Monkeys are a little tricky

There is a gardener who works on our property during the day...he told us a little story. Once upon a time there was a house with a bunch of ignorant foreigners living there. They liked to leave the doors open to get fresh air in the un-air conditioned house. One day when the Canadians were at home and the Americans had already left a sneaky little monkey decided to come inside. He found the kitchen counter was covered with fruit. He took a bite out of an Apple, blech he thought, so he tossed it down and went for an apricot instead, yeesh, he didn't like that either. He tossed the apricot down and decided to go through the cupboards and was delighted to find a mango the size of a human head. it was nice and ripe, he could tell....whoops, is someone in the house he thought? He heard a noise and some yelling from outside the house as well. He scooped up his prized mango under his arm and headed for the door. He made it outside with just enough time to climb up the tree and look down and scoff at the gardener who was scolding him. He was so happy he found his very large mango. The End

I will give you one guess as to whether that was a true story or not...but I think you should have it all figured out. Haha...what a funny thing huh?! I have been bummed that I haven't seen any monkeys but I was very lucky to see a family of them running down the road yesterday evening. I was taking a little test spin in the backwards manual vehicle and saw these little creatures running down the road ahead of me...they were like a menacing gang of really small hairy things...I will need to get a close up look to feel satisfied.

Things have been getting better and better! I have been realizing that I am in the exact place that I have always wanted to be. This is huge! Whenever the day is challenging, the extreme heat, the lack of comprehension of anything going on around me, the thirst, the bugs, I think, oh yeah, but I am experiencing all of these things because I am doing something with my life. I am pursuing my passions as well as trusting God for the first time in my life by stepping out into the unknown. It is an adventure. I wake every morning to the sun rising over mountains filled with little brick houses all along the side. I imagine those living in the community, my family I lived with. I see the smoke rising from an outside stove or from burning grass. The wind blows softly, the dirt is stirred up from a buggy driving down on the left side and then I breathe a breath of some of the freshest air I have breathed before. Oh yes, I am in paradise.

My mind has gotten muddled with the training. We have workshops and people coming in to speak with us about culture and language barriers, the programs and the models. It can be a distraction from what I am here for and then I get caught up in the perfect missions model. I avoided reading missions books before I came for a reason, I didn't want to get filled with all the "shoulds", I wanted to DO. But I am seeing the value, the barriers to ignorance, and that is a good thing. We have days of workshops and then days to go out with those working with Masoyi Home Based Care. This past week Monday through Wednesday was spent at the school. Thursday I went out with a Child worker (a social worker) and walked the dusty streets with her in the community. What an experience! We walked everywhere in the intense heat and humidity. She brought an umbrella, you see them everywhere here. I need a hat! A nice straw hat because holding the umbrella takes a hand away from protecting myself if I fall on the steep dirt paved slopes of the community. Can you picture it? I am on a mountain, or a hill rather. The community isn't in a valley and where I live is not flat. The roads are steep and if you have been to Jerome you have seen an exaggerated Masoyi community. We went to a home where the grandmother was taking care of an 11 year old child. The mother had died in 2003, she was born in '79. Do the math and it is devastating. Ben was born in '79...I can't even imagine. The father was unknown. These families aren't getting support, no aid other than from our agency. The age for a woman to receive a pension is 60, but when she turns 60 she is put on a waiting list. This grandmother was 62 and still waiting for support. The other house we went to was a little boy living with his Auntie. She wore a skirt with another skirt wrapped around trying to hide her legs. There were sores everywhere, like her legs had been infested. She was sick, possibly with AIDS although it is not spoken of. She was uncomfortable with me there, and I as well. I felt like an outsider spying on her life, exploiting her struggles as I sat there not knowing anything to say. I just sat and watched. I felt completely useless. Their bathroom was made out of a large metal container. It was an over sized cylinder with ridges like a potato chip with a little breathing hole at the top. They cut a strange door out of one of the sides and that is the design of their toilet. It is shocking, and yet I have heard that these people living comfortably compared to those outside of south Africa. The other African countries, that is where you see real poverty. I can't imagine.

