doha

at the islamic museum of art in doha, qatar

walking on water

overlooking downtown qatar

taken by one of the students

just the ladies

at the museum

at the opening ceremony

days in doha

Originally from 28 January…because of internet problems at the hotel, we weren’t able to publish like we wanted to…so we’ll play catch up for a couple of days…

We made it to Doha safely and comfortably.  It is amazing how smoothly this trip is going.  We both noticed that it seems like everything has been too easy, especially when traveling with 5 students.  Nonetheless, we are having a great time in Doha.  We are staying at a 5 star hotel on the beach.  All of our UN sessions are here at the hotel, so while the students are in committee meeting we are free to relax or sit in on a session.

Yesterday we were all taken around Doha to visit an art museum and a mall.  While on the bus traveling to our destinations, the students started to converse and make friends with students from other countries.  Between the 5 buses of students almost 30 different nationalities were represented.  On our bus alone were delegates from Oman, Malaysia, Cyprus, and Russia.  During a discussion, one of our students was stating his position on the privatization of water in Argentina.  During this conference he is assigned to represent Argentina, and his main resolution is to debate the lack of clean water.

We were so impressed with his statements.  The resolution he was presenting, just in casual conversation, made us think that he had done all of his homework and was going to progress into a solid resolution for his committee.  Then the brain fart came.  As he was stating his facts and statistics, he stated that Argentina was a landlocked country.  We both hung our heads low.  I had to get some chocolate and even CE ate some.  Luckily the other student from Malaysia didn’t realize what he had just said.

As we were leaving the bus, we pulled him to the side (as not to further embarrass him) and said, you might want to check your facts before presenting your resolution, because you just told that student that Argentina was a landlocked country.  Argentina happens to have the longest coastline boarding the Atlantic Ocean in all of South America.  He gasped….didn’t remember that he had said it….and tried to build back his case saying that he just got confused and was thinking about Afghan…  Oh goodness…

All in all, we are pretty impressed with the work our students are doing during their sessions.  We have students as delegates in the World Health Organization, NATO, ECOSOC, and the African Union.  Its so encouraging to see almost 400 students here working so hard on trying to improve desperate situations all over the world.  I know I am seeing the efforts of future world leaders…and it is humbling.

Here at the MUN are students from schools from the following countries:

1. Afghanistan
2. Algeria
3. Bahrain
4. Bangladesh
5. Bosnia
6. Brunei
7. Bulgaria
8. China
9. Cyprus
10. Czech Republic
11. Ethiopia
12. Germany
13. Greece
14. Hungary
15. Indonesia
16. Israel
17. Italy
18. Jordan
19. Kazakhstan
20. KSA
21. Kuwait
22. Lebanon
23. Macedonia
24. Malaysia
25. Mongolia
26. Morocco
27. Myanmar
28. Oman
29. Pakistan
30. Palestine
31. Philippines
32. Qatar
33. Switzerland
34. Taiwan
35. Thailand
36. Tunisia
37. Turkey
38. United Arab Emirates
39. United Kingdom
40. United States of America

At our 2 week training session in Mississippi, we were introduced to the third culture kid.  A kid who identifies with 3 different cultures.  Here we have created the 4th culture kid.  The students here are representing and identifying with: 1) their passport culture, 2) the culture they most associate with, 3) the culture they are currently living in, and 4) the culture they are assigned to represent as a delegate here at MUN.  If we were to play a game of ‘guess where I’m from’ it’d last for hours….and would be exhaustingly difficult.

This morning after breakfast I went to the beach and read my small group study.  I had a moment of pure joy when I realized that here I was a believer, sitting on the beach in Qatar, representing the afghan nation, reading the b…ble. How did my life bring me to his point?  Unbelievable…

spa in delhi

the bathroom

the living room

the bedroom

our entry light

on an early morning walk

lights in the breakfast hall

the front door to breakfast

fresh juices for breakfast

around the bend

outside breakfast dining

our room...house...abode...heaven

the backside of our house...room...

the pool

outside of the spa

at the spa

inside the spa

the spa

the duck pond

the front entrance to the lobby area

our home away from home

Its not very often that we get to experience luxury.  Not very often do we feel pampered.  We always feel blessed, whether reading the news about a bomb going off in the city or sitting in a staff meeting…we very often feel blessed.  But its not very often that we are surrounded by beauty and nature.

