Dear World,
My heart is filled with so much joy and love right now and I’ll tell you why. Just listen to the day I had yesterday.
But first, a little catch up. When I left you, I was finally recovering from too many days of being sick. There’s nothing like being down and out to make you realize that all you really want is your health back.
During those days I was reminded of the few people I know who have had to live any amount of their lives on their back. I don’t want to compare my experience to theirs, I was still able to make it to the toilet if I had to, but maybe I got a taste of what they went through.
Helplessness. Frustration. Pain. Anger.
You’re in this place of being stuck. Well, your body is stuck, but your mind is as free and powerful as ever and that is not always the happiest thought. You can hear the children laughing and playing outside, but you can’t join them. You can smell how good a grilled cheese would be, the scent wafting in from the kitchen, but you can’t eat it because you know you can’t keep it down.
Suffice to say, there is plenty for which to be grateful.
Oh, and as far as I can tell, there are no lingering side effects from the mystery drugs.
Now that I’m back on my feet though, I’ve really been able to appreciate where it is God has brought me. We’re living on a small campus, about an acre and a half, according to our team’s resident farmland expert. The space is filled with a building for the kids, where they live and eat, an office that doubles as a church, a few small huts that are residences for a couple other people who live here, and a few other buildings besides. They also have a “dorm” for us which is separate from that in which the kids live. I use quotes because it’s more like a nice little house. We have two bedrooms between the six of us, two bathrooms with working toilets and showers, even a bathtub, though we’ve yet to use it. Our kitchen has running water from the well, we have a hot plate for us to use in the cooking, a working fridge and freezer and though few of the cabinets and countertops have any horizontal ledges, they provide plenty of space for groceries. All in all, we’re spoiled. Again.
Oh, and we also have access to an unused hut whose shower has HOT water! What?! And we’re allowed to use the washing machine on campus. God is so good.
Fun Fact for making it this far through my blog: in Sesotho (se-SOO-TOO) when the letters T and L are next to each other, they make a noise, like . . . well, like a K sound, closely followed by a cat hissing. Go ahead, try it.
Now please don’t ever expect me to respond to that sound.
Now on to the state of my heart. If I had a heart-o-meter right now, the arrow would point to “uplifted and joyful.”
We’ve spend the past week (my week started around Sunday) coloring, drawing chalk, painting nails (yes, even the boys’), and just hanging out, getting to know these kids, drawing out their ready smiles, playing with and holding them.
Want to meet a few?
Yes, of course you do.
This is Boitumelo (Boh-eet-tu-may-low). She is full of energy, spunk, and sass. Maybe you’ll get a better idea about her if I tell you this; I referred to her as my spirit animal last night. 😀 What a cutie. And don’t pictures speak a thousand words? Here’s her looking like a stud. And Elsa. She’s also Elsa in this picture.
Okay, Melissa and I are in this picture and many kids who’s names I’m unsure of still, (but working on!) I do know that the girl to the right of me is Neo (NA-o) and next to her is Lisebo (Dis-A-bo) Yes, I know, L’s don’t sound like L’s most of the time here. Go figure. Anyway, Lisebo’s awesome too, she gave me my bracelet for Lesotho!
This picture was taken after Neo (NA-o) attempted to do my hair, but I think it was a little overwhelming for her, so after several minutes of, well, I’m not completely sure, I ended up with it down.
This is Neo (NA-o) again. She’s awesome and cracks me up. We had a dance party yesterday, it lasted hours and hours and completely wore us out. So worth it though. The smiles on their faces, the energy that they put into it. So cool. So beautiful. So abundant.
Anyway, Neo was my buddy for the first several hours, following all of my dance moves for some reason, though I never claimed they were much. She was very good at repeating everything I did, though I believe she secretly has her own stash of moves she has yet to share with the world.
This is one of the House Moms for the kids. We were so thrilled and tickled when she decided to dance with us while walking past. It started with a kind of a boogie – a dancing walk that we don’t have another name for at present. But then she let me dance with her and we busted out a few moves, making her babies look as green as they are.
This is my other dancing buddy, Pelissa. (Think Melissa, but with a P.) As long as there was music on, fast or slow, this girl wanted to dance. Sometimes it was as simple as standing with her back to me, twining her fingers with mine and wrapping my arms around herself. It was such a beautiful moment and gave me just a glimpse, a taste, of how much love these kids need and how much the Father loves us, how much love he wants to lavish on us.
From left to right: Fernando, TL, Melissa, Merlo (MEHR-low). (Merlo means fire!) These boys are brothers and their mom works on the Seeds of Love campus on the help line. We get to see them after they come home from school everyday (yeah, they’ve started already) and they’re always ready to see us with a running hug, a huge smile, and as of yesterday, ready dance moves. They also enjoy being picked up and spun around and their command of English as a second language is pretty darn good for five and three.
These are the rest of the girls who started out taking the above picture, but then wanted to be in on the action. Fernando and Merlo are still there, though you can’t see much of them. I don’t know everyone else’s names, but Mamello (Mah-MAY-low) is down in front in yellow and next to her on the right is Lisebo (Dis-A-bo) again.
As for me, I’m doing alright. I’m working through the idea of team changes as we’ve recently been informed that this is our last month in our current teams before we have a switch-up. There’s some grief involved, but mostly I’m just trying to soak up every moment I have with these precious, amazing women.
Right now, I’m just pumped that we generally have enough wifi to communicate with home and that my job for this month is to love on kids who are so desperately in need of it and who so wholly welcome it.
These opportunities give me just a taste of the Father’s love for us. These kids have nothing, barely even food in their bellies and yet they find joy in the everyday. They share easily and usually willingly. They don’t hold grudges and they love each other and outsiders with open hearts and arms.
Thanks for reading. Here’s another picture of Boitumelo (Boh-eet-tu-may-low) for extra smiles.
Love ya,
TL
