Stateside!

Whilst we officially arrived home over a week ago, the actual adjustment to the arrival is just now starting to take place... We are both overwhelmed by the sheer beauty of this place- the trees, the grass, the rich blue sky... We can't help but make "oooo" and "ahhh" sounds on a regular basis. We've been overly blessed to have a comfortable place to stay and the use of a vehicle- a fabulous mini-van (which Eddy and I think is the handiest invention- tons of space, removable seats, standing room... what a concept!). Our friends and church have welcomed us back with open arms and we've been bustling about sharing meals and stories together.

We decided it might be a good idea to take a few days, just Eddy and me, to sort of debrief a bit, get away and "breathe". I (Jess) decided a trip "up North", as they say here in MN, would be just the thing. And that would have been the case had I checked the weather forcast... doh! Duluth, MN, the port city on Lake Superior, and the coastline up to Canada, CAN be absolutely beautiful; but can also be absolutely horrible! (Curious? Listen to Gordon Lightfoot's "The Edmund Fitzgerald") So, completely unaware of the gail of 40 mph winds and 30F temps that awaited us "up north", we ventured out in our handy mini-van, packed to the gills with firewood, camping equipment and food. We'd even spent a few hours carefully planning out our geocaching goals -- Grab a cache in Canada!! (never heard of it? You're missing out! www.geocaching.com)We should've guessed there'd be problems as we started out way too late, driving out of the cities around 1pm- guess Africa is still in our blood... We scored our first "find" an hour or so outside the cities, a relatively easy park and grab with a short venture into the woods. The next one followed suit, easy hike to a quick find. We were on a roll! Until... we were back on the highway and I glanced down towards Eddy's legs and saw... a TICK!!! Ugh! And then another! And another! And another!!! (FYI- it's wood tick season in MN...) We honestly should've stopped then. From that point on we were itching and scratching and shaking and just plain PARANOID. But we kept on trucking- all the way up to the frigid Superior. We managed to find a few more cahces, but our hopes of a quiet get-away, with campfire time and walks along the placid lake shore were dashed. We took a few pictures, tried to take in the icey beauty, jumped back in the van and raced back to sunny Minneapolis.
Otherwise, we are well! I'm around 20 weeks along and officially started looking more pregnant a few days ago- and we've even been feeling the little guy move! My mom arrives tomorrow to visit for a few days and Eddy will be running a half-marathon on May 31st. (He's training for the Twin Cities Marathon in October.) We're hoping to take a trip out to WY to visit some friends in the beginning of June and then back to MN to help lead a Church outreach up North.
It's definitely a bit surreal being back and we're still trying to figure out which end is up, as they say. But each day gets a little easier. Making sense of living the last year in the Land-of-Sand and adjusting temporarily to life back in the U.S. has and will have its challenges-- maintaining vision while seeking out refreshing and "plugging" back in to our social networks. We trust God will triumphantly lead us through this next chapter of our lives, as he always has!
Photos: A couple of dust shots- the usual view of the Nile, followed by the view during our 5 day Habuub... Eddy in the stairwell- it was swept a few hours before... geocaching in MN- Eddy's the dark glob in the background... Our first cache in Duluth- freezing!... Eating Tobies famous caramel rolls and caching- does it get any better?... Eddy pointing out into the frigid surf, where some college guys were boogie-boarding... fools!!!... Eddy finds a cache in Duluth- debriefing at its best!

Fatima or Ahmed?

Today we had our final visit with our friendly Dr. Samir to see one last $30 glimpse of our little bundle of joy... and... We our happy to announce that we are having a BOY!!!!! It's apparently very apparent! More importantly, everything looks completely normal and he is developing well; even putting me/him a week farther along than we thought.

And the weather... always making sure we experience the full scope of possibilities here in the land-o-sand! The temps soared this past week, hitting a high of 125.4F one day, followed by several days above 120F. Then in fine desert form, the sand storms, or Habuub, have hit in full force. It's been pretty much constant habuub-ing for the past 4 days. We've tried to keep up with the cleaning while packing up, to no use. Even now, visibility is down to 1/8 mile and we're wiping our eyes and coughing INSIDE the house. We just hope it lets up eventually so we can do a final cleaning before heading out of here on Thursday morning (2am).

Nile Valley Academy is also closing up shop after this next week. We will only be there 2 more days, finishing up grading, cleaning and preparing things for the summer. We've been busy this past week with awards ceremonies, higlighting those students with exceptional skills in athletics and who played on teams. Eddy and I both realized what a pleasure it has been to work with these students and how much we're going to miss them. Most of the students are begging Coach Eddy to stay on another year... as always, he's won their hearts!

