On April 5 I said goodbye to Spain and flew out of Malaga via Istanbul to Ankara in Turkey.
The Schauses, a couple I know from living in Kabul, are based in Anakara and had asked me to come take care of their children for two weeks while they were away speaking at a conference.
Bob, along with Matthais (age “almost 13”) came to pick me up at the airport. Anakara is a sprawling, bustling metropolis spread across rolling hills. Being a Muslim country each neighborhood has its own mosque, faithfully calling people to prayer 3 times a day. Bob warned me that the mosque across the street from my bedroom window would probably wake me up at 5 am, and sure enough! I had to smile though because the chant, echoing through the quietness of the early morning, brought back a flood of memories from my childhood in Pakistan.
The next day was full of orientation. My main task was
basically to be homeschooling-mum to three kids for two weeks. Rachel took me
through the kitchen so I knew where all the ingredients were for cooking and
baking, she showed me the closest grocery store and the local market – the
Pazaar –, she went through her homeschooling materials so I would know what
each of the children was working on and what they had to get done each week.
Even though I have known this for a while I will say it again, parenting is a
lot of work!
Matthais (almost 13), Joanna (11) and Jake (9) were friendly
right off the bat, and even though they didn’t remember me from Kabul we became
friends very quickly.
The two weeks passed by relatively fast. Everyday first
thing we had devotions together in the living room, reading through portions of Proverbs and talking about wisdom. After breakfast the kids headed to their rooms to start working.
Around 10ish we had a break for
snack, and I experimented with Rachel’s blender, making a different kind of
smoothie every day: orange and banana, peanutbutter and banana, orange and
strawberry etc. Super fun! J
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| Boys at breakfast :) |
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| Jake and I playing seriously competitive Monopoly! |
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| Smoothie creations! |
School time continued till lunch and then after lunch till
about 2:30 or whenever they happened to finish. At 3 every day, except for a
couple times when it was raining, all three kids headed up to the park, which
was right beside the Oasis International School. There they could play and spend time with friends till
supper around 6. Every evening before bed I read a chapter out loud from Frank
Peretti’s book “This Present Darkness”, and most evenings Bob and Rachel called
on skype to say goodnight.
The day before Bob and Rachel arrived back I remember
thinking it was amazing that we had gotten through that far without any serious
injury. I don’t believe in jinx or luck, but I definitely thought it too soon.
That afternoon we walked Matthias up to Oasis where he was meeting the youth
group to go on a retreat for the weekend. After saying goodbyes, Joanna, Jake
and I headed to the park. Not 10 minutes later Jake, running across the
playground, collided with a swing and there was blood everywhere. Fortunately
we were close to the International school and Bob and Rachel had given me
contact info for an American couple living in the neighborhood. Heather picked
us up from school where the nurse had already cleaned up Jake’s face but said
we should get X-rays in case his nose was broken. An hour and an X-ray later we saw that it definitely was
broken and they were able to do surgery the same day. 10 hours in the hospital
was not what I had envisioned for my day, but God was taking care of us and
Jake was able to come home the same evening. He was such a good sport the whole
time and didn’t cry, even when they gave him the IV needle.
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| Cheesy fries from the American base :) |
The whole experience gave me a bit of a taste of being a
parent and dealing with a stressful situation in a country where I don’t speak
the language!
