where i last left off, we were on a compound in ethiopia loving on kiddos & working construction. a lot has happened in these last few weeks. after 48 hours of travel we made it to hyderabad, india. there we did some cultural orientation and were sent out to get to know our hosts before our parents arrived! we bussed back into hyderabad to meet the parents & got to do life with them for four days. now, we’re back with our hosts until january 3, when we leave for nepal. i think the four days with my mom are where i’m going to focus here!
julie in india. that’s a sentence i never thought i’d say, but i’m so happy i can say it now!!
after 6.5 months, i got to give her a hug & show her the life i’ve been living. she got to meet my new friends & hear all the crazy stories. she got to meet other parents & my leaders/host. but most importantly she got to participate in our ministry with us!!
day one my team and our parents put on a vacation bible school for some of the kids in our community. we chose the armor of God & had a blast building the armor with each kid. each parent/racer combo took a piece of the armor and spoke more on it while coming up with some way to build it with our limited resources. we used paper, tape, crayons, string, yoga mats & a few other random craft supplies to make it all work. after all the armor was built we played games & sang songs.
day two we had a christmas party with cookie decorating, a santa (thanks mr. trogdon), ornament making, silent night candle ceremony, cake cutting & eating, & intense games of volleyball. below are some pictures.
while the two days were filled with so much joy & fun, i think my favorite part was seeing my mom step outside her comfort zone. she took so many selfies with the little girls & hugged all the boys that ran up to her. she used the squatty potty without complaining & ate insanely spicy rice with her hands. she sat on a tuktuk weaving through traffic & didn’t freak out (too much). she was able to relate to so many things my sister & i have tried explaining over the years & she recognized how growing this experience could/would be!
i was and still am so thankful for her spirit to say yes when i invited her out to india! we got to chat about the last 6.5 months, but also about the future. who knows where the Lord will take either of us, but i know i’ve always got a mom who will drop everything to come see what i’m up to! love ya lots mom!! see you in 4.5 months!!
madeleine
p.s. i’ve posted three videos on youtube. the first shows our time in north africa, the second shows our time in ethiopia & the third celebrates our halfway mark. in north africa, we experienced a lot of culture shock. i wanted you to be able to see & hear what we saw & heard. so, the video is “sounds of n. africa”. for ethiopia, the video shows one of the coolest projects i’ve gotten to work on. see my last blog for the full story. finally, the third video shows some of the coolest adventures we’ve been able to go on these last 5.5 months! be sure to check them all out!
n. africa: https://youtu.be/cav1DCH6ZeU
ethiopia: https://youtu.be/n3m6OnRDay0
halfway: https://youtu.be/3K_s4YQZuvI
