Snow Play
What do you get when you expect the unexpected?
Here’s one thing: Muslims playing in the snow! 
When most people think of Islam, they think of a desert religion. There’s good reason: it’s a tradition that was born in the sands of Arabia and extended its reach on the backs of camels. The most common images of Muslims that come our way include hot sun, tents, and turbans. But here we are, living among Muslims in the foothills of the Himalayas, and there’s a lot more snow around than sand!
After a dry winter, March has brought late, heavy snow. Last Sunday we took our landlord and his family along for a day in the mountains to enjoy some snow play. We drove about an hour and a half up to a summer resort area where there was a good two feet of fresh, clean powder on the ground. Our landlord managed to connect with an old friend who lives there, and he found someone to rent us a sled. My husband took our landlord’s 3-year-old son for short but thrilling sled rides down a hillside. The rest of us couldn’t tell which of the two “boys” enjoyed it more! 
The snow was falling around us in slow, fat flakes. Other people were building snowmen and having snowball fights. We ended our visit with lunch and tea back at the home of our landlord’s friend.
Our day out in the snow was a nice change for all of us from the usual routine of study and housework. Does it surprise you that Muslims get excited about snowball fights and sledding? That they laugh when they roll off the sled at the bottom of the hill, and need help knocking the snow out of their boots? When we reach out and love people who seem so different than we are, we often find that they’re more like us than we expected.
Posted in Uncategorized and tagged sledding, snow by Lisa