quotes

Okay, so here are the quotes collected from team 2 & 2.5:

"Ein 'Gute Fahrt'" -Jessi

"It must be really bad if you have an ouch-fart." -Nate

"This cat is really friendly; he likes to suck my tongue." - Steve

"IT'S NOT A CONTAINER!" -Benjie

"The only guy who can call you 'Mom.'" -Benjie

"Payroll!" -Jessi

"Get off my feet!" -Arsallah

"How did she get the other 7 cows?" -Audree

"What does 'ars' mean?" -Sharon

"Emma's Tea"

"They'll shoot you if you ."

"HA!"

"Dilet biskillet (It's your bicycle)." -Steve

"Grampa Banjo" -Nate

"I hate 5-foot doors!" -Goody

"Shalom." -Bromley

"I have really good throw-up control." -Bromley

"I have skirts!" -Nate

"Yawning's not allowed when people are tired...or Yanni." -Goody

"Is that a ? Oh, no, it's a donkey." -Nate

"I forgot my passport." -Dave

"That mountain looks like Jabba the hut." -Bruce Green

"Man shetur ne'stom (I'm not a camel)." -Nate

"No da (9, 10)" -Dave

"Here comes giggles." -Nate

"Beebies!" -Sharon

"Phoebe Lyddie ear phbth!" -Lyddie

"That's the same donkey with a hair problem." -Sharon

"Oh, I thought you were talking to me." -Goody

"It's the cleanup that takes so long." -Jessi

"I love you, sir." Riza (waitress) to Bromley

"I took a tone with him." -Dave

Back in Fremont

Hi all, Everyone is back in Fremont except Nate who will arrive in 3 hours, thanks for your prayers benjie

in dubai

team 2 is hanging out in the dubai airport waiting for our flights out. thanks for all your prayers, we are looking forward to our own beds, our own showers and telling lots and lots of stories of our adventures in afghanistan.

see y'all sunday~
M@

No worries... We're still alive :)

hello all-

i've gotten a couple of worried emails asking if we are still around and what's going on. sorry!!! We've been traveling and quite busy and we have not had much time to blog.

We are currently hanging out in their office down in Jalalabad. today we were able to head out to one of the far off villages to see what's going on down here. they have two really cool programs going on out here. the first is a cattle/goat program, where they find a poor family, widow or orphan and supply them with one cow or goat free of charge. the only stipulation is when the cow or goat has their first female baby, they are to send the baby back to the organization for another family. from then on, the animal is theirs to keep and any offspring or milk it produces is theirs to own, sell, drink, eat, etc. it has really done wonders for the economic development of the area. in the last few years, these villages have become the best place in the whole area to purchase milk and cheese, and a very desirable place to breed other cows.

the 2nd project out here is a literacy program. in case you didn't know, there are over 50 languages spoken here in afghanistan and many of them do not have a written alphabet. so what they are doing out here is working with the village elders to actually make up an alphabet for a few of the local languages and then help to teach the written language to the community. it is great, because now everyone in the area is learning how to read and write in their own language. it is completely transforming the business community out here.

thanks for all your prayers and encouraging emails and comments.

we are planning to head back to Kabul tomorrow morning. then we will be getting on a plane to come home friday afternoon. please keep us in your prayers as we travel.

we are looking forward to coming home, but wishing our trip was not coming to an end.

we will see you all on Sunday morning!

till then~
Matt B

sick

my mom and i got sick last night from the bolanee. we spent pretty much the whole day in bed. pray for us to be better by tomorrow morning. thanks, jessi

aqcha

Hi all we made it back from Aqcha today and we had such a great time up there. The last night we had up there after all of the excitement of the day we had dinner with the staff of Serve. There were also some local turkmen guys who played some music. Before dinner we prayed that the water from the well at the Serve office in Aqcha would be sweet and not salty(which it was and all the wells in the area are salty). After we left this morning we got a text message telling us that the water had turned sweet!! What a great miracle, the Serve office is planning to put a faucet out on the street so anyone can get water from the well, and now that it is a fresh water well, they really can be a blessing to the community around them just by providing water. Just for those who are wondering the well is a bit deeper than 375 ft. The drive back was pretty much un eventful other than Matt B. deciding to review what he had for lunch cause the ride was a bit too windy/bumpy. He was able to eat dinner and kept that down so that was good. Well I am going on about 4 hours of sleep and a 12 hour car drive, so I am going to cash in, but I am sure that we all will blog more tomorrow morning when we are refreshed!! oh by the way you can read more blogs by going to www.mattgoodness.com

later,

benjie

mon, apr 16

Salaam aleikum!