As we made our journey back to kbl from the states, MCE thought it would be nice to spend one night at this resort in india.  We had no idea how nice it would be.  Needless to say, we were overwhelmed with awe…

When we made the commitment to move to a country in war and teach future leaders, we never imagined that moments like this would be made available to us.  This resort and spa was one of the nicest places we’ve both ever been.  When we pulled up in our cheap, small taxi with our luggage strapped to the roof and an attendant opened the door and said, “Welcome Mr and Mrs Earnest,” I was speechless.  We are simple people, without many needs.  We live in a very humble setting and never expect much.  This 24 hours of luxury was our light at the end of the tunnel and our understanding of God’s grace.  We still can’t believe they let lowly people like us stay at such a nice place.

These pictures are just a breath of what we experienced.  I hope you are refreshed by seeing them as much as we were refreshed by taking them.

Qatar

Let me take a poll. You are in a country where there is nothing to do. You work each day, and then go back to your house inside a compound.  They tell you that it is going to snow, and then get really cold.  They have been telling you this for a while.  You are going to be in school until June without any breaks.  If you had the chance to go to the beach…would you go?  YES….YES I WOULD!!!

I found out that I would be going on this trip in October.  I am taking 5 students to a Model United Nations Conference.  This is a really neat opportunity for our students and our school.  We will be the only school at this conference that is representing our country.  Our 5 students will be mixed in with about 400 other students from different schools around the Middle East.  I had never been looking forward to this trip until this past week.  We found out this week that ALE is going to get to go also.  At first we were told that if she were going to go it would be at our expense.  We were not going to be able to pay that.  Through some crafty maneuvering, the school decided that she had to go as the female chaperone.  The school is even going to pay for it.  YAY US!!!

So give us another stamp on our passport.  Give us, 5 days at the beach.  Give us your thoughts and pr..yers.  I have never taken a group of students on an international trip, but I guess that is less nerve racking than the alternative of a domestic trip anywhere in this country!  We love you all!

6 month anniversary…lock down…

If you have read the news today, you will find many headlines on attacks that took place in the city today.  Most of them were about a 20 minute car ride away from us; needless to say, things in our neck of the woods was pretty quiet.  We were getting email updates all day telling us what security level we were under and by 4 pm we hit lock down.

Lock down basically means that we cannot leave campus; however, with the city being so volatile now, where would we want to go?!   We are most secure right here on campus.  We are ok…we have not been told of any new threats to us.  The city is just not as quiet as we’d like it to be.

And what better way that to spend our 6 month celebration of marriage than on lock down…forced to be together!!    Even though celebrating 1/2 anniversaries can be a little silly…it seems almost impossible that we’ve only been married for 6 months.  My students now and then will ask, for how many years have you been married?  When I reply, 4 – 5 – now 6 months, they are in shock.  They think we’ve been married for years!

Its kinda hard to believe that 6 months ago today at this exact time (of composition), we were standing in front of our friends, saying our vows, and making the commitment of a lifetime.  It’s even harder to believe that in less that 3 weeks after that we moved overseas.  Even though I would have enjoyed another month or two to ’settle down’ in marriage before making such a big step, I couldn’t ask for anything over the past 6 months to have been any different.  Well, maybe a little less diarrhea.  But other than that…things have been going pretty smoothly.

There are a lot of things about being married that no body really tells you about.  Especially living in a country where women cannot go anywhere alone, its been an adjustment to always have him by my side.  Now, don’t get me wrong…I really like having him around a lot.  He’s really funny and always has a way of bringing out a better me.  But, you know…nothing really prepares you to transition from being a single lady with an adorable cat to being a married lady with a husband who you work with, and live with, and sleep with, and get the ultimate privilege of racing to the bathroom after a scary dinner with because neither one of us wants to have an explosion of scary dinner over the squatty potty.

Nonetheless, my first 6 months of marriage have been wonderful.  We’ve traveled all over the world, twice.  We both have wonderful jobs that we love.  We have a place that we have made our own home.  We have so many things to be thankful for.

