Well I don’t feel like I’ve done any normal blogs recently that tell you all the normal stuff that we’ve done in Africa. Let’s be honest, I feel like anything normal you could be doing is in fact made abnormal when you do it overseas. Not because everyone else is weird, but because you never have ANY idea what to expect. When I lived in Costa Rica, I used to tell my boyfriend Albin and his best friend (shout out to Yoji) that whenever we went places with them, you’d have to pack an assortment of items such as a bathing suit, a jacket, money, a snack, a camera, a book, a deck of cards, etc. because you never knew exactly where you were going, what to expect, what you were going to do. Let me tell you, this is SO MUCH worse.
For example, exhibit A above is a sampling of what happened last week in Africa when we were supposed to go door to door in some town and it started raining. We ended up sitting all day in some random man’s house. After looking through awkward family photo albums for an hour, we fell asleep like this (please read my blog on waiting and trudging for an explanation on my theory of the world race). We stayed there for at least three hours like that.
Another example, exhibit B above is a sampling of when Andrew and I went to visit Amy’s team last Thursday. We met some of their church members and sat down in the front yard for an amazing amount of time. They asked us to sing a song, so we began singing Christmas carols. This must have filled my friend of about 1 hour named Esther (pictured above) with love because she promptly laid my head in her bosom.
One day my team went to a ministry that was super cool. This lady collects little bottles of toiletries from hotels around the world. She partners with stewardess’ on airplanes who collect them for her. Then they make little bags and pass them out to orphans. The team passed them out to the kids and then did a nice demonstration in the “sanctuary” on how to use the items.
On another day, I showed up to the school and was determined not to teach anything because I was in a bad mood and still pulling the malaria card. I ended up teaching a whole lesson on proper nouns. Good thing those kids are cute.
No picture for this one, but I was in a simple meeting with our contact the other day and there was a commotion outside. A girl who was bent over in pain came in and sat on the couch. My contact went right back to the meeting for like 15 minutes while I was ridden with guilt that we weren’t attending to this sick girl. We stood up and our pastor told me to pray for the girl. I asked why and the pastor wouldn’t tell me. Assuming she was sick, I started praying for healing in the name of Jesus. She then proceeded to manifest a demon and went into convulsions on the floor at the name of Jesus. We put her on the floor, spent a bit casting it out, and went back to our meeting. Fifteen minutes later the girl came to, sat on the couch and started explaining her life story to us. Praise the Lord. Just a simple meeting.
Friday morning after spending the night with Amy’s team, Andrew and I try to get a taxi bus back to our town. Turns out the vans don’t run until they fill up, so we sat for two hours waiting for 15 people to climb in for our 1 hour drive. I finally arrive to our town late for my next ministry. I grabbed my stuff, got in another taxi van with Chandler, Bethany, and Sandy to another town. The money taker decides to jam pack the van, so I am literally sitting on top of this African guy. I was so tired that I shamelessly fell asleep on him for almost the entire trip.
We arrived in the town, spent the day working with an NGO that teaches women how to support their families through making jewelry with rolled paper beads (Seriously cool). Got an unexpected amazing night of sleep in the directors American beds, and got to eat pizza!!!!!!! We woke up the next morning and worked with a ministry that has a feeding program for African children out in a poor area. Also legit. This girl went on a mission trip in Uganda at the age of 18. Decided she couldn’t go back to America. Moved out to the middle of nowhere Uganda and 4 years later has an incredible ministry feeding children and telling them about Jesus. We left, crossed over the Nile bridge on motorbikes, grabbed some apples, watched Chandler’s team bungee jump over the Nile. Jokingly acted like we were hitchhikers and actually bummed a ride off from this guy in a huge, tank-esque truck all the way back to our town, and were home in time for dinner.
Went to church on Sunday. Had a going away party. Went to church again, Jesus cast out some demons, filled some people with the Holy Spirit. Went home, packed up my stuff. Left for India in the morning.
There’s the summary of my week. Hopefully that proves that proves my theory about never knowing what is going to happen and always being prepared. Just for an added touch, imagine doing all of it with my continuous ailment of loose bowels that can be attributed to either a)bad food, b)bad water, c)Malaria, d) malaria meds, e) change of environment, f) stress, g) parasites, and a variety of other uncontrollable variables. Insert world race cheer.
