Things are going well at my two job assignments. Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays finds me in the newborn nursery. I am still really enjoying it! Summer is the peak season for births I was informed, and so seems to be the case! On the busiest days there have been 23 or so babies in the nursery. There are always discharges each day as well as at least three new admits. The day there were 23 bassinets/cots, there was literally a pathway constructed between them. It was so full! Wish I could take pictures of the nursery, but I want to be sensitive to privacy issues. The first two days I worked in the nursery, I got teary-eyed when the newborns came in and I got to hold them. Now, I get teary-eyed when I walk in and see gobs of babies and know all the work that lies ahead, haha!

I am super impressed by the staff of the volunteer program SERVE Nazareth. Christine and Jane are two motherly figures who check in on us. Their offices are right here next to our apartments. Every week each volunteer meets with one or both of them to check in to see how things are going and to receive prayer. It’s been a major blessing!

I took three Arabic lessons from a local from the Baptist church we attend most Sundays. Wow, Arabic is not easy! But it is still doable. There are no similarities at all to English. It seems like at least when I was learning Spanish, there were some similarities, eg: fruit= fruta. Arabic is purely memorizing words. It also has some sounds that we don’t have in English aka the ‘spitting sound’ and the ‘clearing your throat sound’. Haha!

I discovered I have a relative who is also a volunteer here! We are both from Lancaster County, and what started as a conversation about my car not having air conditioning, led to us discovering we are second cousins once removed. Very amusing!