Feeding the camels on the way to the desert picnic. Sallie and Robert playing on the dunes.
Below..Church Easter picnic. Bottom right...Me, Nadia and her daughter Rachel at Friday breakfast after church.
It's Sunday morning and our Easter is over. Mike is ready for work and I have started my day. We had a very nice weekend though...albeit it is strange not going to Easter services today. Actually, we could have gone early this morning to a sunrise service but we just couldn't get out of bed. (pretty lame, i know...) Yesterday we were went to a desert picnic with some friends of ours and we were beat this morning.
So the weekend began with Good Friday church. When the guests stood up to say their names and country of origin, we had people from Malaysia, Phillipines, Myanmar(Burma), South Africa, Korea, and Nigeria. I love that. You could hear the different accents as we sang "Christ the Lord is risen today..." Pangs of homesickness did wash over me. I can't deny that, especially when the special music was Via Dolorosa...lots of memories from Tres Dias. But it was beautiful and kind of cool to be here and sing of the Resurrection...Loud and clear. I love that.
After church we joined our friends the Philips for lunch. We originally wanted to have brunch but the hotels closed their brunch lines at 10:30 and we got there at 10:40..so they don't serve again until 12:00...I confess we were all a bit frustrated but we headed to a little place that was serving breakfast still..The only place in the city. :) We all had a nice time together. Tom and Nadia have been so kind to us. (Good grief...everyone here has been great...) She had Mike and the kids over when I was in the States at Thanksgiving with my mom and sister. According to Mike she is a great cook. :)
Friday evening we had an all-church Easter egg hunt at a park in the city. A new couple was there. She arrived 3 weeks ago. She is from Chiapas, Mexico...he is Palestinian from Lebanon...but both have lived in the US forever. Two young boys and they homeschool. The best part is they live around the corner from us. Lots of the homeschool moms were at the picnic so she got to meet them and connect. This is her first foray into the realm of homeschooling so she was relieved to see she wasn't alone. :) He works at a bank here...in the Islamic finances department or something like that. I think that will be a very cool place to work. Considering his background and all...enough said.
Saturday was off to the desert. We joined Brad and Sharon Kerr and some friends of theirs from Kuwait. The gang went to Dune Bashing(SUVs driving up and down the dunes...sort of like fourwheeling but in big cars...:)) Sallie and Robert wanted to just play on the dunes so they stayed with Sharon and me at the picnic sight. Apparently, not long after the cars left, they got stuck....both of them. Ok, so middle of the desert...hmmm...BUT out of nowhere comes a local guy..Ali who knew exactly what to do and bam! they were free. He invited everyone back to his place where they had tea and met his wife and 8 kids. Got to watch them milk the camels, drink some camel milk and make new friends. Ali is from Abu Dhabi but that tent is their county retreat...you know, just like some folks have in Dallas, a place to get away from the city:). I don't have pictures yet, but I will soon. When they got back we started the grill, had our picnic and sat by the fire while we watched the moon rise over the sand dunes. It really was amazing. On the way back home we had sort of a detour...We're following Brad who was whipping thru this Camel farm community(the camel race track stables is our best guess) and he zips thru this one gate and WHOA we have just turned into the camel corral. I mean, there were a bunch of camels just staring at us...not to mention the camel guys who saw us go in their...I'm sure they were thingking..Where are those crazies going??? Backing up to get out Brad beeped at us...and Mike said why is he honking at me..Sallie looked back and said.."Oh, cuz you are about to back over a camel...":) The guy was just sitting their looking at us with VERY WIDE eyes. :) The fine is only about 80,000 dollars...actually we don't know but we are really glad we didn't need to find out.... Eventually we found our way thru the maze and arrived back home sandy but safe.
It was a wonderful Easter. Different for sure...but very special.
Robert just woke up...Time to go.
Blessings,
Mattie and the Gang
