Conference, ditches, pink cake, new-do, and ready or not here I come!

As I was thinking about what I could write to re-cap this past week I decided to say it all in the title... haha!

The major highlights of this past week were starting it off with a women's conference for the believers of the southwestern coast of Turkey, falling into a newly dug construction ditch outside of my house, celebrating Lyssie's 7th birthday with a pink strawberry jello cake, getting my first turkish haircut, and preparing to spend this weekend away in Ankara (the capital city of Turkey) visiting some friends from Eugene.

All in all it was a good week and a week sort of signifying a new mile-marker; a week fragrant with the air of change once again.
Only this time, the change is good, filling, and encouraging. The women's conference was great. We ate lots of yummy danish sweets, drank amazing dutch coffee, heard the word of God freshly spoken over us (specifically psalm 23) and joined in some fun activities such as card-making and home-made moisturizers and facials. I also got lots of ideas with which to motivate the kids- new tactics and verses to encourage them to do their best and love each other with!

Then on Monday I woke up late and ran out the door in a fast and furious attempt to catch the bus without any breakfast and to my dismay realized that there were new ditches dug-out right in front of our gate to put new pipes ore something. All the streets are randomly being torn up out here as construction has swept the city and moved out into the "suburbs" also. So I successfully jumped the first one but on the second one the ground crumbled beneath my foot as I landed and I hit hard. I quickly scrambled out and ran the rest of the way down the street not realizing that it hurt and I had started my adrenaline and then went into a hypo-glucose adrenaline shock where I almost passed out. Luckily after about 15 minutes of my head down I was fine- but definitely had a headache the rest of the day.

Wednesday was the big birthday celebration for Lys- one of my little students- and it was a blast! Her mom and I made this cool pink cake from scratch with real strawberries and a pink jello mix! It was decorated with candy and toys- very fun! The kids played pin the nose on the animal, hot potato, and a scavenger hunt which had them bouncing all over the couches and chairs in the living room looking for their clues to find. ALl in all- it was a good time- but left me exhausted.

Today I went with my friends Erin and Amy to attempt a haircut. We found a place that was recommended by another friend and sort of just jumped right in... it was fun. I think over all the Kuafors here are very european in their haircutting techniques and treat your head as sort of a blank canvas they try to create a new masterpiece. I was lucky to have Amy translate that I am trying to grow my hair out so to leave it long. I really like what I ended up with.

And last but not least I am now officially on my weekend- as I am taking friday off this week to venture up to Ankara, the capital of Turkey, to visit a family I know from Eugene who lives there. I am so excited to spend time with them and see Turkey from their angle. It will just be comforting on so many levels. Love to you and hope your weekend is wonderful too!