A Village Visit

Shortly after Ramadan, an American friend of mine asked if I would like to go out to the village to see my old neighbor and her family.  Kylie and I jumped at the chance, and we all made plans to block out an evening.

When we got there, we sat and visited with all the kids for awhile because the mom, older daughter, and daughter-in-law were in the kitchen.

We drank Pepsi and ate sunflower seeds, which is pretty typical for many house visits.

In the background below, you can see one of the twins who got married last fall.  I wrote about her three weddings here, here, and here.

I was under the impression that since she and her husband now lived about 40 minutes away from her mother that they would never see her, but I was mistaken.  Apparently, the couple makes the journey several days a week, if not every day to see her mother, and here they sit on their phones...

After Pepsi, we were served hot tea and then some more hot tea.

The sunflower seeds always leave everything looking so nice :)

The vacuum cleaner came out shortly, and when the carpet had been cleaned, we started setting up for dinner.

And it kept coming.

White rice, red rice, cucumbers, tomatoes, beans, chicken, and onions

We finally got a chance to visit with all of the ladies after dinner was cleaned up.   Between my friend and me tag teaming in language, we understood almost everything they said, and we were able to communicate fairly well.

I knew they had been driving back to our neighborhood every day to let their girls finish up the year at the schools where they attended, but I rarely saw them.

The father had sold his fruit stand, and he was now a taxi driver.  He drove them all to town every morning, about a 25 minute drive, and after dropping the girls at school, he dropped his wife at his daughter-in-law's, where the wife would help watch her grandson all day, while her husband drove around the city.

It was so good to see them, but it also made me miss having really good neighbors.  There are sweet people on my street, but I don't feel like I can just drop in on any of them at any time like I could with this family.

Interestingly enough, as soon as this family left, another family on the street started bringing us food often, so I wonder if it was an understood rule that we were already taken care of when the other family lived across the street from us.  I don't know how those things work.

This new family that brings us food usually send their daughter, who is a little older than Keira.  She is so sweet and greets us every time she sees us outside.  I don't know the mother well, but the father is very fond of Doug.  They have exchanged numbers, and they also talk often outside when they see each other.

God is always providing for us.