Blown Away!

(I typed this up yesterday evening but was not able to post it until this morning.)

Here it is, late in the evening as I’m typing this, and David and I are sitting here in amazement and wonder of the day’s events. We are blown away!

This morning, our day started out normal enough. We had our weekly team meeting in the morning, and as always, it’s great getting together with our co-workers. Then this afternoon, David went to look at an apartment, as we are in the process of searching for an apartment to rent to use as an office for our organization. That didn’t prove to be very successful. After walking around the center of the city for a bit, he decided to get a taxi and head home.

Well, just as he sat himself down in the taxi and closed the door, he heard someone knocking on the car door window. He looked, and saw a strangely familiar face smiling in at him, but he did not know who the young man was. They exchanged greetings and the man asked if he could talk with David. So, David got out of the taxi, not at all sure of what the guy wanted. The young man then proceeded to ask David if he knew who he was. David apologized, saying that he looked familiar, but did not remember where they had previously met. The young man just had to say one word, “airport”, and right away David knew.

While we were waiting for our final flight into T-land back in June, we had met a young couple with a little baby at the airport. David and the man ended up talking quite a bit together. We both thought that they seemed like friendly people that we would really like to get to know, but it didn’t seem appropriate at that time to exchange phone numbers or anything, so we didn’t. So, after our plane landed in Kizil, we thought that we’d never see them again.

Well, here was this young man! He said that he had seen David several times in the city and wanted to talk to him, but just now had the opportunity. He asked David if we’d have any work for him. David couldn’t help but smile really big. “Do you know the Tuvan language?” Of course the young man does, and so David told him that he could help him learn the language and culture! They exchanged phone numbers, and to make a long story short, he and his girlfriend came over for supper tonight! We had a very nice time with them! They said that they would both really like to help us out by being our language helpers, but not just because we will pay them. They really just want to spend time with us, getting to know us!

We learned a couple of cultural things this evening from our guests. When they arrived, they presented us with gifts! They gave David and I such a beautiful framed picture of a Tuvan yurt, and the girls got juice and a watermelon! They told us that in their culture, the first time you go to someone’s house, you bring them a gift. (We’ll definitely need to remember that one!) We also learned that, concerning giving your guests a second helping, the woman has the opportunity to decline the offer. But the man is not asked. He is just given a second helping… whether he wants it or not!

We are just so amazed of how he is caring and providing for us. We have been looking for language helpers (and friends!) since arriving here, but had no idea how we would find them. Here, they found us! We also know that it is not a coincidence that we met D & J (as we will call them) at the airport and then again today. Someone definitely had that all planned out… and we know that someone loves them very, very much.