Hey there y'all!
I trust all of you are doing well and enjoying the scorching hot weather that's been shining down this summer. We are all getting ready for our final week here, and in many ways none of us want to think about flying out next week. We have been blessed with many memories and experiences that will last a lifetime, so it will be hard to pick up everything we've known for six weeks and leave it behind. Six weeks seemed like such a long time when I first left for this trip but, looking back at my time here, it doesn't seem to be nearly enough. All we can do now is make the most of the time that we have left.
The first part of this week was very exciting, because the group of us from North Carolina were able to meet up with some friends in a (somewhat) nearby city. We had been in talk with these workers, and we finally got a trip scheduled. Sunday night, at around 10:00, we hopped on a bus and rode through the night, for about 11 hours, until we arrived in the morning. We were able to do many things in such a short time in this city, such as explore the area (which is much, much smaller than the city we're in normally), eat some Arby's in the food court of a mall, have a Turkish bath (which is one of the most relaxing things I've ever done in my life), and hike up a mountain and have an amazing, overlooking view of the city waiting at the top. The best part of our time there, though, was simply talking with the families that we were meeting with. They were all so generous and hospitable, and I really appreciate the time that they put in to making our trip more than worthwhile. They were all very wise, too, and I was able to learn much about life from them. Tuesday afternoon, all of the guys got together at one of the houses and for hours studied, talked, and asked the workers questions that we had about all sorts of things. This time was so sweet and fruitful, and I am so thankful for men and families like the ones we were able to spend time with this week. Our time was short, though, and we hopped on the bus, again at 10:00, on Tuesday night. This time, the trip took 13 hours, so we were on the bus for a total of about one day.
We were all exhausted by the time we got back, and I took an awesome two-hour nap on Wednesday afternoon. Then, later that evening, I met up with a few others from the team and we had our weekly mentor dinner. This week we had lasagna, and could not have asked for a better meal that night. Having some homemade American food here is always a nice treat. There were also some students from Tennessee at our mentor dinner, and so it was fun meeting them. They just arrived here last week and will be staying for seven weeks. We got to play some more basketball this week, and got to meet three local guys who were about our age. We talked to them for awhile after we played against them, and by the time we got into bed last night, it was after 2.
Today, we met up with a couple of our friends at their university nearby. It is a medical school, so we had a nice time touring that. The guys took us to eat in the school cafeteria for us, and they paid for all of us to eat. It was very generous of them, but the meal, which was quite filling, only cost about $.50 in American money, so thankfully the food didn't bankrupt the guys. At one point, we ended up sitting in on a radiology lecture with our friends. The class may have been a little more interesting had it been in English. It was still a cool experience, though. Then, we went to a recreational hall of the school, where we hung out and played some ping-pong for awhile. I feel like the guys here are much better at ping-ping than are Americans. After we finished, our friends all headed out to work, and we're just hanging out at the house for a little while now. Tonight we are helping out in the English class that we go to every Thursday, so we'll probably grab dinner a little before and then head over to that.
That's about all I have for now, but I'll try and post one more time before my time is up here. See ya next week.
No comments:
Post a Comment