Settling In

**Please excuse how scattered and all over the place I am in the following update. I have attempted to condense 3 weeks worth of events and hope you are able to follow the way I have written down all my thoughts and observations. Enjoy!**

Well, I made it, I am officially in Kuwait and getting all adjusted to my new surroundings. I spent my first couple days here at my mentor's flat, which was a nice way to ease into life in Kuwait. We spent these days driving around and seeing the city, as well as an opportunity to get me introduced to the Lighthouse Church community and the women's shelter (where I am now living). The jet lag fully kicked in, and it took me about a week to get over it. I joined a women's bible study, and we meet on Tuesday morning's. I am the youngest person there, but I don't mind because it is nice being surrounded by a bunch of mothers who are always checking up on how I am doing. My first time attending this study group, I ended up getting sick (the only time I have been sick since getting here, and it was from eating an apple of all things!). Luckily, the women from the group took pity on me and put my in a bedroom to lie down and let my stomach settle. They were bringing me 7up and crackers and took such good care of me. Although I was very embarrassed (this was not the shining first impression I wanted to make), it was probably the best place for me to be sick because I was surrounded by mothers who cared and knew I was a long way from my home and my mother. By the end of the morning I was feeling well again and was able to go to the women's shelter to see where I would be spending my next 6 months.

Things here at the shelter have surpassed my expectations. First of all, my room is wonderful! The staff here did a wonderful job of preparing it and providing more than I needed to make it feel like home. Second, the girls are wonderful! They are so friendly and full of smiles, despite what some of them have been through. There is a wide range in age between them, the youngest being around 17 (maybe even a bit younger as some just guess what their age is) and the oldest being in her 60's. The house mother is Ethiopian and her room is down the hall from mine, she is full of energy and really cares about the girls and their well-being. 2 of the ladies here are seen as mother figures or "older sisters" to all the other girls. The older sister (we will call her DeeDee) told me on my first day that I look like her daughter and she has taken a special liking to me. DeeDee is a sweetheart, every morning when I come down for breakfast she makes me fresh chai (with milk, not water, its delicious and my guilty pleasure while here). Some of the women here speak English, some better than others, which means that I am needing to learn a lot of Nepali in order to converse with them. So far, I mostly just know about things in the kitchen. One girl has taken me as her student and is always testing me on things around the house. Slowly though, some of the other girls have started trying to teach me things, we laugh a lot and this has become a great way for me to spend time with the girls.

I moved into the shelter on the Thursday after arriving. As exciting as it was to move in and unpack, the Friday proved to be the worst day I have had while being here. Let me start by saying, I love the women here, and they are amazing cooks. Really, the food they make is great! But man oh man, do they ever eat a lot of food. Their portions are about 3x the amount that I would normally eat back in Canada, and so my first day here really tested my stomach. For each meal, I would be presented with a huge plate of rice, and then everything else that the girls are eating in separate bowls (I would have about 5 different items on my tray). I would eat what I could, and then say thank you, to which they would all reply, "no, eat eat!!" So, I would eat a bit more, and this would continue until I was feeling very sick from being so full. Doing this same routine for 3 meals did not sit well with my body and by the end of this first day, I was very fearful of whether or not i would be able to make it through 6 months of this. After a tearful phone call with my parents, I slept and woke up with a renewed stomach, and a mind that was not going to let my food fears defeat me. My prayer every morning has now turned from "Dear Lord please bless this food to my body" to "Dear Lord, please bless my stomach and make it strong as I eat today." And God has blessed my stomach, I have not been sick at all from the food since being here, and now after 2 weeks of living in the shelter, the women and I have learn how to accept each others views on food. I have learned that them feeding me all this food is because a)they want to fatten me up so that I will look beautiful, and b) that they show their love through feeding me. The women have come to accept that I am not able to eat all that is given to me, and we are now at a point, where I am starting to serve myself and make some of my own food for myself, without me feeling like I am disrespecting them.

The way people drive here is crazy! And the accidents are even worse, cars flipped over and totalled, causing major traffic delays. I think I could handle driving here (with some practice of course) but I am glad that I will not have to.

I have been attending the Salvation Army services while here, and I am one of the 3 white people in attendance. Everyone else is Indian, and they are some of the most kind hearted welcoming people I have been around. I am planning to get more involved with their congregation, hopefully with the children's Sunday school and the worship. I have also started attending the Young Adults Ministry (YAM) at the Lighthouse compound. This has been a really good place for me to connect with people my age, as well as to see an old friend of mine from Calgary who is also here in Kuwait doing his internship with the Lighthouse. The young adults pastor and his wife are really great and they have two adorable younger children. I hope to be able to spend a bit more time with them while I am here as their kids haven't really made many friends since getting here.

On my second week here, I went to the Lighthouse church to attend their staff meeting and meet all the Pastors. I met 2 Canadian pastors here, one whose son attended Rocky Mountain College in Calgary (like me!) and the other (Pastor Warren) attended CBC with my parents way back in the day and was an international worker in Indonesia before coming here to Kuwait. One thing that has been strange to me is if you are a pastor here, everyone refers to you as Pastor (insert name here).

We have a bit of a cockroach problem here in the shelter. Luckily they are mostly just residing in one room of our villa. Not so lucky: that room is the kitchen. So once a week we go pest spray crazy in an attempt to be rid of them.

