These past couple of days have been full of ups and downs. Especially yesterday was a hard one. What has been going on for the past couple of days is service sites and our global engagement class. Something that has been fueling my frustrations these last couple of days is lack of structure and planning. The service site I am currently with had been when I previewed it came off very structured and well planned. It is turning out to be not so true. While it is somewhat planned it is very much go with the flow. Now I some what knew this coming into the service site but I never intended for it to be this way. Last week we were strictly in the preschool which for me was frustrating because I signed up to be apart of going out into the community. The main reason I picked RivLife was the fact that I would be apart of support groups and such. As much as I was frustrated last week I kept my spirits up and continued to tell myself that it would change for the next week.
Yesterday just started out a disaster. First off I missed the memo that we were to be leaving at 7:30 for our site than our usually 8 am call time. So I woke up at 7:20 and began to get ready when one of the girls on my team ran in and told me that they were leaving right now. I literally was in the middle of putting mascara on and was in disbelief and could only respond with are you kidding???? So I quickly ran out with my hair not done, one eye with mascara, no watch and soon came to realize that I had forgot the essential thing when working at a service site...DEODORANT! Now for me being caught off guard is not one of the thing I enjoy to much and the mornings is whole other situation. So originally we were to go out and do home visits that morning and I came to find that we needed to split into two groups. One would be at the preschool and the other home visits and we would switch on Friday. Well I ended up being in the group that was at the preschool. So again I had to hold my head up high and not get frustrated. Keep in mind at this point I was just not feeling the whole day. The thing that got me through that day was that it was a cool and that we did not have the blazing hot sun. I got separated from my group of two other girls and got put with the smaller kids of the preschool. All by myself I was to watch and instruct 12 two year olds. Whew...it was so scary. The lady that was suppose to help me ended up not so I was in charge of all these screaming out of control kids. My patience was for sure tested. Through it though I was able to just pray to God to get me through the day. Finally I had gotten to lunch and was able to unwind. We then went to the drop in center where the ladies who cook for us ended up being very blunt to me in a joke. For them it is culturally ok to say certain things when talking to people but what had been said just had hurt my feelings. I hate crying in public so I had to hold it in, the only thing was sucked was that I could go no where to be by myself. I ended up going out and playing some games with the older children to make the time pass. When I got back from that day I just collapsed and let it all out. I reminded myself that it is always a needed thing to have a good cry once in awhile. haha I was really happy to have people surrounding me through that rough day and being great encouragers. I thank God for that.
After that I went for a good 3 mile run. It always amazes me that when your angry and frustrated you can run so fast! We had improved our time by 10 minutes. To get my mind off the day I went and saw The King's Speech. Which I thought was brilliant and inspirational. The movie was beautiful and I enjoyed it. I now know why it won best picture.
So today I woke up a little weary about how the day would go. I promised to myself and God that I would give RivLife one more day. One more day to see if it could improve otherwise I would consider switching to another service site. I had been in a sad mood in the morning but was snapped out of it because our teacher for community engagement decided to join us all day. I told myself I can't be sad or he will know! I was some what encouraged when they told us that we would be going out to support groups all day. FINALLY the time had come. Needless to say today ended up being a great day and I will continue to stay there. What we did today was go out into the community to a lady's home where a group of gogos (Grandmas) meet once a week. They started the support group because many of them were sitting at home having nothing to do and lonely. So they come together and make crafts that they sell for income and also run a soup kitchen for the children who don't have food to eat during the days. At first it was sort of awkward we were all sitting outside this person house and not saying much. We introduced ourselves and asked questions but still it was pretty quiet. They have a garden out back and so we got to go back and take this intense gardening tool and cut down all the corn husks. It was so much fun. You got to get all your aggression out. After that me and another girl on my team were given the opportunity to make about 100 sandwiches for the soup kitchen. I love doing the simple things. For me doing things for people helps me feel like I am making a difference. After that I got to have my first traditional Zulu meal. I believe it is called Samp (?) and beans. Pretty much is mushed up corn and beans put together. It was actually really good. We also passed a jug of this cornmeal drink around and I was brave enough to try it. My germ freak side came out only imagining how many were being spread around. So I braved it and drank it. While that was going on a fairly new AIDS support group was meeting. We were not allowed to join in today because our teacher needed to assure them about a few things. Some of them were nervous about us joining in and hearing their stories. But my teacher Francis assured them that we would respect the things they needed to say. So next week we will be apart of it. I loved the gogos because they just love being around us. I cannot wait for next week for them to show us how to make all of the cool crafts.
After that we went back to the drop in center where new cooking ladies came in today. I was able to have conversations with a lot of the workers and ask lots of questions. I even learned how to make Zulu bread. Which I cannot wait to try out when I come home. The day was full of hope and encouragement. I am excited for the weeks to come and to be more connected with the people of RivLife. Tomorrow we will be going to another AIDS support group. I have no clue what to expect but I am ready for anything. I continue to pray that God opens my eyes up to what I need to see and focus on. I pray that the days to come are filled with laughter and positivity. I know that he has me there for a reason and I need to be willing to follow what he has laid our for me.
Good Night from South Africa
P.S. were halfway through the semester! Cannot even believe it!
No comments:
Post a Comment