!ألحمد الله

Or alhamdullah (for those of you wondering just how to pronounce that) which means "praise to God". This phrase is used a lot in Arabic whenever something good happens and seems very appropriate right now. Daniel finished his Arabic training on Friday (that in and of itself deserves an alhumdullah) but even more impressive was the score he received on his exit exam. The Foreign Service has a 5 point language profiency scale, with 5 being the best you can get and meaning you are the equivalent of a very articulate and eloquent native speaker. (Note: it does not just mean native speaker, sometimes native speakers don't even get a 5 in their own langugae because they do not sound professional enough- ouch!) Anyway, when Daniel started training in March he had a 1+ in speaking and 1 in reading. He need a 2/1 for his job in Muscat. We were certian that he could bump himself up to the necessary 2 in speaking but had been wishing on a star that he could step it up even further to get a 3/3 because then we would qualify for extra language pay. We knew it was a long shot, it is very diffcult to jump from one number to another.

Well the big day came around. I sat in class and kept glancing at the clock, wondering how he was doing and anxiously waiting the results. Almost three hours later a weary Daniel stopped by my class to report he had not gotten the desired 3/3 . . . but a 4/3+!!!!!!!!!!!!! I know that might not sound too cool but believe me it is an amazing acheivement. Not even in our wildest dreams did we think he would be able to get that in such a short period of time and in a class room setting which is all the more reason we attribute his success to higher powers. Dan is still in a daze, he keeps expecting to wake up and find that it is Friday morning and he has to go take his test. ;)

To celebrate we went out on a double date with some good friends of ours, Danielle and Rick (a former mission companion of Dan). We went mini golfing and for Ethiopian food. We had a great time, they are a blast. The perfect ending to the day that is now known in our house as yom al-baraka, "the day of the blessing".

~Katie

(P.S. I am still in language training and will be until mid November but I don't have to take the tests- whew!)



Action shot of Danielle wacking that ball. Go team pink!!

Dan eyes the shot carefully and then handily tronches us all.


Katie strutting her stuff on the green.


Rick strutted his stuff too but...

...ended with his ball in the lilypads.


Happy Harrells at the Ethiopian restuarant.


The food was really good, different, but good. We were all given what looked like a giant pancake and used it to grab food from the central plate.