Gas here is RIDICULOUSLY cheap. I am not trying to rub it in (as I know prices have been soaring over in North America) but 1 litre here is about 0.065 fils which is just under 25 cents Canadian/litre. To fill a tank of gas here only costs about $20! And that is based on a HUGE vehicle.

We have lots of volunteers that come in to the shelter every week. The girls learn English, sewing/quilting, cooking and nutrition, they have some exercise classes and bible studies as well. The girls here have the potential to learn a lot, but sometimes they seem to lack the drive and motivation to learn from these volunteers. While I am living here, I am going to start an art class and do some additional exercise with the girls. I look forward to having a project to call my own and to be able to connect more to the girls through these activities. One of my goals while being here is to get someone new involved regularly in the shelter. When I first said this goal out loud (it kind of just came off my lips without me thinking about what I was really saying), it seems like the biggest, most unattainable goal in the world. I mean, how can I, a young white Canadian girl hardly knows anyone here, find someone to come and volunteer? But low and behold, God is opening up doors for this already!

Last week I went for the first time to the Filipino embassy here in Kuwait for a medical mission night. I am hoping to get more involved here in the future with a unique ministry called "Trash to Treasure." This ministry was started by an American women who goes around to tailors around the city, getting all their scrap cloth and then taking it in to the Filipino embassy and teaching the girls there how to make rugs. She then takes the rugs and sells them, the money from these goes partly to the girl who made the mat, and partly to help provide for the girls at the embassy. The work they do is beautiful and unique! Anyway, I went to the embassy for this ministry night that happens once a month. I could not believe how many girls were there. I would guess it was around 200 girls all packed together in a small room. I was there with my mentor to pray for the girls who wanted prayer. We were able to pray for about 8 girls that night, 2 were leaving the next day to go home to the Philippines (they were both filled with joy, but also sad because they were leaving so many close friends behind), and the others were all still waiting to go back. They all told us some of their stories, and by the end of the night, I could barely hear anymore of what some of these girls have been through. One older lady had been living in the embassy for a whole year. It was a good night, but very hard, and my first real eye opening experience into what the embassy are having to deal with here, as well as the women.

This past week I had the amazing opportunity to go to a big Kuwaiti Expo that was happening at one of the fair grounds here. We had a booth in the "Reuse" area of the expo to sell the handmade crafts that our ladies make here at the shelter (made from material scraps left over from the "Trash to Treasure" ministry and plastic bags) along side the rugs that are made by Trash to Treasure. I was there for 1 whole day out of the 5 days the expo was on. This event marks what will probably be the most contact and conversation I will have with Kuwaitis while I am here. It was such a valuable experience for me, and even though I was there to sell products, I was given many opportunities to talk about who makes the crafts and had some really great conversations. Also, we were able to open up the people of Kuwait a bit more to the idea of recycling! People here usually just toss their garbage wherever which can sometimes make the city seem really dirty.

I am sorry if by this point your eyes are getting tired of reading, but we are quite near the end now! I am happy to report that as of this week, I am starting to feel more able to use the kitchen here in the shelter as my own. This has been such a wonderful answer to prayer. Although the women still are wanting to cook for me and serve me a whole bunch of food, I was finally able to sit down and make myself a peanut butter sandwich the other night, and let me tell you, peanut butter has never tasted so good! This is still a learning process for me and the women, but I have been able to show them that I feel comfortable making some of my own food, and slowly I think me doing this will help to bridge the gap between us. Because I am a guest and because I have white skin, I do get treated differently. I know that this is how these women show their love, and I do appreciate it, but I also want them to see me as their "equal." And, it is nice to be able to feel like I am contributing in some way, even if it is just contribution to myself, like when I did my own laundry the other day. Such a simple task, but doing it for myself was such a wonderful feeling and an encouragement to me, as there have been times in the last couple weeks where I have felt very useless. I hope that as time goes on, this gap will continue to grow smaller.

This week the Salvation Army have been hosting the Texas Brass Band who are here ministering to us and the people in Dubai through their music and testimonies. I have always heard about how amazing brass bands are, but wow! These guys are amazing! They had a big concert at the Lighthouse compound last night and people loved it, such a treat to have here in Kuwait. We have been blessed by their time here, and I am amazed at how they are still able to function (they are over here in the Middle East for a total of 6 days and have been going full steam ahead since getting here!).

Tonight, we had one of the women staying here get the call saying that she is going home tomorrow! It is such a mix of emotions, all the girls are excited for her, but inside they are hurting, as they all want to go home so badly. I could see the tears welling up in their eyes. DeeDee (the lady who says I remind her of her daughter) is next on the list to go back home. While I am sad she will be leaving, my heart is filled with joy at this news because she has been in this shelter for over 6 months!

Ok, I think that is a pretty good rundown of what has been going on here. My first week here was really hard, missing my family has been one of the biggest emotional obstacles. Also, adjusting to being part of a new church has been difficult too, showing me how much I love and value RockPointe and my church family back home. But, God is faithful and has been my source of comfort and encouragement through these times, and he continues to send me what I need. I am in a house where I am greeted every morning by 20 girls, each kissing me on either cheek and giving me a big hug. I am surrounded by a bunch of motherly figures who all check in with me regularly to make sure I am doing ok and have offered their homes to me if I am ever having a hard time and need to have a night away. I have wonderful mentors who have been so generous to me and who have wholeheartedly taken me under their wing and are sharing this all with me. I feel pulled and stretched in new directions everyday and look forward to the upcoming months.