Cat Rehab and More

The highlight of last week had to be seeing my neighbors Philippine maid explode with joy when I placed a Bible in her hands. I finally felt the time was right. My Muslim neighbor invited us over for dinner and I knew Venge would be doing a lot of the preparation. I brought them some home made English Toffee, spinach dip (their favorite) and chips, then I said to my friend "I would like to give Venge a gift of a Bible but I want to be sure that is okay with you...is there any problem with this?" She assured me this was no problem, so I bravely charged ahead and asked if I could take her to church! This resulted in a flurry of red flags over concerns that Venge would make contact with men or others who were not a good influence. By now the husband was involved and he said he used to take his maids to church but they abused the privilege, so they quit. After much gentle reassurance that she would be under my careful custody, they agreed that on occasion, she could go! I was thrilled and Venge was "over the moon" but I think she will not believe it till she is in our car.

We had a very lovely time with our neighbors and enjoyed a perfect Arabic feast of food. Four big casserole dishes steamed in heated holders on the table with Arabic & Indian food, plus salad with beetroot and pomegranate seeds and all the trimmings. Language can be a source of frustration or of humor. We were talking about how their daughter has been too fearful to drive following her recent car accident, and her mom said "Halema is such a COW!" We laughed and asked if she meant a "coward" but she insisted she was a "cow" till her other daughter said "mom, you mean a CHICKEN!" We all got a good laugh out of that.

It is interesting that none of the locals here have mentioned the shootings at Ft Hood. Emily did tell me in one of the English classes the teacher asked "what do you think of when you hear 'Muslim'" and all the Muslim kids said "terrorist." It was not the Western kids who said this. Then again, they may have been saying what they felt the others would not say. Another funny conversation from French class was when a teacher wanted to put kids into couples for some skit. Since there were more girls than boys, Emily & her girlfriend quickly offered to be a group, but the teacher said "wait, Hani is a Muslim, he can just have two wives!" And so he did.

Yesterday, we became the proud (?) owners of a beautiful kitten who showed up in our car park area. Stray cats are as common as mosques here and all are skinny & dirty, most are wild and skittish. This little guy was purring and climbing Robert's boot as he was leaving for work, so he called to show me. I pet him and gave him some chicken enchilada, then called Molly down for a look...end of story! She spent the morning bathing, grooming, feeding, and administering first aid to a terribly wounded tail; looks like a mouthful is missing! We resisted a kitty rescue as long as we could; this little guy was so lovable and gorgeous, I said we could keep him till he is well, and everybody just winks and agrees. We are having fun with a variety of names but must remain culturally sensitive:)

Molly & I launched our "Trash to Treasure" project at the Philippine Embassy on Sunday to a packed room of 12 ladies, eager to learn. We recycled magazines into Christmas ornaments that are really quite pretty. We have people wanting to buy them if we can get enough produced in time. It may be more realistic to make and bank for the bazaars for next year; we will see how much crafting time we can get in. They seemed to love a project where they could learn the basic skill then add their own creativity to come up with something lovely.

Looking forward to a long weekend as teacher conferences are coming up. Molly was told the job she applied for had to be re-advertised because of an error that was made in advertising it but they want her to re-apply...oh yeah for red tape!! Ethan finished "Oliver" with a bang! He was a super star and everyone enjoyed his performances so much. He lit up on stage when he saw a full house of people...such a ham!

Robert & I have a Marine Ball on Friday night and that will be a big gig. We are thankful to all be healthy when many have been ill. Must wrap up as dinner should be here soon...this is my first time to do home delivery, it is the norm here. Even Burger King does home delivery. Any service or product you can imagine can be delivered to your door. What a country!