Friday, April 25, 2008

Let Kalem GO!

When we first began discussing our possible move to Armenia, many
family members and friends would make comments like, "Gee, do you
really want to move out of your house, store your belongings and move
to Armenia?" or "Why don't you just visit there and see if you really
would like to move there for a longer period of time." But the best
lines always came from my mom, Elaine and Kalem's Grandma Gertie!
They would say things like, "Why don't you and the kids stay here and
let Kalem go to Armenia, settle himself and then come get you?" or
"If Kalem loves Armenia so much let him go and you stay here with the
kids?" One time my mom got so crazy as to say, "You and Kalem go and
the kids can stay with me and Papa Phil!" I know everyone was
expressing their sadness at the thought of us leaving for such a long
period of time and the idea that the grandkids would be so far away
was/is pretty much unbearable at times. And yet we followed God's
call to come to Armenia to live and work and share His love with those
we meet. So now we find ourselves just getting settled into our house
(no thanks to Mrs. Serob : ), our neighborhood, life near our
relatives, school for the kids and now we are preparing to move into
the village (which will probably be June 1st now due to all the
delays). The thought of moving to the village brings excitement as
Kalem and the crews will begin the wonderful projects of making homes
livable for families in the area, but it also brings feelings of
sadness as we have to move from the place we were beginning to call
'home'. The teachers and staff at the Mangabardez love Jude, Pete, &
Franko so much that they have started a campaign to get us to stay
until June 15th when they will have a big party and celebrate all the
kids who are moving on to Tahbrotz (that's real school which beings in
1st grade). Every couple of days they ask/tell me that it is Judi's
graduation and she should be here to preform and celebrate with her
class. Each time the pressure is increased and each time I default by
saying, "I will talk with Kalem, but I'm pretty sure we will be in the
village by then." A few days ago went to pick up the kids and I sat
down with Jana-Moraqueet, Teacher Ida, and Serpoog. We had our usual
conversations about Frankies progress in the 'pampers' arena, Peter &
Judi's advancement with understanding and reciting the vast number of
poems in the Armenian arsenal, and how my day was. Of course we got
around to June 15 and the chorus began, "Judi has to
stay.......Finally Jana-Moraqueet said, "Chanelle-jan (oh, I will blog
soon about my many names....) Kalem quooghk gnah! Translation, "Let
KALEM GO!!!! It seems there is a repeating pattern in every
country...any thoughts on this? I'd love to hear them all! Geesher
Baree! (Good Night) Jonelle;)

2 comments:

Mick Fuller said...

"whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God"
I once heard you preach on Ruth and thought that, even though the context doesn't really match up here, you'd still get a chuckle out of it.
I think the village is the place to be AS A FAMILY (that and the curmudgeon in me has never been keen on kindergarten graduation.

Kendra Fletcher said...

I'm with Mick.