Day 120: HAPPY NEW YEAR! We started the new year with fireworks at midnight (I watched with a little boy attached to my back). We spent the day at the home of a local pastor. His family treated us to a nice breakfast and lunch. We returned to Angie’s house for dinner.
Day 121: Worked in the field during the morning, and in the afternoon I worked on the donor database with Maggie. Did I mention it is hot here… we received a nice collection of sunburns today.
Day 122: Edited student sponsorship videos all day and we got a visit from one of the Beacon of Hope graduates. Went for a walk through the community (in search of diet coke) in the evening.
Day 123: Kat Law and I were supposed to go into the bush to do interviews with the rest of the Beacon of Hope students, but our trip fell through. In the afternoon a cement truck came to drop off a load of supplies for a building project and backed up on top of the septic tank (collapsing it in). It took several hours to get the truck free.
Day 124: The team leaders left today to head to debrief and I was put in charge of Team Sound of Strength. We did a lot of cleaning today, trying to start the process of moving out ourselves in two days. We also walked to the market for one last time to buy fabric and fruit.
Day 125: I spent the entire day in Angie’s room (and was up until after 2am) trying to finish updates on the new Beacon of Hope website. I packed periodically throughout the day. Some of my squadmates worked to finish a few projects in the Hope House.
Day 126: We said goodbye to Angie’s kids early in the morning. We were supposed to leave Mozambique at 7 am but didn’t finally get on the road until after 3pm. I puked 7 times during the trek (for more on this story read “I threw up in two places at once and it landed nowhere”). We finally arrived in South Africa shortly after 8pm.
Day 127: I had thrown-up two more times during the night and started having diarrhea so I went to the walk-in clinic in the morning. It was confirmed that I had a waterborne bacteria. I was put on five medications and spent most of the day in bed. I did make it to our evening session at the team house. On the way home we found a huge African snail.
Day 128: We had sessions in the morning and evening at the team house. In-between Dusty and I made a trip to the post office to mail a box home (our only option was a Jameson box we were given). Then my team went to the mall to pick up some things we needed (books, body spray, medicine, sunscreen). We went to a sushi restaurant for dinner.
Day 129: We had worship in the morning and then we had our Team Sound debrief right after lunch. In the evening we had a pizza party to celebrate what God has done during 4 months on the field and to say goodbye to Megan and Joshua (our original squad leaders who have passed off their duties and are now heading back to the states).
Day 130: We had a final gathering at the team house in the morning and then boarded two mini-busses headed for Swaziland. We made it quickly through the boarder and within 3 hours of leaving, we were dropping off two of the other teams at their ministry location. Team Sound was picked up in a smaller van and driven an additional 2 hours into the bush to our ministry site. Our contact Eric met us at our house for the month and helped us get settled in. Cows wander freely down the roads here.
Day 131: We had orientation with Eric in the morning and got to meet the rest of the staff members (all locals). Afterward, we went for a drive to visit a few of the care points (there are 11 feeding stations in the area that kids walk to once a day for food). We hung out with kids on our property most of the afternoon and in the evening we met Eric’s family (they are from Michigan)! We had goats hanging out on our driveway all afternoon.
Day 132: Hung out with kids in the morning, helped with the feeding and played net ball. In the afternoon we had a food delivery and unloaded close to 200 boxes of rice. In the evening we took part in the youth group for the local church.
Day 133: Today was our day off. We rested in the morning and I took out my weave. In the afternoon we stood on the roadside for an hour waiting for the public transport to come by. We eventually made it up the road to a safari park lodge where we had dinner as a team.
Day 134: Church in Swaziland starts shortly before 10am and gets over around 2pm. We helped with children’s Sunday school, performed a song with the children’s “choir” during the main service, and then led the student service (which included songs, multiple games, dancing and two different lesson times). It is hard to keep kids entertained for over 2 hours.
Day 135: We had to move out of our housing so we spent the morning packing and cleaning. In the afternoon we had to set up our new house, which will eventually be used for more full-time staff. We spent several hours building beds, unpacking dishes and appliances, and cleaning. Kat and I also found a place to hang our hammocks and I did laundry.
Day 136: We were suppose to visit all of the feeding care points, but it was pouring down rain (from a Cyclone off the coast), making travel on the African dirt roads impossible. We had a prayer and worship day instead – specifically lifting up requests from the AIM staff and praying for all the people who live in mud and stick huts.
Day 137: Today we went to two different care points to help with the feeding programs and play with the kids.
Day 138: In the morning we travelled up the mountain with a few of the ministry staff to visit a care point. Shannon, Maggie and I taught the kids the story of Noah’s ark and played several games with them. In the afternoon we went on a home visit to meet Zolah, a blind boy who is in the process of getting sponsored so he can attend school.
