Dear Diary, June 26, 2012
Ok sorry I haven’t written in a long time…lets see, where did I leave off…? Oh Malaysia…I LOVED IT! We did random volunteering jobs, like raising money for a hospital and working at a home for the blind. The work was tedious, but I definitely fell madly in love with my team this month! We had SO much fun together. It was hard to close the chapter of Asia and think about moving on to Africa; mostly because I really love Asia….and the really good Indian restaurant across the street from where we lived (we lived in Little India on the island of Penang in Malaysia). My favorite part of Malaysia (besides the food), was every Wednesday night we would walk around the city and talk to prostitutes and the homeless people. We would take the same route every Wednesday night and building those relationships was so fun. One night we brought a mom and her 3 adorable, smelly, hungry kids (who were playing with coke cans for toys) back to the ‘church’ we were working with and fed them. The kids were so cute, one little girl was hugging her sandwich! It was precious! I love the race. Ok, going to bed…travel day coming up.
Hello Diary, how are you? Can you believe it’s already July?? July 1, 2012
Ok off to Africa…I am kinda scared of Africa, I don’t know what to expect. I heard we are stopping in Guitar? No…that’s not right, OH…Qatar…where the heck is that? Let me google map that real quick…brb.
Sorry Diary, I forgot to come back, I probably saw something shiny. July 2, 2012
Well, Qatar is in the middle east, ya know….where woman only have their eyes showing and are confused with ninjas? I was prancing around the airport in shorts and a tank-top! Rookie mistake…I felt pretty trashy, oh well…moving on. We spent the night in the airport, saw the sun rise…that was beautiful. And made our merry little selves to Uganda. I think I am going to love Africa. We got to our little hostel place and there is a church next door that doesn’t stop singing songs to Jesus! I went to the church to see what was going on and one young girl came up to me and hugged me, told me she loved me and invited me into her house for cake and mango juice. She was then mad at me because I couldn’t take her to America…either way it’s a very friendly place. Well, the whole squad is together. We have skit wars and worship tonight…I LOVE MY SQUAD!
Happy 4th of July Diary!
This was a funny 4th. We are all on a bus ride from Uganda to Rwanda…nothing too exciting about our travel day, except the boarder crossing…
We pull up to a somewhat demolished building (after HOURS on the road and a wrong turn) and we get off the bus, it was pretty much dark out. Some locals are there with flash lights, they check our passports and let us go. Next stop, (now completely dark) walk ‘over there’ and see more people with flash lights who will look at your passport and then search your bag….like, every single pocket of you bag…I’m talking take all of your clothes out of your stuff sac, take your tent out of its case…at one point a guard was reading a fellow squad mate’s journal! It was the perfect way to celebrate our freedom and independence as Americans!
Hey Diary hey! July 6, 2012
Just as I suspected, I love Africa. This month we are staying with a family and their four adorable little boys. Their house is on a mountainside and the sunrise and sunset over the village is so pretty. I love the sun in Africa, at dusk the sun is strangely orange…and you can look right at it, and it doesn’t burn your eyes, and it’s huge. The moon is huge here too, its pretty much my favorite! This is the first month I am not sweating around the clock…so that’s nice too. The weather is so perfect.
The view from the front door!
Tonight our host family taught us a Rwandan worship song… we were all in the living room drinking hot tea, singing this beautiful song and using house hold items as instruments, they even got the little boys out of bed to join us. It was such a special time of worship with these awesome people. Our host family also gave us African names. My name is Weetonzee, it means humility. It is such an honor to receive that name…so cool.
Here comes the bride… July 8, 2012
So I’ve attended two wedding in the last two days. Here are a few things I’ve learned about weddings in Rwanda.
- The bride and groom do not smile…at all. I don’t know if I’d smile either if I knew my family was selling for COWS! All jokes aside, it’s true!
- Weddings here last up to 20 hours…ok, maybe just 12 hours.
- There is tribal dancing, which is epic…I thought that only happened on Discovery Channel.
- There is no alcohol, only Fanta: grape, orange, and lime, and Coke. All beverages are served warm and with a straw and that is all the food you get though out this grand celebration. *just try drinking a hot coke through a straw, it kind of hurts.
- Finding a bathroom might mean hiding in a corn field and squatting, but you’ll probably get caught because that’s pretty much where people live, and since you’re white, you’re pretty much a big deal and people will follow you everywhere, so then you’ll wonder around for a bit until you find some kind of ‘house contraption’ thing. You’ll just pee on the floor in there…all the while dying laughing because you’re dressed in full on African wedding attire (which is long and flowey) and may the dress have fallen in the puddle of pee that was created by you and your teammate on the ‘concrete’/mud floor…just maybe that happened…just maybe.
All dressed for the big day.
Well, that’s about that. I am so happy to be here. Tomorrow is our free day, I don’t know what we are going to be doing but I’m sure it will be another beautiful day in Africa.