yesterday and today we did mostly every day things, but of course, it's a little different here. if you want fruit, you go to the fruit place. if you want groceries, you go to a grocery store. well, we went to a couple of grocery stores. if you want fabric, you got to a fabric store. i guess we do that in the states too. i just liked experiencing the day to day "living" here. it's been awfully quiet without the "boys" and sharon here. none of us gals left behind are very talkative. heheheheh!
a lady and her daughters came over yesterday for reading lessons. she wasnt very talkative either! that was a little awkward! we went to her house today for lunch and boy was it good. we had bulani. dont know about the spelling for that, but that's how you say it. bulani is almost like a popover with potato inside and some other stuff. we had two kinds. one with potato and the other with leeks. of course, since i love onions, i liked the one with leeks the best. let me tell you tho, it was GREASY!!!!! they made another dish, too, with meat and lentils. i was so full from the bulani. the bulani were as big as giant pancake! but i thought it would be in bad taste to refuse it. so i ate some with naan.

when we got home it started raining! PRAISE THE LORD!!! and it is thundering like crazy now!!! i LOVE IT!!!! WOO-HOOO!!!!

yesterday, we went up to babur's garden, where Babur's tomb is. it was a very impressive place. the guard who opened the tomb for us wanted me to take his picture. i love it when they want us to do that. i only wish there was a way we could get a copy of the picture back to them.

today, we also went to the fabric bazaar. i dont know if that is what it is called. but there are a zillion fabric stalls all lined up one after another. and there were also guys (yes GUYS!) embroidering with old singer machines on the fabric. we found some shalwar kamiz "sets" that we can sew up ourselves. they are quite nice. i also bought a little bit of fabric to make some more. the fabrics dont come from afghanistan unfortunately. but probably from pakistan. or korea. they tried to tell us it was from the US. i tmay have been but i would prefer to buys something i CANT get at home.

i am 2/3 finished with "Sewing Circles of Herat". altho i learned a lot about the history of Afghanistan, i feel like the title is very misleading in that the author barely mentioned the sewing circles of herat. and by the way, it wasnt really a sewing circle. that was just a coverup for girls to gather and learn about literature and about having ideas and stuff like that, since the girls schools were closed down when the taliban were in charge.

anyway, that's about all that's been happening here. sharon and the guys come home this evening. i hope they will be OK in this rain.

Khoda havez,
audree*

yay, rain!

It just started raining here in kabul. praise Him for this answer to prayer. it has been so hot (high 80s) the past few days and the snow on the mountains has been melting too fast. kathi said it doesn't normally get so hot until june. Last year they were still using the heater at this time.

yesterday we went looking for shalwar kemis (the outfits worn here), but all the stores we went to were very westernized or too fancy--like wedding wear. We went to afghanistan's only indoor mall. it was so clean and bright and cool inside. then we went to Babur's Gardens, a mogul-style garden/palace place where Babur is buried. that is probably the most famous thing in afghanistan. being three women out on our own, we get lots of stares and jeers, but we just try to ignore them.

a lady and her daughters came over yesterday for reading lessons, and today we went to their house for lunch. they served us bolanee-my favorite. this morning we went to the cloth bazaar and bought some fabric to make shalwar kemis. i spend the evenings working on the annual report at home. there is so much information to sift through, it is taking me longer than i would like. pray for me to be able to pull out the important info and organize it well.

well, the rain has stopped and the ground has dried up already. pray for more rain. thanks, jessica

Another Video Blog!

