Vacation Notes

Hi everyone! Just a quick update on what J has been up to—as some of you already know, she just returned from a vacation and had a pretty exciting time! Since the Center J works at was closed for the month because of Ramadan, she and some friends took a trip to enjoy some sightseeing, snorkeling, and a lot of other fun things as well.

The place J and her group went for the vacation was quite an adjustment for her! The entire city only has electricity for twelve hours of the day, so the people there spend their day hours without electricity and then it is turned on at nighttime. J said it was very different getting dressed and going about her routine to go out for the day without being able to see what she was doing. She also said that the people there do not have showers, so bathing means basically pouring buckets of water over yourself. Even with the changes, J said she loved the city and really felt at home while she was there. She really felt drawn to the city, and so she is looking forward to possibly going back there at some point in the future.

While on vacation, J was able to do some pretty crazy things! She said her group rode almost every form of transportation during this trip, including a bus where everyone had to stand up the entire ride, a bicycle where you lay down as someone pedals and rides you around, and a boat.  During the boat ride, J ended up talking to the older man who was steering the boat.  She said that, unlike a lot of the people where she is right now, this man had a sense of humor similar to hers and people back in the states. He was very kind and smiled a lot, which led J to tell him that she really liked him and enjoyed meeting him.  With a completely straight face, the man joked that he was very sorry but that he was too young for her—which of course, made J like him even more. She said that she and her group even were able to go with him to his house and meeting his family after the boat ride.

J also got to go snorkeling during her vacation—she said there was a ton of coral, so much that they had to float on the top of the water just to avoid touching it, instead of having to swim down some to see it.  She has been snorkeling a couple of times while she has been living over there, but J said this was the best snorkeling she’s done so far.

Probably the most exciting thing J did while on her vacation was swimming with sharks.  They weren’t the big, man-eating, scary Great White sharks, but sharks just the same! She had so much fun getting to do it and said that one of the sharks got so close as to brush his fin up against her. She took a lot of pictures of the trip so she could show everyone what she did.

J said she came back from the vacation really encouraged.  Because of where she was, she had to speak a lot of the language while she on her trip, so she’s at the point now where she can carry on a pretty long conversation in her new language.  This is a really great thing now that she is back in her city.

Now that she is home from vacation, J is getting back in to the routine at the Center, which she said has just been completely renovated.  The church of a family that lives in the city paid for the entire renovation of the building and everything in it, which was so great for J and her team.  Now that Ramadan is over, classes are starting back up, so the renovation timing was perfect. 

J is also again adjusting to a new roommate.  Her old roommate just moved away to another city permanently, so she now just has the new roommate, until another girl moves in in January. J also just got another pet bunny that she named Oreo because he is black with little white patches—now she has two pet rabbits, Pancake and Oreo.  She even was able to find people who are going to adopt them once her time there is up and she comes back to the states next year!

Please keep encouraging J when you think about her—I know she really appreciates it.  She has really enjoyed receiving the things you all have been sending, and is so thankful for your support and encouragement, so please keep it up!