Little gifts along the way
After 8 months of being away from home and all the comforts
of ‘normal’ life little things, little situations, sometimes make a huge
impact. When I am exhausted, homesick,
and unexpectant it seems that God will just throw something like a gift my way
and smile as it plays out. Here are
three that specifically bring a smile across my face.
Scooby– Kenya
As most of you know I have two dogs at home that I love more
than most things. For the past 8 months
I have bored countless people with stories of the two cuties, showing them
pictures and the whole nine yards.
Of course no dog compares to either of them, but at the
milimani hostel that we frequent in Nairobi there is a wonderful dog named
Scooby. He pretty much runs the
place. He can be found barking at the
gate, sunbathing on the gravel, cleaning up the dining area, or sleeping in any
number of chairs or couches. His
favorite toys are the water bottles mzungus (white people) leave laying
around.
While most dogs in Africa are bitter towards people because
of years of neglect, Scooby will walk right past your outstretched petting hand
because he has had years of people fawning over him. It’s really rather endearing.
I love the little guy more than I can communicate and when I
find out that we are going through Nairobi my heart bubbles a little bit with
joy. Tomorrow I will be travelling
through Nairobi to stay at the milimani for the last time on this trip. It’s a little bittersweet but I can’t wait to
see ol’ Scoobs.
The Red Children–
Uganda
During my team’s time in Pader, Uganda, Beks came down with
malaria. She wasn’t responding well to
treatment so we decided that I would take her into the city for a bigger
hospital and better treatment. This
scenario landed me in the city of Lira for 5 days while Beks recovered and
rested. Brandy our squad leader was also
in Lira visiting a team that was living and doing ministry there for the
month. We found ourselves together often
at an American run restaurant that had milkshakes, smoothies, and wireless
internet. While that isn’t why I am
writing the story, I figured it was worth mentioning, since that is a gift in
itself.
Our first run in with the red children happened one
afternoon when we both found ourselves out of cell phone minutes. Brandy and I walked down the back roads
around the pastor’s compound searching for a store while a storm rolled
in. As the wind picked up and the rain
started falling we began seeing a string of school kids all in their red uniforms
walking in small groups towards us/their homes.
The first few sets of kids giggled and shook our hands. As we kept
walking the kids were more and more excited, giving us high fives and laughing
out loud. Brandy and I started jogging
(picture something like out of rocky or something) and high fiving them as we
went. We were laughing
hysterically. We literally ran down the
line of over 200 or so kids, laughing like children high fiving all of
them. After the whole school had gone
by, we just looked at each other and laughed.
It was amazing. So much happiness
filled that street that day.
So the next day Brandy and I left our little milkshake joint
and headed back on the 45 minute walk home.
We thought we were a little lost (brandy our navigator wasn’t too
confident) and I said, “Lord we need a sign.”
As we walked over the crest of the next hill, in front of us was a field
with all of the red children sitting in a large circle. We laughed and concluded that we were at least
close to home and continued on. As we
passed the field, the children happened to be released from school and started
running at us. It was like a dam
breaking and releasing all that energy.
It was nuts. In seconds we were
each surrounded by literally hundreds of children. At least four children on either side of us holding
each of our hands; asking us all sorts of questions, everyone smiling and
laughing with us. It was
incredible. It was loud. It was awesome. It was so consuming that we even missed the
turn for the compound where we lived, which made them laugh even more.
As we made our way back to check on Beks, she asked, “What
was that outside, what was all that noise?”
“That was us!” we said.
“That was for us!”
Baby– Tanzania
I have found over the past few months that I have a
particular affection for toddlers and they seem to be pretty fond of me as
well. I have no clue where this came from;
it’s just something I have observed this year.
The pastor that we are staying with during our time in
Iringa, Tanzania lives about 15 minutes walking from the main road,
uphill. It’s definitely not the worst
walk we’ve encountered this year, but it’s not fun nonetheless. We make the walk up and down I’d say at least
3 times a day.
One of our first days in Iringa we met baby. She was standing at the bottom of the hill
that we take up to our house. She was
sitting with her mom who works at a vegetable stand. She is no more than 3 years old and
apparently has an affinity for mzungus. At
first sight of us she literally started jumping up and down and waving her
hands. She made little squeals of
excitement until we were out of her sight.
This happened every single time we passed her.
I started looking forward to making that walk up or down the
hill just so I could see her smiling little face. One time I stopped to say hello and tell her
I loved her. In perfect English she told
me she loved me back (turns out she was just repeating what I said, but that’s just
details). It got to the point where if I
walked by and she wasn’t outside her mom would call her and she would come out
to greet me. My last day in Iringa I
stopped at the vegetable stand, in hopes to get a picture with her. As I said hello to her she surprised me with
the words, “Take my pikcha.” It was priceless.
I can honestly say
I’ve never met anyone with more excitement in my life.
_______________
These are the stories I want to remember. It’s not the big things that have moved my
heart. It’s been the little things. These are the faces that are burned into my
mind, the scenes. I am learning to become
more thankful for the little times, the unexpected. For these gifts are greater than I could have
imagined…they were designed for me. For
that I smile and thank God.
