Here’s another update on J and what she is up to in her city-it has been a while! J has been super busy with teaching and taking trips with her roommates, but she wanted to catch all of you up on the things that have been going on in her life lately, both hilarious and serious. She has had a couple of pretty crazy things happen in the last few weeks!
First off, J and one of her roommates were able to go on a short trip to some islands in South East Asia a couple of weeks ago just to get away from work and so her roommate could do some sight-seeing before she goes back home for good. While they were on the islands, the two stayed with a family there and do things such as snorkeling, surfing, and visiting a nearby village. J said she really enjoyed surfing—and she was able to get up on the board and stay up to actually ride
some waves. Since there are coral reefs around the islands they were visiting, the girls were able to do some snorkeling. J said seeing the coral reef was fantastic and they were able to see some really beautiful things while they were snorkeling. Aside from surfing and snorkeling, J said they went to visit a nearby village. It was her first time visiting a village since she has been in her city, and J said it was a neat experience. She is also getting much better at bargaining in the markets as well, as she found out during their visit. When she first arrived in her new city, J said the markets and bargaining was completely overwhelming for her and she had a couple of bad experiences. However, this time, she had a great time and thinks she has figured out how to bargain and be able to buy the things she wants without getting taken advantage of—she bargained and was able to buy something for the equivalent of $3.00 when the original price was
the equivalent of $48.00. Needless to say, she was pretty proud of herself—and she should be-that is an accomplishment no matter where you are!
While on her trip to the islands, J and the people with her rode in a bemo for the first time, which is some type of vehicle but really bumpy. She asked to ride up front since she gets carsick easily, and as a result was able to have a really great conversation with their driver during the hour ride. While she said the conversation was great and very serious, and she was able to share a lot with the driver, J said the ride ended with the driver proposing marriage to her! No holding your breath necessary—she said no!
While the snorkeling and surfing and visiting the village were great experiences for J, she said the part of the trip that was most memorable took place at the house they were staying in. The family J and her roommate were staying with owned a pet rabbit, which went missing a couple of days after the girls arrived. One day, the room they were staying in started to smell very bad, but the girls brushed it off because they were not sure what the smell was. Of course the smell only got worse as the days went on. After a few days, the smell became so bad that the husband came to them and asked them to search their room. J said he told them the room “smells reallybad and the rabbit has been missing for three days.” At the point, neither of the girls wanted to go in their room and look for a dead rabbit. After some searching through their suitcases, J’s roommate went to look under the mattress they had been sleeping on. J didn’t think they needed to look under the mattress because themattress was sitting on the floor and there would have been no room for anything to crawl under it. However, her roommate picked up the mattress anyway and sure enough, underneath was the couple’s pet rabbit—very flat pet rabbit. Of course, a lot of screaming ensued! They think it must have crawled under the mattress a few days before when one of the couple’s daughters had lifted it up to change the sheets and blankets on the
mattress.
J said it was terrible to find the couple’s dead rabbit at the time, but the story is really funny now. In fact, she and her roommate decided to buy a new pet—a rabbit—once they got back from their trip in honor of what happened while they were staying with the family on the islands. In honor of the poor rabbit under their mattress, they named their new pet rabbit Sarabi, which in English means “pancake!”
On a more serious note, J started teaching a new English class last week and she says it is going well; she is getting a lot more comfortable in her teaching role. Also, in April J will start teaching a class just for women and girls that will be similar to a True Love Waits class. She is going to open up the class for any women in the city who want to come, whether they come to the English center, work at the English center, or do not come at all. She is really excited about the class and getting to talk and lead discussions with the women who come to the class. If the class goes well, she plans on leading a class similar to this every other month or so, so be keeping her and the women who come to the class in your thoughts.
Be sure to look at J’s pictures from her trip when she puts them up and send her an encouraging note if you think about it. Have a good week!
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