almost at the finish

No, we haven't fallen off the face of the Earth, but here are a few things we have going on:

- I've been organizing a lot of activities and planning for International Week at school, which is May 29th - June 2nd. Each class in the elementary school is currently studying a country in their Social Studies time. During International Week, the kids will do crafts, write postcards, dress up, and eat things all pertaining to the country their classes are focusing on.

- Chris has rehearsals for The Desert Song, an operetta by Siegmund Romberg. He's playing in the pit orchestra for this show, similar to what he did for Carmina Burana. The Desert Song will be performed May 31st- June 3rd.

- We are both trying to finish grading things in school and prepare our last reports for the year. Chris is done with students next week, although I have them until June 8th. I am seriously praying the admin. will change the date sooner, because the HS kids are finished with exams next week.

- I just finished putting together a collection of stories written by my students. My friend Kristen and I agreed to have my Grade 1 class work weekly with her high school Creative Writing class on improving listening skills, reading, and writing throughout this semester. The end result was a lot of learning and a project that I put together, called Animals are Everywhere. The book contains short stories written by my students and edited by her students, illustration that my kids drew, and pictures from our "Reading Buddies" meetings. I'm pretty excited about finally having it done and taking it to the printer's this next weekend, especially since I did it once and had to re-do it...

- I finished Environmental Week and Earth Day at school at the end of April, and the picture for this post shows my class's bulletin board. We decided to recycle wrappers and things that we used for lunch, which the kids loved.

- There are lots of other things going on, too, but no time to jot them all down. It's a race to the finish before I leave for the States on June 17th. Chris should be leaving within one or two days of that, but he still doesn't have his exact schedule.

A little weekend boating fun

Chris driving with Em and Omar on the raft- yikes!

teaching Chris how to stand

Steph and Skinny

Rasha, Omar, and Chris

Rasha tanning...just kidding

Jesus wasn't surprised

"He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed."

- 1 Peter 2:22-24

 

"In John 10:18 Jesus said, "No one takes my life from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again." Those very significant words of Jesus mean that everything that happened to him on that first Good Friday—all of the physical pain of the whippings, the beatings, the crown of thorns thrust into his head, the nails driven into his hands and his feet; all of the emotional pain of being mocked and spat upon; all of the spiritual pain that Jesus endured when his Father turned his face away from him as he took upon himself the sins of the world—all of it was voluntarily accepted and voluntarily endured by Jesus Christ for the glory of his heavenly Father and for the eternal well-being of his people. Nothing that happened to Jesus that day caught him by surprise. None of it was unforeseen. All of it was anticipated and taken into account by Jesus when he made that fateful prayer in Gethsemane, "Not my will but yours be done" (Luke 22:42)."

- taken from John Piper's "I Thirst" sermon, at Desiring God

On holiday

I've been in Greece for 4 days, and I'll get back to Kuwait on Friday.
There's no time to blog when you're on holiday...

A Kuwaiti Wedding, Part 1

Last Friday, I had the opportunity to go to my first Kuwaiti wedding. One of my student's aunts was getting married, and her mom invited me to go. Now, nothing about the Kuwaiti wedding party resembles a western wedding ceremony and reception, except for the fact that there is food, music, and a bride in a wedding dress.

First, I had to go buy a ball gown/cocktail dress/party dress. I opted for one somewhat quickly, because I knew that nothing I bought would be even close to the outlandish/lavish designs that the Kuwaiti women would be wearing. Imagine the richest people in the world each having their own designer dress specially made for this occasion...so, I found a decent black dress at Debenham's that looked like this one, and paired it with a black shrug, black heels, and a silver and black clutch purse. You can't go wrong with black here.

Next, I drove to the city center to the Marriott Courtyard complex, which holds the Al Rayya shopping center and the Al Rayya ballroom. The wedding "started" at 8:30pm, I arrived around 9:15pm, and a lot more people arrived after I did. When I got to the front door, there was a giant Arab doorman (read: bouncer) that asked for my invitation. When I said I didn't have one, he said, "You are Stephanie." I was like, "Uh. Yes," thinking, I sure hope that's ok. He told me to go in, so I walked through this elegant set of curtains into an extremely, ornately decorated foyer and the entrance to the ballroom. After a second's thought, I walked quickly to the bathroom to check out how under-dressed I really was. When I decided it was ok, I ventured out to find Latifa (my student's mom) and see what to do.

Then, after about an hour of Arabic music and servers coming around with gourmet chocolates, Arabic tea and coffee, and bite-size desserts, most of the guests had arrived and started dancing. Mind you, all of the guests at this party were women, and the "dance floor" really was a runway of white carpet stretching around 1/2 a football field, where the women do a simple dance that is more like walking along a runway. And yes, it did look like a runway, because the rest of the guests were seated on white leather bench-type sofas on both sides and facing the runway for easy watching of the "dance floor."

Sound complicated yet? I'm doing my best to describe all this because there are no cameras allowed! Besides the official, professional photographer, no women take their cameras because everyone is generally covered in extremely modest clothing or an abaya (loose dress) and wearing a hijab (head scarf). At weddings, the women are free to wear whatever they please because there are only other women in attendance (including the servers, photographer, videographers, etc.). Here are a FEW of the types of dresses that I saw:

It was a little overwhelming at first, but once I got to know some people, I started to have a goof time. And, that was before the bride even came around 10:15pm.

(to be continued...)

There's a new "Crash"

The family moniker that indicates just what it says, Crash, can now be passed to my dear Christopher. Here are some desert photos as promised.

We went riding with Emily, Skinny, Omar, and another friend

Here's where we were riding. Yes, that's a herd of goats.

The Freemans (and Skinny) having a good time.

Crash #1. Dramatized.

Crash #2. Me fixing sunglasses & Chris clenching his teeth for a picture.

So many things in March...

March was a busy month in school. First, there was the 100th day of school, celebrated with pajama day and "100" snacks (grapes, cheerios, nuts, m&ms, etc.). Then, we had the Spring Festival, which hundreds of people come to on a Saturday for fun, games, and food. Then, we had Sports Day last Thursday. Now, we will have Neon Colors Day tomorrow. It will be interesting! I'm ready for the Spring Break!

With my friend, Emily, who is the 1B teacher

Out in the desert with Skinny & Omar

I also finally got the pictures from our buggy riding in February, so you'll get to see Chris doing some of his amazing stunts. By amazing, I mean crashing.