secrets of my last night in Iraq

who doesn't love a good secret?

Anyone who knows me knows cannot stand when people have a secret and won't tell me (even though I can keep a secret).

Well I don't really have any secrets of my last night here. We went to dinner, and ate and ate and ate. After that I packed. Ugh as much fun as packing is I probably bought too much and my bag may be a little over 20 kgs. :( fingers crossed I don't have to pay extra!

I have mixed feelings about leaving iraq. I am so excited to get home, sleep in my bed, hug my family, snuggle with my dog, wear shorts and drive. On the other hand I am so bummed to leave this awesome internship. Will I wake up on Thursday ready to edit blogs (I hope so because I still have some photos to add into some)? Where will o'lydia be? Who will encourage me daily and agree to whatever strange idea I come up with? when I walk into my kitchen or living room where will my new best intern friends be? WHERE!?

Dear NM friends, please be patient with me as I adjust to the States and bring up Iraq every two mins. love you and missed you so much! promise someday I won't talk about it so much, but for the first few weeks please humor me bring up this life-changing experience all the time.

Dear Family,
I cannot wait to see you at the airport! I'm sorry if I'm a grumpy gills for a few days. blame it on the tiredness of flying for two days. :) I missed you so much!

It's 1 am here and we leave for istanbul at 1:45pm. craziness

I don't always remember I'm in iraq, but this summer God has challenged me and I can't wait to share some of it with all of you!

Please continue praying for the interns and safe travels!  

Say Cheese(y)!

All the baking, asking friends for baked goods, and time were (more than) worth it. I'm having such a great summer. My Savior is so good. He is the King of this city!

This is my room that I share with Lydia (sorry for my messy corner) .

A HUGE hotel they're 'building' in Suly. (The sky was terribly dusty that day.)

The sun, in the dust, at the bazaar.

Cab Club- Stripe Addition

Roquoia, one of the adorable little girls who received surgery in RMVI. (photo credit: Lydia Bullock).

Orange juice= the best.

Want A Sibling Relationship Like Gayle and Liz?

Well that's too bad because there's only one Gayle and one Liz...and well we're pretty awesome.

I don't think people understand our relationship and that's ok. I don't think we do either. We can't stand each other one moment (ask Kate how awkward that can be), but the next we can be cracking up (because we are funny ALL the time).

I found a dead cat on the side of the road, so I took it home and cooked it and put some ketchup on it and ate it. Is that bad?

She doesn't judge my creepiness and I don't judge her for being so tall and into economics. We grew up together playing outside on the apricot tree, speaking in secret code for our secret club and playing Barbies. I comforted her when she was sad or frustrated and she allowed my anti- social self to be a part of her cool circle of friends.

It's hard to believe this year I'll graduate from UNM and she's 21 and traipsing around the world.

I could not be a more proud older sister. Gayle spent the summer in East Asia living and loving with students over there. She developed relationships. She shared Christ's love with them. God used her, and she was listening to Him to be used. What could make me more happy?

I think this is why we're so close. We're biological sisters, but even more than that we're sisters in Christ. We're Bill and Yong's daughters, but we're His daughters even more. How awesome is that!?

As Gayle is getting ready to leave East Asia I can't imagine what is going through her mind (since I still have a few weeks until I have to think about packing up and returning to NM). I can trust that she's trusting God, recalling the good times she's experienced this summer, and preparing to live for God (even more) for the rest of the summer and on campus this semester.

Happy (late) Birthday Gayle. I wrote you a blog post instead of buying you a baby goat, but if you see a colonial lady on the wing of your plane on the way home dressed in full colonial garb, she's from me. :-)

Monsters Inc, Kashma, Remedy and Guys

How can this blog's headline NOT intrigue you?

Monsters Inc
I love this movie. The other day I watched (most of) it in Turkish. I still love this movie. BOOM.

Kashma
She's my new 14-year-old Kurdish friend. She's so sweet and her English is pretty good (much better than the intro English class that I co-taught and that she was enrolled in).

A few nights ago I went to her father's kabob restaurant, along with Kierstin (a teacher at the Life Center) and Kashma's mom and aunt. IT WAS SO DELICIOUS. He kept bringing out chicken, vegetables, chicken wings, naan, and some other meat for us to eat.

The restaurant, I think, was just for men, but because I was with the owner's wife and daughter it was ok to be there. It's still strange to me that they still have so much separation on where men and women can go. We did get kicked out after about an hour because we were taking business from him (we took up two tables and weren't paying, so this was completely understandable).

Kashma is definitely a 14-year-old girl. In class her best friend Hadn and her talk and giggle. She rebels a little against society here by her clothes choices. She says she hates living here and she wants to go to Alaska where it's cold and she can do whatever she wants. (Alaska, really?) Her mother shares these sentiments. I thank God that I get to talk to them, listen to their frustrations, and learn from them. I pray for each of them, especially Kashma that Jesus reveals himself to her so she can find the freedom she yearns for in Christ.

Remedy Mission VI
Remedy is underway in southern Iraq this week! While I am still a little bummed that I am not down there, I am encouraged by the progress this hospital is making and desires. The stories coming out of this Remedy are beautiful. How can helping save a child's life NOT be beautiful?

Even when reading some old blog posts that are sad, that illustrate the grief parents go through when it's too late to restore their child...the beauty of forgiveness and grace still is evident to me. Thank God for this, if these qualities didn't shine through I think it would be so easier to become hard-hearted, cynical, angry and bitter about a loss. (I am not saying I'm not angry, but those posts make me want to take my anger to change the ways things are so that more children and parents are not being told it's too late.)

If you haven't check out PLC's blog to see what is going on right now in southern Iraq!

Guys
Since Lydia and Alex are in southern Iraq right now, it's been me and 5 guy interns here.

Every now and then I need to retreat to my room to paint my nails or listen to Taylor Swift or Justin Timberlake, but for the most part I could not ask for better company.

I've learned a lot about guys, but not just from your average, American guy. No, I've learned a lot from great, intelligent, Christian men. So when I get home I hope I'm not too reverse-cultured-shocked by the average American college guy now that I've grown use to be around such awesome ones.

Also, on the topic of guys, there are more male Christians in this area than women. Women are the gate-keepers of Islam here. Another reason for this may be that men have more chances to hear the Truth than women. Women are generally confined to their home, or don't really socialize outside the house with friends. This makes it even more difficult to hear the Gospel. Keep praying for these women, but know that God is so powerful and that He can reveal himself to them in other ways. I heard a story from a Life Center friend the other day and she said she has a Kurdish acquaintance who, since a young age, had visions of Jesus, and knew that she needed to be searching for who this man was. This woman is now a believer, after hearing the Word and realizing THIS was the man in her dreams.

and that is the end of this post. I hope you all are doing well. Thank so much for supporting this trip. I love being here.