I'm not sure if we'll have time to write before leaving here on Thursday... We'll be flying out of here via London and landing in Minneapolis on Friday. While the heat, sand storms and stress of school have us anticipating our break, we do wonder how we will handle and adapt to this next chapter of our lives. Living here has been amazing and tough, adjusting to language, cultural and religious diferences has been at times overwhelming, aside from the daily life struggles that everyone experiences no matter where one lives. We are relying on God to continue to lead us and speak to us, refreshing our vision and passions while continuing to use us wherever we hang our hats. We plan on maintaining our blog throughout our time in the states... We have so appreciated your prayers and encouragements... Thank You!!!

Photos: At Dr. Samir's, getting an ultrasound... Our little baby boy, measuring in at 17 weeks 4 days- and look closely- there's the proof that he's a boy! The Habuub... during and the aftemath- and which continues to rage outside- ugh! The awards ceremony held at the school... Evidence that it got above 125F- ridiculous.

The Energizer Mutt

Meet Toffee; pronounced like "toe-fee", not "tah-fee". He's your basic, friendly neighborhood "watch-dog". He lives on the ground floor of our good friends Mike and Suzanne's flat. A nice Khawaja family owns him; they've lived here about 10 years and are heading back to England in June. Over the months and years we've gotten to know Toffee quite well. He's a bit of a street mutt, always on the prowl, looking for another fight and returning with another wound. Over time he's become quite attached to us, loping (or limping) over when we stop by, rubbing his scabby, crusty infected eyes on our clothes and occasionally, following us wherever we go.

For example, in December, when a few of us ran the "First Inaugural Khartoum International The Four Bridges Fun-Run to Save Darfur Half Marathon", he ran the first 6 miles with us. That's right, that pathetically malnourished, half alive pup trotted half way across the city with us. Needless to say, you can bet we got quite a few more stares for not only being Khawajas jogging in the city, but having a mangey mutt galloping along side us.

And more recently, he yet again, donned his loyal cloak and accompanied Suzanne and I on an outting to our local Suuq (big, open market). Let me preface this by pointing out that DOGS DON'T GO TO THE SUUQ. It's like an unspoken rule. Even the multitude of strays stay out- as if they have an instinctive sense and know they're just not allowed. So, there we are, two fair-skinned, light haired Khawajas non-chalantly walking into the Suuq accompanied by Toffee the Wonder Pup. The amounts of stares, calls, frowns, comments, questions and followers that four-legged accompaniment brought on was unimaginable. We tried frantically, desperately, yet overtly, to send him home- the stern "go home Toffee", both in english and arabic, had no impact. It was no use.

We stopped in a pharmacy; good ol' faithful Toffee stopped in too. The owner was NOT amused. We tried to explain that this truly in fact was not our dog; he wasn't buying it. We stepped into a street vendors clothing booth; Toffee browsed with us, IN the booth. It was awkward, uncomfortable and emabarresing. Finally, desperate and exaserbated with our furry friend, we resorted to sneaking into a rickshaw (a 3-wheeled, semi-enclosed form of transport with a 2-stroke engine), thinking that going anywhere in a motorized vehicle would comfuse him and he would eventually, hopefully, wander home. Of course there was a small traffic jam, as the Suuq is located in the middle of the local bus station. So we waited, unmoving in our roasting little rickshaw, slyly peering out the sides, watching Toffee's response to our mysterious disappearance.

I felt bad at first. Poor guy; just trying to help, guarding the khawajas on a day at the Suuq. But people were STILL staring at us in the rickshaw, and at him as he turned circles scanning the multitude of people for us. Finally, looking totally perplexed and confused (and very pathetic), he slowly turned around and trotted off into the crowds towards home. Suzanne and I, still not gaining any distance in our rickshaw get-away mobile, thanked the driver for the 5-minutes stuck in traffic and hesitatingly crept out of our hiding place. Glancing over our shoulders, and avoiding the numerous stares and comments, we high-tailed it to a different section of the market, praying Toffee hadn't caught on to our antics and was still heading home. And apparently the charade worked, as the rest of our shopping trip was most uneventful...

What's Left: We're down to just 2 more weeks here... School is winding down and we're in the process of finishing up classes and closing down. The weather has remained hot, never dipping below 110F (it's 11am and 113F), but thankfully, we've had fewer power cuts in the last 5 days... making things much more tolerable! These next few weeks will be spent cleaning and packing; all our belongings being stored in a friend's shipping container.

Photos: Toffee, rubbing his infected eyes on Eddy's shorts... Eddy and Timo, a family friend who will be moving to the north to contiue the family business... A small going away party for Mike and Suz and us thrown by our organizatin friends... The view outside our flat window... and Toffee, always on the look-out...