Wow! I can’t believe so much time has gone by since my last blog. My time in India feels like one big blur. Six days a week I would wake up and spend 6 hours at the orphanage. I know six hours doesn’t sound like much, but when you’re spending those hours surrounded by over 100 children, six hours feels more like twelve. As adorable and loving as the children are, they sure can exhaust you …. but a good exhaustion! After finishing our shift at the orphanage, we’d run errands, typically stopping by the grocery. Between team time, dinner, and our personal God time, the evening was then accounted for. My point is that as much as I thought about blogging (and I really did think about it), I just never felt like I had the time to sit down and process what was going on in my life and then put it into words to share with all of you.
So in short, India came and went. It was definitely not an enjoyable country, but our ministry there, the orphanage, made it all worthwhile. I don’t want to dwell on all the crappy things about India, but I will say that you won’t find me returning there, unless it is to bring home with me one special little girl that stole my heart. For those of you who keep up with me on Facebook, you have undoubtedly seen the countless photos of her. I haven’t adopted any child at this point, and I’m not saying that I am. Let’s just say it’s under consideration, but that’s a whole other story in itself that I will save for a later time.
We rang in the New Year in India, and then left bright and early that same morning to head for Africa. We spent nearly a week in Nairobi, Kenya for a debrief period with the entire squad. I only spent 3 weeks in Africa when I was here before, but it kind of felt like I was coming home as I got off the plane. Not so much that Africa feels like home, but it is a familiar culture to me, with such an inviting atmosphere. Five minutes into our bus ride to our hostel, we saw clusters of giraffes and gazelles. I had fresh tropical fruit salad every morning for breakfast. How can I not love Africa?! Now I know some of you, if not all of you, read my blog title and thought she’s coming home?!?! but that’s definitely not the case. 🙂
Debrief was good, and a slight change was made to my team. My leader stepped down, and in return, one of my teammates was asked to take her place in leadership. What could have been an awkward situation turned out to be one of the best things for our team. We left Nairobi in a much better place as a team and ready to start our first official month in Tanzania. The journey to our location, MoroGoro, was what we call very “African”. Our liaison in Nairobi expressed that the key to surviving our time in Africa is to place a rubber band on our wrists and stretch it from time to time to remind us to be flexible. Knowing this definitely prepared us for our crazy trek across Tanzania. What was supposed to be a 13 hour bus ride turned into 2-day adventure. We had two 5 hour delays, with one of them involving us “sleeping” with our belongings on a concrete store front long into the night. The bus was infested with cockroaches (and that is no exaggeration) and the ride, of course, went hours longer than expected. Oh, and there were no bathroom stops. Flexibility was definitely the name of the game! Despite the less than ideal circumstances, the scenic view all the way here was beautiful. I even saw Mount Kilimanjaro! I wish I could have captured some of the beauty I saw, but my camera was dead. We finally made it to MoroGoro, and first thing I did after stepping off the bus was buy a watermelon. Fruit stands are everywhere you look …. mangos, pineapples, watermelons, bananas. I am in heaven!
We've just started getting to know our contact and his family. Ministry is in full swing, and I will share more all about that next time …. and in a much more timely manner!
