Green

Living in the middle of the desert is...monotonous at times. There are thousands of shades of brown, beige, yellowish, and off-white, and perhaps there are desert-dwellers can appreciate the nuances of each shade, but this Georgia boy misses him some green.

But I didn't realized it until a few weeks ago when I left the city and saw a bunch of trees. And almost shed a tear.

Thankfully, recently the weather has changed, spring has sprung, and there is much green all around!! It does the heart good. I stop and thank the Creator every time I see a field of grass or a tree with newly sprouted leaves.

All my life living in the eastern US and Latin America, I took all the green around me for granted. But no more! Now I now how blessed the Americas are and I find a myself a little homesick every time a see a blade of grass these days...

(I'd love to upload a picture to show the lovely greenness, but I have temporarily misplaced my camera cord...)

2 Months of Language School

شهرين

The last 2 months my life have been focused on learning Arabic. Putting in 40+ hours a week of class, studying, or speaking with people in the community- it's definitely like a full-time job. But I have loved it! Any one that has known me over the last few years knows how much of a language nerd I've become. This has been such a cool experience so far.

Before I came I tried in vain to learn Arabic. When I got here, I knew the alphabet and had a lot of words in my head, but no idea how to put them together! But within the first 2-3 weeks, I was able to sort out the words, pick up a ton of new basic words and start forming sentences. Two months later I'm having conversations in Arabic daily!

I had a test this week to see how much I've learned, and I didn't do as well as I had hoped. But the real test came later that day when I ran into a group of young guys in the street. I hung around and talked with them for about 30 minutes, just talking and joking about whatever. The true test = can I actually use Arabic in daily life? YES! I love it. I still have my sights set on what some would call pretty unrealistic language goals this year, but I must keep pushing forward...

يا الله - Let's go!

Climb Life's Mountains