You can’t plan your month.
No matter how figured out you think you have it, you are wrong.
Well at least that is what I have found out time and again, that is how my months, years, life is.
This month my team was at El Shaddai in Swaziland, a children’s home located on the top of a mountain. Going into this month I knew I wasn’t going to have internet and that I would be with my whole squad. We would be doing meals together, sharing space, and working together.
Day 1: we were introduced to the home, told what was expected what the different ministries were how many people were needed for each project and our daily schedule.
List: Me:
Baby house Ummm babies… no…
Clinic This could be fun but there are already plenty of more qualified racers.
Organizing and office How about no.
Pre-School Maybe once or twice.
Garden and manual labor Sounds perfect!
Day 2: I came down with some crazy stomach bug and was unable to do anything.
Day 3: I felt well enough to help my team with a little laundry and join in buddy time (all of us racers got partnered with grade schools to help with their studies and spend time with them one on one). As I was walking past the baby house (where the babies and pre-schoolers live) on my way up to buddy time three little pre-school age boys started yelling at me: “Hey! Hey! Hey!!! What’s Your Name?” “Hey! Hey! Hey!!! What’s Your Name?”. After telling them, they then informed me that I was the second Dianna, and continued to fill the air with “Hey! Hey! Hey!!! What’s Your Name?” even though I had told all of them.
Day 4: After the pre-schoolers got back from class at noon Emily Miller comes to find me because the kids are calling me from the baby house. As I walked over to the baby house the air filled with “DIANNA!!!! DIANNA!!!! DIANNA!!!! I spent the next 45 min answering question and getting things for them that they had thrown over the fence and now wanted. As you can imagine I was captured by these little kids, hook line and sinker.
The days that followed were filled with games of “Hey, hey, hey, my name is… banana. Hey, hey, hey, my name is… cake. Hey, hey, hey, my name is… some random made up dance move that they wanted me to copy”. Me breaking up fights, playing hide and seek, pushing them on the swing, having a whole bunch of them climb on me and ask questions at the same time. Whether I was there with them or not, the air was filled with “DIANNA” for about an hour a day.
I thought that I would spend the whole month in the garden, and though I did still spend a good amount of time there any chance I got I was over with the pre-schooler and babies. My time with them is forever written on my heart and I couldn’t be happier that my plans fell through the cracks.
Sadly I will not be putting up a photo blog for the month as the internet is so slow here, but I have to share a sunset with you.
