cordoba

In my whole life I have never had a day even close to being similar to my day yesterday. Our school went on a day trip to Cordoba. (The bottom picture is just of my class, others classes were there too.) At my school there are a lot of students from North Africa. I was the only American on this trip. I have never felt the weight of my own American-ness like I did yesterday. I will try to explain some of my experience.

America and Iraq: I knew about half of the people on the trip, the rest were people from other classes. I ended up meeting another student from Iraq. As soon as he told me he was from Iraq and I told him I was from American a weird kind of like “what do I say now?” akwardness came between us. He said, “umm I am sorry…” I said, “yeah me too…” As if we were each our own country, that is a heavy weight. Anyways I sat next to him on the bus and asked him lots of questions about Iraq and how he feels and the people there and how it is now. It was interesting, hard, weird, and just a feeling of how broken our world is.

A mosque and a church: There used to be this massive mosque in Cordoba which is now being remodled into a massive Catholic church. Even though its being remodled its open for turists. So our group of like 20 Muslims and one Christian (me) go explore this like half old mosque, half new church. Once again I felt a weight, a weight of the history between the Christians and Muslims in the re-conquest in Spain. While we were walking around in there I asked one of my friends how she is feeling right now. She felt angry. She said, “a mosque is a place for prayer and a place of respect, a mosque has it’s respect, this is not respect.”

A group of girls: Later we got some free time to go walk around and do whatever. I met a group of girls from another class at my school who I really enjoyed, so we went and sat in a plaza together. They offered me chocolate and juice that they had brought. In contrast to weight I had felt, there came a lightness in just sitting in a plaza with girls… talking, eating, laughing and taking pictures together. We are all foriengers, we are all learning Spanish, and we are all missing our countries and families. And with these new friends, despite all our differences, I really feel like there was unity. It was good, really good.

bullfighters and underware models

Two weekends ago I went to Morocco. We went to a city called Tanger, it is on the coast! It was cool we got to see this cave by the ocean and the place that looks out is in the shape of Africa. I also got to stand at the place where the Atlantic and Meditteranean Oceans mix. I wanted to call my mom and tell her I was looking out over 2 oceans at one time, but I didn’t have my phone or service.

Sunday morning we went to a Catholic church (while we were in Morocco). We went with a group of Menonites that we met at our hotel. The singing and music at the church was done by black Africans from Nigeria (I think), so it was really cool African beats and styles but done in Spanish, in a Muslim country! It was quite a mixture of Spaniards, Menonites, Africans, us and nuns who are followers of Mother Teresa.

We took a ferry back to Spain. I had some really good moments listening to music and sitting in the sun on top of the ferry. I was remembering about a year ago when I was anticipating coming to Spain and now, well… its been almost a year. And God has amazed me and thrilled me with the path he’s lead me on starting with that very scary and “uncertain” step on to the plane to Spain last March.

On our way home we ended up getting in a car accident. A car rearended the car behind us and then they hit us. I am so thankful to say no one was hurt. But the guys that hit us are bullfighters! Hahahahaha! They gave us posters of themselves all decked out in their bullfighting outfits.

I went to the beach the other day, it was gorgeous and the beach was so empty! So I sat by my self to read and just be and pray. But then this Spanish underware model guy named Jose Maria (Joseph Mary) came up to me and sat there and talked to me for a while. He said he was Catholic, but didn’t know really what Catholics believe. It was cool I got to share the gospel with him. He said he’d never read the bible, I told him he should… especially since he is named after both Jesus’ parents ☺

I am also still enjoying like every step of walking, its so nice to be able to walk! And today I went on my first run back after waiting for more than a month! I put my chariots of fire sound track on and took those first steps, man it was soooooooooooooo (insert some sound I would make because there are no words to describe it) !!!!!

i fell in the street...

(the first 2 pictures are recent and the last few are just fun pictures from the last days of 2007)

So a lot of intersting things have happened in my life recently… here are some stories:

On the first day of the year my computer crashed… but then my family came! So John helped me reinstall my system, but when we did that I lost all my documents, music, photos, videos etc. oh and the battery broke. That was really really hard for me. Im not a big fan of computers… but I guess we kind of need them.

I fell in the street. I stepped off the curb into a pot hole and my whole body went down. I really hurt my foot. John carried me ☺ So I got bandaged up and put on crutches. I spent a lot of time a lone with my foot elevated in my room. I got around my house on crutches and my rolling desk chair.

One day (while I was injured) I took a taxi over to my old apartment where a bunch of my friends live. THey took good care of me! They made lunch for me; rice, ham, fried egg, and tomato sauce all mixed together, my friend Pilar told me crazy stories about all her past injuries, my friend Noe gave me over 1000 pictures and some videos of our fun times from the past year (that was such a huge gift!!) Then they let me stay there for the night and gave me pijamas and I slept in my old bed, my old room where i lived when i first got here, then they drove me home.

