Dear Friends and Family,
Happy Thanksgiving! Today we are taking a break from digging an 80 inch deep parameter that will soon be filled with concrete to provide the foundation for what will become a structure for the church we are worshiping with here in Swaziland. This day of rest could not come soon enough. Gardening made me sore. Digging with a pick axe and shoveling has made me feel like my arms might fall off. I have a new found respect for anyone who does any type of physical labor for their living because it is HARD.
This week, in the afternoons, we are continuing our work at the care points, but we have moved into the role of teachers. Yesterday, I told the story of David and Goliath to 60ish children covered in dirt with torn clothes that play and laugh and sing and dance as though they are the richest people in the world. Beth and Emily acted out each role, improv style, and the children loved it. Afterwards, I held a little girl that was filthy. She said nothing to me, but seemed so pleased to have special attention given to her.
I am learning that blessings come in many forms and that joy and laughter can be found in what would be the worst of circumstances for us at home. It is odd to me now that the nicest home I’ve visited this month is considered nice to me only because it has a door and tile flooring. In the states this home would be for the poorest of the poor, but here, since most people live in houses made from sticks with dirt floors that are covered with blankets for sleeping, this particular home seems lavish. I love that this home is lived in by a woman whose husband has two wives. He suffered a stroke this past year and can no longer work. She loves Jesus though and so there is joy. I love that last week I sat on the ground with an old woman who has HIV whose face was lit up with joy because she was too sick to get up, but now she is well enough to walk outside and pray. She sang for me and the two girls I was with and blessed us so much with her company. Before leaving we realized that she had not eaten all day. Her name is Saraphine and I wish you could meet her. Jesus is not complicated to her. Life is not cruel. Suffering isn’t a question. I wish you could see her “house” and the dirt and her clothes and see with your own eyes that she has nothing that we have at home, and yet she has everything that really matters. These are thing things I will take away from Swaziland, a country so beautiful and so ugly, so blessed and so cursed, so joyful and so heartbreaking.
So, today, on this day of thanks, I am thankful for:
1. The past three months in Africa and all that I’ve seen and learned and experienced.
2. A big lunch later today with my team and the other team we are serving with, our ministry contacts and Swazi ministry partners that includes turkey (never mind the fact that our lunch formerly lived with us on site and died today by some of these same peoples’ hands – sad) mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, and apple pie.
3. My beloved 15 minutes of internet that lets me at least email my family and roommate.
4. Knowing that almost my entire family will gather together as one group and eat, eat, eat, eat and that home and tradition and family are gifts I have been richly blessed with.
5. And finally, that a week from today I will get on a bus and begin the journey back to Johannesburg, where I will meet up with friends that I love like family and journey with them to a new land… and when I finally get to speak to my family, it will be month 5 and I will be almost halfway home!
Happy Thanksgiving! Eat lots of dessert for me!
Carrie
