How do I even begin to explain this last month.
I could go into long detail about what we did every day, how we lived this last month, and how we cooked our own meals and how we hauled 20 liter jugs full of water up a hill for cooking, showers, and dishes. (So you prayed for it to rain that night before it was your teams turn) I could go into detail about how we got to go looking for baby mango trees under grown up mango trees and dig them out with sticks, and replant them in holes we dug the day before, or about how I got to show off some of my awesome mad goalie skills playing “futball” on the beach, which also burned my feet tops and bottoms.
I could talk about how my birthday was completely different then I would have ever thought it would be. How I missed my friends, church family, family, more then I thought I would. How excited I was about the fact the I got to go to a baptist church twice in Malawi. (they danced at this Baptist Church ;} ) It made me feel like I had just a little piece of home with me. Made me miss all the little things that would happen on a Sunday Morning at Hillside. From getting there early and being able to see/greet everyone as they came in, to Sunday school, to the morning service, to the times we would have potlucks after church. Yeah,…I missed it all.
As last month happened, it was a rough month for me, I am so thankful for the fact that we had an all squad month. I don’t know how last month would have gone if it hadn’t been. I don’t remember if I shared with you all or not but at the end of month 1 my team. The Unexpected lost a teammate. She decided the race wasn’t what she was suppose to be doing. As for me, it didn’t really come as a surprise. Don’t get me wrong, I love her, she had this dry sense of humor that I got along with very well. But there are some things you just know and that is one of them. So we had said goodbye to one of our teammates already. We also had another one who was sick, she started getting sick in Zambia. We thought it was all taken care of she was given meds to take.. and all that good stuff.
We get to Malawi, and things just keep getting worse for her. So they try some of the clinics in the area we were staying, but they didn’t end up helping so they decided to take her to a hospital in Lilongwe. So we lose two more teammates as our teamleader had to go with her to the hospital. We were down to just 4 people on our team. So that next week or so, I didn’t even really feel like I had a team. I felt very scattered and all over the place. Was I able to connect with other people on my squad that I probably wouldn’t have? Yes, for sure. I just felt like something wasn’t right the whole time. All of the things we talked about doing as a team after debrief just didn’t happen because of it.
After about a week or so our team leader came back, and the next day our teammate came back. But a few days later she ended up being flown out of Malawi to Kenya because she just wasn’t getting better. So we were just a team of 5. I was just sure she was going to join us in Latvia the next month. We talked about what we would do when she got here, all that fun stuff. But we got word on our travel day as we were in Germany, that they were going to send her home. That what was wrong with her was something more then just some weird African thing. It didn’t really hit me what was going on until they informed the whole squad on what was going on. I will say, that is when I lost it. Nothing like crying in a airport right before boarding a flight. I didn’t get it, why did God bring her on the race just for her to spend most of it sick and in a hospital to go home? To start to get to know her, and her heart, Just for her to be taken away? Maybe some of it was selfishness coming out in me. Maybe, I don’t know.
We thankfully got to Skype with her and after getting to talk with her, and see how God had been working on her heart, and through it God was being glorified. Which is what counts. I can’t wait to see what/how God counties to use this situation to bring him glory. I know he is not done with her yet. Which is exciting.
Malawi in its self wasn’t that bad. I love Africa, I really didn’t get any strong attachments to Malawi or Zambia. Which I will not lie it disappointed me just a little. Would I go back? Of course. You can never pass up the opportunity to go to Africa. I will always love Roasted Corn, Mandazi, and Chapati. potato samosas, bike taxis, the friendly people, and the simple lifestyle… But bring on the cheese, meat and bread of Europe.
Until next time.
