I hope all of you back home had a wonderful time celebrating the start of 2007. It's been a great few days here. Since it is the holiday (the Eid) these last few days, things have been slow and we've had some downtime to spend exploring all sort of places here in Egypt. David took us into Giza one night and we visited his friends (their baby is that cute little guy in the picture below), and we picked up Moody and had Thai food for dinner (which made me think of you, Lauren!). For New Years Eve, Jen, Kayla, Leslie and I went downtown and had dinner on the Nile River. It's soooooo awesome there at night. It's pretty much the "it" place to be. At times it is so surreal just driving along the Nile or seeing the pyramids as you drive down the road. Too cool. Especially when you stop and think of all the history that these landmarks have. It is amazing. Funny thing...as the 4 of us were watching a movie on new years eve, we realized this was the second new years we'd spent together! We were all in Kentucky last year at the world missions summit, ringing in the new year together with thousands of other young people. Who would have known we'd be here a year later?? Pretty cool! Then on new years day we drove about an hour and a half to Miriam's house and her mother made us the most incredibly HUGE meal. Including....pigeons! Boiled pigeons with the heads still attached. Ha! Well, you know me..i'm always up for an adventure so i ate it with much excitement. It was no thanksgiving turkey, but it wasn't all that bad! So as you are all walking the streets of Manhattan, think of me when you see a pigeon ;) Tonight Miriam took the 3 of us girls to get our hair cut. So i now have shorter hair and threaded eyebrows...complements of egypt! It is really exciting to experience acclamating to a new culture.
We've also been doing some work at the clinic while it is closed to for the holidays. We cleaned out the big closet and organized all of the supplies. There were some unexpected surprises (rats) but big brave nicole chiseled the dead one out of the wood shelf that it had stuck itself too. Not a pleasant smell...but hey, anyone remember the poop flood on the Olean missions trip? :) Today we were in the office doing some paperwork and sending out newsletters, getting things ready for sunday school, etc... On Friday we are driving about 5 hours south to spend 3 days at the orphanage...egyptian Christmas is on Jan 7th so we will be there to give all the kids presents in the morning. Then we'll be back late on the 7th, and the 8th-11th is the Sudanese clinic. So busy times ahead!!
I am having trouble uploading pictures right now. Hopefully when the internet man comes (this week we are hoping!) and speeds up the connection i can get more. I only got the first set to load...the rest are on my website (link on the right).
Happy new year, everyone! I miss you and i pray abundant blessings on each of you and your families in 2007.
Love,
Nicole
driving across the Nile on the way to Giza
me w/baby Andrea
me, leslie, and our new boyfriend ;)
more dead animals for the Eid
Moody and his chocolate bagel...on the way to eat more food!