check it out...

http://youtube.com/watch?v=CYVwHGg0cQg

have fun~
M@

sat, apr 14th from audree

hi all. well, jessi pretty much described what we've been doing lately in her last blog. at teh CURE hospital, i gave blood because they needed O+ and that's what i have. a few of us gave blood. i feel like that was a real worthy cause! if i con tributed nothing else to this trip, at least i did that. i'd do it again if i could.

one thing that touched me here at the hospital was when one of sharon's friends greeted her. her friend Victoria. it wasnt just the standard 3 kisses on the cheek. it was a joyous hugging, kissing reunion of two very good friends. it made me cry. i'm crying now, just thinking about it!!!

later that evening another friend of sharon's came over to sell some embroidered items. so we all bought abunch of things. we even ordered a bunch of stuff! i hope we get it in time, but it was so much stuff, we may have to rely on Bruce Green to bring it back for us beause he is coming back later than we are.

on friday we went to a cafe and it was quite enjoyable! i bought a few handicrafts. i am very much into textiles so this is great! we then went to church. that was wonderful because there are people from ALL OVER THE WORLD coming to worship the ONE AND SAME GOD!! and we are all family!!! i loved the sermon for two reasons. one, the pastor has an irish accent and, two, God had a message for me. it really caused me to think about some things that i need to be thinking about, spiritually. i feel not so close to God lately and i want to fix that and get closer to him. so, this was a wonderful sermon. and i LOVE their Hymn books because it was full of modern songs that we sing at our church! i think Bromley would have loved that service we went to.


i am reading a book i found in the Craig Library called "Sewing Circles of Herat". very interesting.

today we went shopping in the city. it is VERY HOT TODAY!!!!!

till next time!! ---audree*

New video blog!

This one is actually worth watching!

www.youtube.com/mbombley

We all made it up north to the SERVE office in Aqcha (WAY up north). it took almost 11 hours to drive up. We are very happy to be out of the car right now :)

Be praying for Goodie... he got sick the last couple of hours and is sleeping right now. it must be pretty bad, because he is about to sleep through dinner.

We will try to blog a little more later this evening.

Till then, enjoy the video blog -well you are probably still in bed right now, but whatever.
Matt B

Tourism & Project reports

Yesterday was our tourist day. We visited CURE Hospital where Sharon used to work. Then we picked up Bruce Green and went to lunch (Afghan food). After that we went to the tourist shops on Chicken Street and bought clothes and jewelry and stuff like that. Lapis is a semi-precious stone found here, so there is a lot of jewelry made of it.

Last night we had a party. Some of Sharon's friends came over and we watched a movie and had dinner.

I started reading the project reports that Steve gave me for SERVE. I have finished reading the Disabled project report and I have about 5 more to read. These will help to write the annual report for SERVE.

Right now we are at the coffee shop (there is one here in Kabul). We haven't been getting internet at the house, and they have internet access here. And frappuccinos. yum.

Friday here is like our Sunday so we will be going to ch. later today. By we I mean Kathi, Audree and I. All the boys and Sharon left this morning to another region to film the project going on up there. They will come back in 2 or 3 days.

Thanks for reading and commenting and praying! -Jessica

Wednesday

Hi All on Wednesday we went out to do our first shooting out in the field. We first went to Bargam and saw the prevention of blindness program there. They were giving eye check ups and giving medicine and glasses out to people who needed them, and also referring people who had eye problems to the closest hospitals when needed. I guess one very common problem here with people's eyes is that they have this thing in thier eye that can be operated on in like two minutes and it is taken care of, but if it is not taken care of it causes you to go blind!