So most of my classmates are muslims. In their religion you aren't allowed to eat pork, its like completely unclean. So they all went home for the feast of the lamb, where they kill a lamb and eat it for a week. But since I am in Spain, I use the word "pig" (cerdo) a lot more than the word "lamb" (cordero). When they all got back I said in Spanish "sooo "how was the feast of the pig??!" which maybe would've been offensive if it wasn't an honest mistake... haha they laughed.

Every morning I see this same hippie guy around town, he is usually dancing in the sunrise or doing yoga. So we recognize each other and wave or say,"hola, como estas?" Well one day ( a while ago, before I fell) I decided to talk to him. I said, "what is your name?" and I am so glad I asked because he said, "my name is Energia (Energy)" hahaha i love that!! i have a hippie friend named Energy!!

Well I got to cut the bandage off the other night! My friend Anna came over to help me cut it off and she brought ice cream to celebrate walking again. I was so scared because I didn’t think it’d really be healed. But God really really healed it!! I could walk! I can walk! Man I have never appreciated just taking steps as much as I have these past few days. I appreciate standing up in the shower. I appreciate doing laundry. I appreciate balance! I appreciate being able to carry things with my hands while walking! Now I am just waiting to be a runner again.

the family in spain

So my family came to see me last week! It was so fun to see them again. Here are some highlights:

Seeing them in the airport when they arrived and hugging them

The first night they were here and John fell asleep at my place so I walked the family back to the place they were staying and when I got back to my place John was up so we went out for tapas and he told me funny stories, one was about him and an old woman in the airport. My brother makes me laugh.

Going out to tapas with the family and just laughing so much and it reminding us of the family dinners we used to have.

The night a ton of my Spanish friends came to meet my family and take us out for tapas. They would not let my family pay and they all tried to speak a little English. But the best was when my dad told them in Spanish that "molly loves you all and we love you too". Later he told them that it was really cool to see how God had put them min my life.

Walking around the Alhambra with my family and going to other beautiful places in this city.

The night my Spanish friends had my family over for a typical Spanish dinner. They went all out and cooked all sorts of foods for them to try and decorated the place so nice. As we sat down to eat they asked my dad to bless the food! That was so exciting for me to get to pray with them for the first time, he prayed a line and I translated it, it was so sweet. At the end of the night dad said to them, "this night will be a memory that we have forever" and they said the same.

Watching my dad and brother do the Soldier Boy dance.

Gypsies here are known for offering sticks of rosemary to people and then charging them for it. So we had such a fun time watching them and everyone's reactions to these persistent gypsy women.

After spending time with my Spanish friends my mom said, "molly your friends just inspire me to be more Christian" and my dad said, "Well, that's good honey, I've been praying for that." hahhahaha

a surprise

So one night a few weeks ago my spanish friends invited me over to show them how to make chocolate chip cookies. They don’t have those here (actually Spaniards aren’t too big on sweets like us… they just really like ham and olive oil… like with everything) But I had made them a while ago and brought them some. When I got there I sat down and hung out for a while, then Maria del Mar said, “Molly, come with me to get some drinks.” When we got back, I walked in and it was a surprise party for my birthday! We had gone out on the actual day, but then they planned all this. The place was decorated with ballons and signs. They made all these really spanish dishes, each one with a different type of ham… They really pulled it off, because I was not expecting that at all. We all ate the dinner, then they came out with a cake that was practically on fire from the 24 candles. After all that, then they brought out presents. I just felt sooo undeserving and loved that night. They were so excited to do it too, they were like dancing and saying, “You like this? You like this? You were so surprised” I could tell they had so much joy in doing it.

I kept saying “aww guys! aww this is so sweet, I cant believe this, ect.” They were like Molly, say it in Spanish, and I said “I can’t help it, my emotion is coming out in English” Plus “aww guys” doesn’t really translate how I’d like.

Later we played a board game called “Party”(pronounced: par – tee) As I was leaving I was telling them how special and loved they had made me feel. Then, for the first time I told people I loved them in Spanish. It was such a sweet night and more than anything I felt like God just took a group of people and poured out his love to me through them. It was my favorite night in Spain.

