The last nine months

Spring 2011

Well we are finnished with one more year in Saudi! It has been a wonderful year and we have so many great times to look back on. Here are some of the highlights from the spring of 2011.



The end of spring means one thing for us: CALIFORNIA HERE WE COME! We are leaving today (6/28) and will land in the good ol' US of A at around 6 pm tonight! We will spend a few days in New York visiting family and will land finnally in California on July 2nd. Can't wait for the summer and to see you all soon!

Winter 2010-2011

Wow it has been awhile. We are doing great here and tons of stuff has happened. Sorry it has been so long but here is a big recap of the last 4 months. Enjoy!

Winter 2010-2011 from Brendon Hunt on Vimeo.

We'll try and post a bunch of pictures and stories soon too. Thanks for keeping up with us!

Eid al-Adha

A couple days ago was the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha. Brendon’s good friend asked if we would like to celebrate with him and his family. We were very excited for this experience and we arrived promptly at 8:00am at our friend’s house the next day. We were told that this holiday was in honor of when Abraham was obeying God and was about to sacrifice his son but instead God provided a lamb to take the sons place. Eid was a special holiday that praises God for the substitute of the lamb. So every Eid al-Adha families come together and slaughter a lamb and have meals together.

When Brendon and I arrived I was shown the ladies door and Brendon walked through the men’s door. After coming into the house I was greeted by all the women with sided kisses and assalam wa alaikum (Peace be upon you). The women of the home showed great hospitality to all their guests. I wasn’t even allowed to throw my own trash away because they didn’t want me to have to get up. They had amazing food! They had a gigantic chocolate platter, another platter of pastries, coffee, tea, and dates! I loved it all!!

            

Brendon’s friend had the honor of slaughtering the lamb this Eid and it was a great privilege for him. By the time we got there the lamb had been slaughtered and skinned and now they were cutting up the meat that was hung in the backyard. They brought in a bucket of blood and meat from the lamb and I was told that for breakfast we were going to have the liver of the lamb. So about an hour or two later they brought out breakfast that consisted of liver, lettuce, bread, and Foul. The liver was interesting and I couldn’t eat a lot of it because my taste buds were thrown for a loop haha! We all ate on the ground which was really fun.

After breakfast we had more chocolate and pastries and just hung out and talked. There were about seven women and four younger girls. They all spoke Arabic but three of them knew English so they would help interpret conversations or questions. The family was so sweet and they had a lot of questions for me and vice versa. We had music on in the background the whole time and then there was a song that every liked so we got up and danced. If you know me….I was loving this!! I don’t know exactly what style of music this was – maybe Egyptian hip-hop? We danced Saudi style which is swaying back and forth and moving your hands. It’s a very peaceful/elegant way of dancing.

They served lunch which consisted of a HUGE platter of rice with lamb meat on top. I was so full by this time that I couldn’t eat too much. Everyone was so polite and kept me in the conversation by interpreting Arabic to English. After lunch ended it was around one so I was trying to feel it out to see if we had over stayed our welcome and it was time to go. I asked one of the sisters and she said, “oh no not at all!” So we talked a lot more and had a lot of fun talking about American culture and Saudi culture. Around 3:30 I heard that the boys were ready to leave so I got my Abaya back on and walked out the door to meet Brendon. We were there for 7 ½ hours and had so much to catch up on. Brendon also enjoyed his time with the men. They talked and played video games haha! The family was so welcoming and Brendon and I felt very honored to be a part of their day!

Heading Back

Well believe it or not but the Hunt's are going back! I know you all had your doubts but it's official! We got our tickets two days ago and are heading out today. We leave this afternoon and should be there by about 9 pm on the 11th. Seems like it should be a nice and easy trip but we are going during the Hajj, which means a few extra million people traveling to Saudi! Either way we are headed back and looking forward to starting up again. Love you all and would love to keep in touch!