Today we volunteered with the youth program. We drove in a bus to pick up the kids with some loud beautiful Saswati gospel music streaming out of the speakers. The first girls got in and danced in the aisle singing at the top of their lungs. No, they weren't perfect singers, but it was beautiful. You don't have to have a superstar voice to sing in Africa, you just need a little passion...it's wonderful. The windows were down, wind in my face and hair and we are driving up and down through the Masoyi community, picking up the kids as we go and the bus grows to be a huge party bus. Children from 8 - 22 filling the seats and Aisles, Gogos as well...we were all there. I watched as the other children, those left behind, looked on with curiosity. I wondered who was reaching out to them, who was supporting them and leading them. Who was teaching them how to be successful at life? The front of the bus was loaded with loaves of bread and two sewing machines. We were going to work. Life skills, teach them how to support themselves and you will teach them how to survive. The girls learned beading, sewing and hair dressing. Two girls, Fortune and Goo Goo had sweet new styles by the time we left. I bought a necklace and made two bracelets, humbled by the youngest girls totally surpassing my abilities in beading. The boys spent the ENTIRE day outside strategizing their soccer game later that day. The boys are SERIOUS about their soccer! The music vibrated out of the kitchen and into the room where we worked on our tasks. The kids were dancing, there was joy all around and the only sad faces came from...well, I don't think there were any sad faces. It was a completely exhausting day. The heat was unbearable, I smell all the time...seriously! Taking a shower means that I must go to bed on time and wake up before my roomie. If I wake up after it means I must sacrifice something, either eating or my devotions. I haven't found a way to fit it all in yet, so this only increases my stench. :) Gotta love it! This is Africa by the way, it's okay! (TIA) everyone says that here...you will hear it in Blood Diamond as well.

Ahhh....what else can I tell you? Well, I had my first adventure driving. They driving on the opposite side here, I hadn't even thought of that when I came but they all use Manuals as well. Thanks pops for the Jeep when I had it! Invaluable! But the shifting happens on the left, and the blinker is on the right, and the windshield wipers are on the left...and have I mentioned that this place is in the steep mountains? Hill starts terrify me, just getting off the freeway terrified me...that was NOTHING compared to what I have to do here. You need to be in 4x4 all the time. So I decided that I would drive for the first time ever today to the grocery store and then here. Three strangers wanted to come along and none of them know how to drive or have a license. This meant that I was in control. Me, the one who knows absolutely nothing about the town or where to go or how to do those tricky hill starts. I stalled out once. Only once is pretty good. They directed me to go the opposite way through a one way and I receive a scowl and a muttered "stupid" I am observant so I saw it. I had to laugh it off as an adventure but goodness it is very nerve-racking! We made it, all in one piece but I did have to tell the whole care how un-helpful it was to receive instructions from all of them at the same time...all saying different things of course, that is how I ended up going the wrong way in the first place. It caused a little tension actually, but so it goes.

I have written a book, I apologize but I read every one's emails and decided just to blog rather than respond to everyone this time. A few things: 1)HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHRISTINE! 2) My address is on my profile page here on the blog, SEND ME MAIL! :) 3) ummm...that might have been it actually. Oh, but please pray for the team of us as volunteers. there have been some tense times, they all have issues, not me :) But we need to be in unity and God just keeps telling me to LOVE...so pray that love would abound in our house as we learn how to deal with conflict. Pray for the community. There are so many spiritual powers at work that are not from God and they are in bondage. Pray that the message of Christ will be salve and peace to wounded spirits and fearful lives. Pray that I would not forget my purpose for being here, that I would not be afraid to embrace, that I would stop comparing and trust that the Love of God is on me already. Pray that my heart would be broken daily, that I would not shut off the overflow of emotions out of embarrassment, that I would be raw and moldable before God. Thank you all for your continual support! I am growing to love Africa, the people, the food, the experiences...but I am reminded daily that this is not an experience, this is a life. I in no way want to glorify this as an experience, commercialize it, or minimize the lives of the people here. They will not leave this place thinking it an experience, it is a life, it is reality and we all need to be aware that for many there is no escape, no hitting rock bottom, no one year only commitment. I want to remain sensitive to this.

Love you all!