Grief

I just listened to a short podcast from NPR.  A man had lost his infant son and talked about the grief that followed.  He went on to say that grief is "showing honor to the one that you love".  I can't help but to agree.  If we would see someone who just lost someone and they weren't grieving we might ask or think, "don't they care?"  Grief seems to be viewed differently here.  I shouldn't say much on this as I don't fully understand the culture yet.  But I can tell the story of sitting in a local home and a woman came in.  She began to cry because her teenage brother had been killed the night before from a gun shot.  Nobody said anything, and I was waiting for the cultural clues to know what to do.  After a minute or two, the woman of the house said, "Enough!  This was Allah's plan!"  To grieve here seems to indicate a lack of trust in God.  So grief is discouraged, at least publicly.  

Anniversary Boat Ride

For our 2 year anniversary, Joe organized a boat ride for us in the Arabian sea.  We went along the coast for a couple of hours westward.  He arranged it through a friend's cousin who knew a fisherman.  We both enjoyed it especially because it was another adventure together.

Enjoy more pictures when you press "my photos" to the right.

Anniversary Dinner

Tomorrow is our 2 year wedding anniversary.  Our Urdu teacher and his friend made us a very special meal and bought us this cake.  While listening to Bollywood love songs, they had us cut the cake together and then feed each other.  I couldn't have asked for anything better.

Celebrating Eid

Eid is the 3 day Muslim holiday celebrating the end of Ramadan.  We had expected it to start on Thursday, but we woke on Wednesday to lots of noise and clamor, and had a sneaking suspicion that the date changed during the night.  It is all based on the lunar calendar and the Eid moon was seen earlier than expected.  Thankfully, we were prepared in terms of clothes and gifts.  We spent the next 2 days visiting with friends doing what you see in the picture above sans the chai (tea) in our hands.  

I had a moment.  I was following a local lady who was fully burqaed through the neighborhood visiting various houses.  We were weaving through small alleys strewn with trash, donkeys and goats tied to doorways, mangy dogs scrounging for food.  I stepped back and thought, "Wow! This life is really different!"  It all seems right.  I am having so much fun.  What an amazing experience to sit in homes  and begin to enter into lives, experience a new culture, talk in a new language.  I can't fully explain it all.  To go home later on and get on the computer and remember back in the States no holiday was happening was kind of strange.