We walked into the hotels restaurant caked in dirt,sweat, and an odor you couldn't miss a mile away. Our finger and toe nails were polished in mud and mine and shyannes face were so sunburned we had little patches of brown red and white which made us look even more dirty.
We fling open the doors,look around and settle in. It's easy we've had 7 different homes in the last 7 months.
we tend to feel right at home anywhere we go
As one of my squad mate says "we land and expand" We're like a bunch of wild beasts that take over but with manners
And that's how we entered the restaurant and you should have seen the look on these people's faces
It was if 13 hobos walked into the Hilton and tried to book a room
It was hysterical!
All these wide eyed vacationing white folk staring at us like we were the entertainment for the day
Im on a new team now and we are team dream team located in Malawi Africa in the middle of the bush…literally.
We live in tents this month on a hill in the bushes There is no running water that is easily accessible. We have to walk half a hilly sandy mile to the well and pump our water into 80 liter jugs which weigh 45 lbs
So far I've carried it on my shoulder head and in my pack strapped to my back …by the end of that walk I'm drenched in sweat and I'm huffing and puffing like a 70 year old cigarette addicted woman whose just walked up a flight of stairs
If your on kitchen duty you have to go to the well at least three times a day if not more But I usually go once or twice a day depending on if I plan on taking a shower or not Because that requires water as well lol
The sun rises at 5 am we get up at 6 am and the sun starts murdering at 6:30am
Seriously of all the countries I've been to ive never experienced heat as drastic as this. It's sooo hot! It has to be at least 115 degrees And shade is hard to come by around these parts
I've joked about being in the Sahara desert in Cambodia before but no I was wrong this is the Sahara desert!
There are sand dunes everywhere (in the middle if the night we got up and decided to go surfing down the sand dunes. Shyanne and I face planted a few times) anyways we wake up at 630 get ready for the day eat breakfast at 730 usually Sheema which is flour and water mixed togethar or some kind of oatmeal and then we get to work…..
Construction!
so far we've been brick moving preparing to build a house for pastors to stay in and a bathroom outside
My Italian skin is useless here at this point im a freckled white pasty ginger who loads up on sunscreen
We eat lunch at 1 and start ministry again at two We go down to the villages to talk to people and get to know them. The first day we met two guys named Christopher and Harold.At first we couldn't understand him and thought he said howdy so we were all calling him howdy for half the day until he corrected us they took us around town and ahowed us Ithe ropes of catching and selling fish.
After ministry in the village we usually get back around 5 and then have to go get our water and that takes anywhere from a half hour to two depending on how many locals are there ..it's usually pretty busy
We eat dinner at 7:30 and there is no electricity so we eat in the dark with our little head lamps in the sand But there are camel spiders here and if you don't know they are huge hideous camel colored half spider half scorpion creatures who are attracted to light so we try to keep our head lamps off But seriously were stuck in between a hard place and a rock because there are tons of poisonous snakes here and they Come out at night and chill in the sandy pathways to cool off
so it's either getting bitten by a snake and dieing of poison or getting tortured by huge camel spiders That run faster then a cheetah
We go to bed around 9 and start all over again the next day
Today we have an off day and decided we would come to the hotel about 30 minutes away and get some good food and showers
And this brings me back to the vacationing white folk staring at us
Seriously I've never been so excited to take a shower I was thanking Jesus over and over again while I was scrubbing my dirt stained feet. I love this life…its challenging in every way possible but it forces you to rely on the lord when physically you just can't handle anymore
I'm so dirty,my skin is caked in sand,sweat and mud. I smell I have white spots all over my body heat rashes and scratches on my legs which I haven't shaved in a good month and yet this is by far one of my favorite months
I am blessed beyond compare! The lord has used this month and the last month to build new foundations in my life….. But I'll save that for my next blog
