So Christmas turned out better than I thought, and much better than last year. I think last year I spent Christmas studying Arabic alone in my apartment…not that is was bad, just not quite what I was used to. Anyway, I pretty much pictured this Christmas being the same. However, Christmas eve, after work I went to play squash (which I am getting quite good at) with a couple friends. Afterward, one of the guys invited me to come over to his house for Christmas eve with his family (just his mom and sister) and another friend. It was a lot of fun. They are Christian and so they celebrate Christmas. I love it when I get to go to people house here and meet their family, it is my favorite part about living here, especially now because I can converse well in Arabic. Arab families can be so much fun and friendly once you get to know them…I love it. I stayed there until about 11:30.
Christmas morning was very nice as well. I went to the church for their Christmas service. Most of the service was singing, which was really great because I got to sing Arabic Christmas songs. There are some hymns in Arabic that are absolutely amazing, and today was the first time I heard the Arabic Christmas carols (some were translations of our carols, some where Arabic originals). After the service a big group of people went to visit the pastor and have Christmas cookies and Arabic coffee. I made it back to the apartment around 2pm and spent the rest of the day listening to sermons and studying Arabic, until it got late enough here to call my dad back in
I am sorry I did not take any pictures of the ‘holiday events’ here, but here is a picture of the biggest Christmas tree in
I am hoping to make a trip to
3 comments:
What? We don't get sound bytes of these carols? What a gyp! At least you had fun this year.
~Pam
Glad you didn't have to spend Christmas alone. Hope you get to visit the Hollidays.
Nice to hear that you were able to find some fellowship. I know, from my Navy experiences, how bad it stinks to have to spend Christmas alone. I enjoyed hearing your last post with the scripture in Arabic. There was something very relaxing about it.
Good luck with the trip to Jerusalem though. It sounds like it's pretty crazy in that area.
Post a Comment