After that we went to a deaf class and filmed them telling us jokes. It really was a lot of fun listening to them tell us jokes about Mullah Nassrudin he is like the but of all jokes in Afghanistan.(Fictional character of course) . The SERVE employees then brought us lunch which was very kind of them, they even had bowls of custard like stuff with the words SERVE EMAD(emad stands for Enabling and mobilizing afghan disabled it is the project they work in) and WELCOME written on it. We then went and saw two of the physical therapy clients, and then came back to Kabul. While driving back we saw the tent where the Afghan Constitution was made. Then we came back to the house and met up with the rest of the group that had just arrived.
Benjie

Team 1 Safely Home

We made it back home. Thank you for all of your prayers and your support. It has been a life-changing experience and we look forward to sharing it all with you. Please continue to pray for Team 2 and let them know you're reading / viewing their posts.
Blessings and thanks!
Pastor Kevin and Pastor Henry.

one more thing

i forgtot to mention that i have been enjoying getting to know nate these past few days. i am impressed with his politeness and his eagerness to learn new things and experience things. he has been very inquisitive about learning things from the everyone. he talks very easily with strangers. i admire that trait in people.

also, it is good to see the rest of the team here...bromley, matt good, and david. i look forward getting to know them better too.
BYE AGAIN.
AUDREE*

WE MADE IT!

After getting on a plane on Sunday night, team 2.5 finally got off Wednesday morning in Afghanistan safe and sound.

The flight into Kabul was one of the prettiest i have ever been on. The mountains here are all capped with snow and look so beautiful and peaceful. and since the city is nestled in the valley, we had to skim just over the tops of the hills in order to descend quick enough. it felt like we were about to land on one of the peaks.

once we got into the airport, it was a little nightmare-ish! it wasn't too bad, but it just felt very chaotic. understandable, but still frustrating.

While we were waiting for the rest of team 2 to get back from a filming project, we were able to take a tour of the organizations offices. i have heard steve talk a lot about what they do and about living here in kabul, but it's really different when you see first hand what happens around here. it really makes me look forward to the rest of this trip.

just in case you are really bored, i am going to try to put together a video blog as well. i am sure it will mainly be us fooling around, but if you have nothing better to do, you can check it out. you'll probably watch our first blog -which is just randomness on the plane after 20 hours of travel- and never check it again :) just remember... i warned you! www.youtube.com/mbombley

hope you all are doing well. we would love to read a few of your comments on the blogs. so, if you read it... leave us a note to say hello.

See you all in 2 weeks~
Matt B

yesterday and today

tuesday, we visited SERVE office. the most impressive talk was from Tom, the program director. he explained how SERVE is helping the afghan people. he explained how the expats are working with afghans to be in charge and then the afghans themselves help the people who need help. such as the blind and deaf and other disabled people. i like that they give ownership of the problems to the afghans themselves so that they can become a stronger people and be involved and have self respect and just form a better community. also, i liked the idea that SERVE asks the afghan community to identify the needs of their community, helps them prioritize their needs and helps them identify resources they already have to solve some of their problems.

there are very deeply rutted roads all over the place and so driving is an experience. the best way to describe it is to have you think about the indiana Jones ride at disneyland...only worse! and the lines on the road are justa suggestion. if there are two lanes, that means really 3 lanes...or 4 or 5! whatever! people drive all over the place...on the wrong side...on the SIDE of the road. and it is just So BUMPY!!!

i am very interested in the program for the deaf because i myself am so hard of hearing. and being a single woman, i am interested in hpw the women are treated here. much better than they used to be. yay!

in the evening we had a meeting with other people from the SERVE office and their families and we had a wonderful time of singing and prayer and fellowship. i wish we had been able to talk more but so many little kids were there...they had to get home.

it is nice to have sucha full house.

wednesday..today...we went on a 70km trip on rutted roads to Bagram where we saw the Prevention of blindness program. then we went to Parwan to see the Enabling and Mobilizing Afghan Disabled program. we saw a class of deaf people and it was really great to see all the different ages of kids signing. and i had to step away because i started crying and i didnt want anyone to see that...especially the deaf kids. but it really touches my heart that deaf kids are getting the help and attention they need to be integrated into the community.

after awhile we had a traditional lunch there, where we sat on "toshaks", big cushions and then our food was on a plastic tablecloth on the ground. and they served us so much food!!! HUGE plates of rice which was "mazadar" (delicious), lamb burgers, naan, chips (AkA fries), cucumbers, yoghurt, firni (cardamom pudding), and an apple and a pepsi (NO COKE!).

