Time Flies When You're Busy!

Here it is, the end of April! Time seems to have gone by so quickly! Well, here’s a recap of what has been going on:
· Easter Celebration! Tanya’s mom made each of us a bag of goodies! A few colored eggs, some candy, and a traditional Russian cake that is made especially during Easter. It was like having an Easter basket back home. I also learned that it is a Russian thing, that when someone says “Jesus has risen”, every one responds by saying “it is true”.
It was a wonderful day!
· The following Saturday our team went to the mountains! It was my first visit to the mountains since my arrival in Kyrgyzstan, and the mountains are beautiful! On our way, we drove by rolling green hills with horses and cattle grazing, a winding creek, and the mountains rising up all around you. It was amazing! We pulled off the side of the road and found a nice spot to have our picnic. We had a nice time- played some football (soccer), ate some hotdogs, a couple different salads, and cookies- it was good! Afterwards, we all just hung out on the rocks in and around the creek. I felt like a lizard, laying on a smooth rock, basking in the sunshine! It was very relaxing. As I looked around, I couldn’t help but be in awe over God’s creation! It is comforting to know that such an awesome God loves and cares for me! How great He is!
· Our team also went and visited a home for the elderly. We had prepared a bag of goodies for each of them- with socks, chocolate, and other items in it. When we got there, we talked with some of the people until everyone had come into the room, and then everyone introduced themselves- our name, where we were from, how old we were. Then we all played a game and it was a lot of fun! Afterward, our team sang some songs and Sergey shared a message. Then we had some more time to talk with them, and it is times like this that I wish I knew the language fluently! The home is not too far from our house, so I hope to go back and visit again!
· Back by popular demand- there was another baseball game! Yeah! It was fun- but then again, when is playing baseball not fun? We did not have as many people as before but it was a short notice game and everyone still had a good time!
· English clubs are going really well! Many people are coming and I’ve realized that I am pretty clueless when it comes to grammar. I don’t ever remember learning about present continuous participles, or whatever. But I love to share about idioms! It is fun to explain why and when we say such phrases like: hit the road, grin and bear it, foot in the door, and keep your nose to the grindstone, and how they came about. Though some of them are pretty out dated and I try to think of some more modern phrases. For example, on one of the papers was the phrase “far out”. Then there is always explaining the difference between British English and American English, because here and pretty much everywhere else they learn British English. So things like torch and flat have different meanings depending on which English you are using.

Well, I now have a weekly schedule of activities which is nice, but it is easy to get caught up in the business of it all! So I try to set aside some time for other important things like resting and refueling both physically and spiritually, spending time with people, and of course updating my blog!