I’m waking up.. Its 4:35am, I crawl out of my mosquito net, trying not to let any in and feeling around for my headlamp so that I can successfully make it to the bathroom without stepping on the three other people sleeping on the floor in our room; praying the whole time that the water is on so that I can flush the toilet and brush my teeth. After I go to the bathroom (not flushing because if it is yellow we let it mellow) and using the water from my nalgene to brush my teeth because, even with all of my prayers, the water has yet to come on. I walk out of the bathroom and my fellow teammates/ squad-mates are waking up.. We sit around for two hours because even though we were supposed to leave at 5am this is Africa, you see, and in Africa things happen when things happen. At 6am we make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and make our way out the front door. At the end of the driveway we meet the boys and get onto the shoppa (or small bus). I sit in a small filler seat that flips down into the middle of the isle and do my best to sleep sitting straight up.. didn’t succeed.. We drive about 20 minutes into the Capitol, Maputo, and we drive our little bus onto a fairy. I get off the bus and stare at the horizon, because that is what you are supposed to do when you get motion/sea sick.. When we reach the other side everyone gets back onto the bus.. Before long telephone lines were disappearing, along with any other trace of human existence and I began to hear one of my favorite sounds here in Africa, the boys were singing worship songs and having quite a good time doing so. After another 40 minute bus ride our bus came to a halt and we all made our way out. Where were we? The African bush.. We walked towards the school that we had parked in front of and we began to talk with the head master who gave us permission to talk with his students. The kids came flooding out of the school carrying their wooden desks and placing them in a nice spot in the shade. The principal introduced the students and his English teacher and we all introduced ourselves. The boys sang several worship songs and we did our best to sing along with them.. This always involves a lot of clapping, a little dancing, and lots of laughing and smiling. After the boys sang, we did some fun songs that we have learned along the way and got the kids involved. The English teacher was able to translate some of the songs; which was awesome!! After the fun songs some of my teammates performed the life house “everything” drama and then our boys did their own drama that they created (it was really cool to watch them be creative and they were quite funny as well.) After this, the teacher translated the meaning of the dramas. Then we made a big circle around the kids and prayed for them in African and in English.
After passing out some snacks we took off on foot for a good thirty minutes passing only trees, bushes, and walking on sand. Every now and then we would pass a few people and I’m not quite sure where they came from. After making lots of twists and turns we reached our destination. We were at David’s house (one of the boys attending the school here at Beacon of Hope). David is, in a very literal sense, from the bush of Africa. There were two really big trees that made a decent amount of shade, we sat under them and ate some fruit that the guys had chopped down from the tree, it tasted like a mix of bananas, apples, and oranges. We sat around asking questions to some of the locals and watched them catch a goat (which we ended up bringing home with us as a gift). I found out that David had to make this 30-minute walk (one way) to school everyday for several years. In order to get water, it is about a 30-minute walk in the opposite direction and they gather their water from a lake. Their bathroom, is the surrounding woods around their small huts. I was asking Angie, our ministry contact, how they make money or pay for the land that they live on. She answered that they can make money by producing coal to sell for fires but mostly they just trade with others the things that they have such as goats and chickens. They don’t pay taxes on their land, but they also don’t have any paperwork to prove that it is theirs. The locals know whose land is whose according to the surrounding landmarks.
Sitting around just taking in the atmosphere and listening to my teammates talk amongst themselves, I heard my teammate Kyle say, “This is life in it’s simplest form.” I was thinking about how they have no electricity, no television, no refrigerator, no washing or drying machines, no grocery stores, and not even a bathroom, and yet they are having a great time! They were very much enjoying the company of each other and just relaxing. Fun is climbing a tree to get some fruit or chasing the goat to catch and bring it over to us.
Today was a good reminder for me that life is simple. I don’t need fancy things to make it more interesting. I don’t have to have entertainment when I am surrounded by people that I love. I don’t have to have air conditioning when I have big trees to sit under. I don’t have to have potato chips and soda, I can eat fruit straight from the tree and drink water from a lake. I don’t need a car to take me down the road, even though it may be faster, I can walk and use my legs. Please don’t hear me wrong…I’m not saying that any of these things are bad or that I don’t prefer them; however, sometimes I think we get caught up in wanting more and more so that we can be happy.
Today I saw that we don’t need those things to be happy, to have peace, or to have joy. Today I was reminded that the only thing I need to have happiness, peace, and joy is my walk with the LORD, and to continue pressing into His Spirit and His will. Nothing else will make me happy.
Pictures coming soon 🙂
