whole time it was nothing but blue skies and sunshine. These storms really do come out of nowhere! And when they do happen, they happen fast!! You look up in the sky and you start to see this big cloud formation starting (it kinda looked like a dark Chinook to me) and then the wind starts picking up, and before you know it, there is sand blowing everywhere and the sun gets totally blotted out. It is DARK outside! I had to go out and answer the door for someone here at the shelter, and let me tell you, I was only outside for about 20 seconds, and that was more than enough, you do not want to get stuck outside during one of these things, and if you do, you better have a scarf or something to cover your face with! Anyway, now I am all safe up in my room with the curtains open, watching the palm trees outside get thrashed around by the wind gusts and listening to the cars driving by, honking at each other because you can hardly see anything in from of you.

Oh Ps. Can you believe a month ago today I was leaving on a jet plane to come to this sand trap? Time is going by so quickly!!!