The parasites are coming

I thought it about time for an update, but really there isn't much new happening. You get into a routine here and the days fly by, but nothing very interesting happens. There is an awesome bug going around, and at least ten people got diarrhea. I thought I had escaped unscathed but as of this morning I had joined them. They are trying to figure out the source-whether it was something we all ate, or the possibility that our bottled water is contaminated. We did finally get our kitchen screened in..for a while the door and windows were completely open and the kitchen literally swarmed with hundreds of flies while you were cooking. When I first got here it completely horrified me, but after a few weeks you just laugh and move on with your life. I got to go out to dinner with a few of the staff last night, which was a nice break from the house. I ordered an authentic Afghan chicken kebab and it was amaaaaazing!

I'm now tutoring an older agfghan girl in English as well as my beginners English class, so I stay pretty busy. Our Bible classes are also going really well and I'm learning a lot. I'm starting to feel more settled in here and getting to know the people better. It's still hard, but it's Afghanistan, it's not exactly a vacation. But I know that the difficulties will shape me and make me stronger. I'm excited for the outreach portions of the year when we will go into the local villages and conduct teacher training and build schools. I'm told I'll have to wear a burqa when we go to the villages..THAT will be interesting! For now we have our discipleship training in the mornings and teach at the learning center in the afternoons.

Our first break is in July, three days before my birthday. I'm trying to think of somewhere fun to go. I've been suffering from heat exhaustion, so I'm basing a lot of my decision on the what the weather will be-the arctic circle is looking mighty fine at the moment. Or the Southern Hemisphere where it's the dead of winter. Australia, here I come! So...anybody feel like taking a vacation in July??? No, but seriously. I will meet you somewhere.

Hopefully I'll have something awesome to report on soon, but in the meantime I'm departing to listen to one of the short-term guys regal us with tales from his time in the Norwegian special forces. Who knew the Norwegians even HAD special forces? You learn something new everyday.