dont be grossed out but i have to mention this...i used the squatty potty for the 1st time today at this place. it's fine and i could do it again if i had to. still prefer to avoid it, but i CAN do it! heheheheheh!

later we went to some people's houses where the physical therapist worked with some people. there was one girl who had been brain damaged, i guess, and her body wouldnt work exactly right. and the therapist was working with her, but she was so embarrassed because of all the men who were there and she was not able to maintain complete modesty (according to her culture). i had to turn away again because i started to cry again. i felt so bad for her being in this embarrassing predicament. and then her mother told me (sharon translated) that she wishes we would just take her daughter away with us so she wouldnt have to take care of her any more!!!! as a mom and a person who values family very much, this was heartbreaking for me. the mom said it loud enough for the daughter to hear and she was smiling when she said it!!! i could only imagine how this made the daughter feel and i couldnt handle that.

anyway, today was a very emotional day and tomorrow will be a fun day. we are SHOPPING!!!! but then we will be back to work, jessi and i...to work on the annual report.

bye for now!

blessings,
audree*

serve office

today we went to the serve office and got a tour from the blind receptionist. we met everyone in the different departments and heard a lot about what serve does and their vision and organization. nate and sharon started some filming with the office people, and my mom and i talked with steve about what the annual report should say. tomorrow we are going to see some of the projects in the field.

my bag came today, so now i have my bug repellant so i won't get malaria. :)

tonight serve had a team meeting at the craigs'. we got to meet everyone and have dinner together. some of the wives that my mom and i talked to said some really encouraging things about being out here with their families. so, that was good for me to hear.

thank you for remembering us before the father. he is showing his abundant goodness to us. especially we have the blessing of unity, which can often be threatened on trips like this. so thank you very much for your prayers.

-jessica

In Kabul!!

What a contrast between frankfurt and dubai, weather-wise!!! It was FREEZING cold in Frankfurt and then at 10 o’clock at night in dubai, it was ,like, 82 Degrees!!!!!
Dubai was pretty nice. It was SO NICE to sleep in a BED! I thought my bed at home was hard, but this bed I slept in was like a board. But did I care? NO! I was just so happy to SLEEP! And take a shower!!

We got into Kabul and what a contrast that was from Dubai!!! Dubai is very modern and Kabul is very…under construction. And very chaotic. The driving…well…let’s say the lines on the road are just “a suggestion,” in the words of Captain Barbosa. It was surprisingly hot in Kabul. And very dusty. Very brown. I am SO GLAD to be here, tho! I am so glad to see where Jessi and Benjie are going to be living someday. Also very happy to see The Craigs again! They put JUNGLE sheets on the bed I am going to use! YAY! Ok, I have to let everyone else talk. Till next time!!! -audree*



Hi there people. It is warmer than we expected in Kabul, so that is nice. There were tons of foreigners on the plane to Kabul-I was surprised how many. Last time we came it was much more afghans. We saw pastor Kevin and pastor henry at the airport, so that was good to hear how their trip went. My luggage did not make it though. Hopefully it will come tomorrow. We are just resting today, and tomorrow our activities will start. We might go see the afghan children’s circus that Sharon has been working with. Or we might do that today. (it is under discussion right now.) -jessica
p.s. we did go see the children's circus. we saw some girls juggling and 2 kids shooting a commercial for the agricultural festival, and we got a tour of the facility. hopefully we will see the kids perform later.



Well, we have made it to Kabul, we were able to hang out with Kevin and Henry for a little while before their flight had to leave. We then had lunch and went back to my parents house. We then went to the the Mobile Mini Circus and hung out there seeing what they did. It was pretty cool, we are going to try to see more of them some time when there are more kids there, cause we got there at the end of the day. Well I think dinner will be ready soon so I am going to add some pics of the circus and say good day to you and good night to me.
Benjie

dubai

Hi all, I just wanted to write and say that he have made it to the hotel we will write more in the morning once we have rested up and are in the airport waiting for our next flight.

benjie