Another night, after watching “What About Bob?” with one of my muslim friends from class, I was walking her home and she said, “so did you know anyone who died in the twin towers on 9/11?” I told her I didn’t but I knew people that did. That opened up a 2 hour long conversation about Arabs, Americans, the war, Islam, Christianity, perceptions and stereotypes. As we were walking together I felt the weight of her culture on her and the weight of mine on me. They are practically opposite worlds yet God has woven a part of them together through our friendship. IT was cool and I feel more and more like God is expanding me, stretching me and growing me through my friends from around the world.

arabic dance parties and things like that

(The 2nd to bottom picture is of us in Marrakesh a few weekends ago. We were taking a carriage ride tour around the city… our horse collapsed in the middle of the road…)

(Also there is me at the beach a few weeks ago. Sometimes I just have to get away and go be refreshed by God… I would say the beach is the perfect place for that)

The other night I had two of my Morocan friends from my class over to watch a movie. Afterwards we decided to have a dance party. One of the girls brought her cd. So there we were a blond american girl and 2 muslim girls breaking it down to Arabic rap! Hahahhaahha. It was sooooo funny and fun and random. They taught me a few Arabic dance moves, I told them their hand moves looked like a tame hippie dancing.

Another night I asked one of my friends from class if she wanted to go walk around the city with me. She said “sure but my parents are here visiting from morocco, is it ok if we hang out with them?” So the three of us went out to coffee. Her dad speaks English, French, Spanish and Arabic and her mom speaks French and Arabic, so I have been learning some words in French and Arabic just because I am surrounded by it when I am with my friends from class. Well they invited me over for a Moroccan lunch that her mom wanted to cook for me the next day. She went all out, I ate for 3 hours straight…. I have never been soooo full in my life! Every time I stopped eating they would say, “Eat! Eat! You’ve only eaten a little”

So I just celebrated my 2…. 4th birthday. It was definitely the most unique unforgettable birthday of my life. Just because I never in my life would’ve imagined I would be in Spain, doing what I am doing. The other Americans here had a big lunch for me and 2 girls from my class came over. Later I went to tapas with my Spanish friends, it really was just a sweet, good day. God has poured in more abundantly into my life than I could’ve dreamed.

On Saturday we had a big Thanksgiving feast! There were about 42 people who came. We had 8 countries represented there: Nigeria, USA, Jordan, England, Spain, Morocco, Senegal and Cuba. It’s fun to get to share our American tradition with people from around the world. Different people stood up to share what they are thankful for. I was really honored when one of my friends from class said that she was thankful for me, one of the best friends of her life.

So I got to spend part of Thanksgiving with my family through the internet. This is why I love my family (see family photo above) hahahhahahah

halloween in spain

Sometimes I just walk over to my old apartment to spend lunch time (siesta time) with my Spanish friends. Yesterday I walked in and they said, “molly, hola! Tonight is fiesta!” I said “of course tonight is fiesta, when is it not fiesta with you guys?” “No but it is halloween fiesta.” “Ohh yeah today is halloween…. my favorite holiday… “(this is sarcasm, I really am not a big fan of halloween) “You are coming of course” “ohhh I am?... Ok fun! What am I going to be?” “You can be “Miercoles”. “huh?” “you know Miercoles (Wednesday) from The Adam’s family” “hahhaha ok as long as you guys dress me and I don’t have to come up with something."

Well there I am... yes they had quite a fun time altering my look for the night. This is how halloween is here, you don’t wear just whatever costume that sounds fun, you have to go with the halloween scary look. Just any costume won’t do (that style is for carnaval). And you get in groups and are all the same thing. So there is me and the other 2 wednesdays and some of my other friends. They are really pretty creative. Although I tried to explain how I would never be able to wear this to my usual halloween tradition of helping at a Fall Fesitival at church. Hahhaha

As they were teasing my hair and spray painting it black, I kept saying, “Guys I can’t believe I am doing this. I am soooo only doing this out of love.” I imagined my dad when we were little and he’d let us put little barrets and stuff in his hair, making him look really ridiculous but he didn’t care because he loved us. Yeah that’s pretty much how I felt in this hair and make up. Hahhaahhaha

So this past month I have been in more spiritually intense conversations than probably ever in my life. As I was planning to go out with my friends that night I was thinking about how easily Spaniards can maintain shallow conversations for hours and hours, which usually I wish they would talk about more meaningful things more often, but this night I was excited just to have light, easy going conversations. Well when half the group left to go to the discoteca, some others and I stayed at the party to just talk. Some how church came up. I don’t think I have seen a conversation so passionate, heated and intense between Spaniards or any one for that matter in a very long time. Spaniards have an amazing ablility to all talk all at once (very loudly) and understand what each other person is saying simulatneously. I watched and only heard loudness. Then some one said,”molly what do you think?” (silence) I didn’t really know the exact topic being argued so I just said, “oh um! I am protestant and I think the most important message is of God’s love and Jesus’ sacrifice for us” (silence for 2 more seconds) and all the yelling and shouting started up again.

Later my friend Alba sat with me and explained (much more calmly) what all was being discussed. I think a lot of Spaniards are very burned by the church… its sad. My life is intersected with sooooo many other lives from other cultures, beliefs and histories.