No More Dari for Dad

Okay, so the term “orphanage” loses something in translation between the United States and Afghanistan. As I currently understand it, Sahar is part of what is called an “orphanage” in Kabul, yet she has a family in Kabul as well, with a mom, dad, uncle, grandfather, brothers, and sisters. She lives at the “orphanage” during the week, and typically goes home on the weekend. So, it’s kind of like a boarding school – maybe? When I posed that question to the interpreters, I got an answer of “well, yes and no…” So, we are confused… It’s not a big deal – we just simply want to gain an understanding of Sahar’s life in Afghanistan – I think (and hope) we will gradually gain more of that understanding as the days go by.

Sahar has now had visits with the dentist, optometrist, and pediatrician. The dentist discovered serious tooth decay, which very well could be related to her chronic headaches. Thus, Sahar will most likely be spending some more quality time with our dentist soon. Everything checked out just fine at the optometrist and the pediatrician. Sara, who has accompanied Sahar to the appointments, has shared with me wonderful stories of the caring doctors, nurses, and staff members who have been seeing these children.

We’ve learned that Sahar is undoubtedly a nurturer. In the pictures we received of the Solace group in route to America, Sahar was always holding Hussein, a 5-year old boy – the youngest in the Solace group. Since Sahar’s been here with us, she constantly gives attention to Chris, our 20 month old – she loves to hold him, play with him, etc. Chris, as our third child, loves the extra attention. William also adores Sahar, and Caroline has definitely established a bond with her now – there’s been lots of girl giggling over the past 24 hours…I guess that giggling is a universal thing.

We had our scheduled meeting with Sahar and one of the interpreters yesterday evening. Of course, by the time our meeting rolled around, we had learned that Sahar actually knows a significant amount of English. She knows basic English quite well. What the interpreter meeting did reveal to me, personally, is that I need to stop trying to speak Dari with Sahar… I realized that when I told Sahar in Dari that our dog Allie was “wild”, I was telling her that Allie would bite her. It also seems I erroneously told her on her first day that we were going swimming in the river. So, my family has now banned me from additional attempts to speak Dari – probably a good idea. The interpreter shared with us her assessment of Sahar’s outstanding potential – apparently, she’s an amazing student, and the interpreter, currently a student at the University of Richmond, hopes that Sahar could one day return to America for college, as well.

While we’re still facing some challenges, Sahar seems to become more comfortable with our family every day, and vice versa. We’re really looking forward to Sahar attending church with us tomorrow, so the wonderful people at our church who helped finance her journey here can finally meet her. We’re also looking forward to dinner tomorrow evening with the other host families, children, and interpreters.

Please continue to keep all 16 of the Afghan children, the 2 interpreters, and the many host families in your prayers. Many of the children and their host families still have challenging journeys ahead, from the medical perspective. These are 16 of God’s very precious children, who have so incredibly much to offer and share. We feel quite blessed to have one of them sharing in the life of our family.

Bryan