This morning I was telling my class that it was our 6 month anniversary, and all the girls in the class sighed and wished me congratulations.  A couple of students even brought me a big bag of peanut M&Ms with post it on them that says Happy Anniversary.   As I was celebrating with all of my classes, Mr. you know who was telling his 8th grade history class that he works for the gov….ment and that he had a wife and 3 children back at home, and that I was just a pretend wife that his agency assigned to him during his time here in AFGN.  Who knows if any of them believed him…  Needless to say, I think I now win the most sympathy votes in the marriage.  I’m so lucky…

The night is here again and the day is now over.  So we are about to do what every married couple does when they are on lockdown on their anniversary.  Try to entertain ourselves by watching TV and falling asleep before the end of the show, because we are both so tired after working all day.  I just love the married life!

ADDRESS!!!

We just learned that we have a mailing address. We can receive letters…no packages…

If you want to send us mail, please remember that it could be opened and read by anyone, so please alter your faith-based language.

We would love to receive a letter or card from you!! Getting mail is one luxury we miss.

Here is our address…

Caleb + Amanda Earnest
Box 5084
Kabul, Afghanistan

Oh how exciting!!

back home in kabul

We are back in Kabul.  The house was cold, but not as much as we had expected, thankfully.  We are teaching today and will have a full week at school.  Pr…y for us to feel warm and feel prepared going into this week….after traveling the world.

back in delhi…

we luckily made it on our flight to india (on the first try!!) thanks to our dear friends who helped us get here.

we will be in delhi until we fly to kabul on the 8th. we can’t wait to see what adventures we will get into…personally i hope we get to eat at the chicken inn again!!

more pictures from india

from inside the ricksaw

in the main bazaar

at the turtle cafe....a vegetarian cafe that our friend took us to...it was delicious!

2 boys who saw that we had a camera...and had to pose for a picture

yes....as we were standing in the bazaar, a cow walked up to us and just stopped to stand for a while

a store front

hanging in a coffee shop we found in the main bazaar

stairwell in the coffee shop

a lovely vanilla latte

a cool storefront...in the khan market

refugees

In August before we left the country for our new home in KBL, we decided that the perfect event for us to attend during the Christmas break was a w…ship conference.  So, we made plans to attend a fantastic w…ship conference in atlanta.  We are here with 20,000 other young adults who are pra…sing and growing in G…d.  I really can’t describe what its like to have been without regular w…ship in KBL to transition into 4 days of singing and studying with so many other like-minded followers.

One thing that I am having a hard time with it our security.  I know its ironic…I live in dangerous place and feel safe, but I’m here in the states, surrounded by 20,000 like-minded friends and I feel insecure about who’s watching.  All I can think about is how much other-minded people would see this event as a target.  Last night during our session, the speaker started off his message by saying that his wife commented earlier in the day that this would be a great target and what a way to go.  Well, I can’t say that my wannabe fear was right in line with her thinking, but as soon as the speaker told us of her comment my so called fears subsided.  It was like all I needed was to hear someone else acknowledge that this was an incredible gathering of people who can have a common enemy.  All I needed was to know that someone else had thought of this.

In a gathering such as this, I am always amazed at how some people still just don’t get it.  As we see videos that highlight the oppressed, experience real life scenarios to help us catch a glimpse of what is going on in the world, and pray for healing in our own nation, some people still just don’t get it.  At lunch one day we had been guided to pick up our box lunch, and then we followed the crowd to find a place in the floor to sit.  It was a pretty incredible to watch 1,000 volunteers guide 20,000 hungry people to food.  As we were sitting against a wall enjoying our lunch, we watched the crowd continue to pour by us looking for a place to sit.  One guy, as he walked by us said, “I feel like a refugee.”

As I recovered from nearly spitting out my food, I thought to myself, ‘this guy has no idea what a refugee is.’  MCE and I just looked at each other in response to what we had just heard and both sat in amazement.  I mean, here this guy is in a temperature controlled building, wearing clean clothes, carrying food.  Carrying food.  Carrying food.

As far as I understand, someone who is in the unfortunate situation of being a refugee is always longing for the promise of another meal.  Food is never guaranteed and oftentimes never received.  But, because this guy was being herded through a large crowd of people, he was made to feel like what he thinks is a refugee.  Unbelievable.  And mostly unfortunate that his understanding of the world and its atrocities are so small.  My pr..yer is that all of our territories be expanded to understand what our brothers and sisters are enduring, here, there and everywhere.