On the way home

 

So right now I am in the Dulles airport in Washington D.C,. and I am sitting here remembering the day and wondering how time flew by so fast. The first five months went by so slow but when January hit, everything seemed to speed up. I cannot believe that my nine months are up and that I am on my way home. Come with me as I reminisce on my trip home.

So my trip started Saturday afternoon at 4:00p at the Kilimanjaro International Airport. The flight from Kilimanjaro airport to Addis Abbaba was comfortable and uneventful. Now the flight from Addis to Washington was something totally different. It all started after we had dinner, I watched a movie because I couldn’t fall asleep and thought that maybe it would lull me to sleep. I was wrong, I stayed awake through most of that flight and what was worse is that my head and stomach were hurting. Towards the end of the flight I ended up making myself sick in the bathroom and thank God it was at the end. I remember that on the flight from Washington to Addis had been relatively calm and non-eventful but this time it was the toughest flight I have ever been on. There was a point when I couldn't even look at the movie screen I was so nauseous. What I did enjoy about this flight was the night view I got of Rome. At that moment, I was listening to Bon Jovi’s Greatest Hits album and it was the perfect soundtrack to the scene before me. I do not know what it was but listening to “Its my life” while watching Paris at night, just felt right. I never would have guessed I would turn out to be a Bon Jovi fan. Rome and the song “Its my life” by Bon Jovi will forever go together in my mind. I see going to Rome, as statement of my desire to live in the now and enjoy life and I am sure some romantics are horrified by this statement. I enjoy traveling and I love going to new places. I am only young once and I want to enjoy the world right now that I am young. The song “Its My Life” clearly expresses my feelings,"Its my life, its now or never, I ain’t going to live forever, I just want to live while I am alive”. So, I know that was not the last time I saw Rome. My parents encouraged me to go to Tanzania because they thought it would kill the travel bug in me but it did nothing more than feed it. Education is so important but who says you cant do both? Who says you cant educate yourself and at the same time explore the world. I want to do volunteer work for the rest of my life but I also want to explore and meet new cultures and their people. I do not want to be stuck in Northwest Arkansas for the rest of my life with 10 kids, right now. That can come later.  Anyways, Finally, we got to Washington at 8:00 am this morning, Sunday.

Now today Sunday, has been the longest day of my life. I arrived Washington at 8:00 am EDT and after I got checked in, Jordan and I took some time to explore the airport a bit. Afterwards, we had some Subway and Starbucks and it was the most delicious meal I have had in a long time. I think all the excitement about being in America made it taste so good.The fun could not go on for ever and before I knew, it was time for me to go to my gate and wait to board. It was 10 minutes until time to board, when they announced that our flight would be delayed until 2p and I was frustrated but relieved that it had not been cancelled. That feeling was short lived, after 30 minutes, they announced that the flight had been cancelled. Well, you can imagine the chaos, a whole plane full of people trying to get to Chicago. They put me on a waiting list and I waited until two planes had left and by then it was 2p. I went to talk to the customer service reps again and they informed me that I would be able to leave on a direct flight to Tulsa. I was so relieved because at first the rep had told me that they wouldn't have anything until Monday night. You can imagine my feelings, I was in  a city I didn’t know and they kept giving me bad news, I was to say the least, freaking out. So when the rep told me she would get me on a direct flight to Tulsa, I was so happy I almost cried. God truly took care of me today. I am tired because I have been traveling since yesterday but I am glad that God has brought me safely thus far. Right now the weather is starting to change from sunny to rainy and I just hope that this doesn’t mean anymore delay for me. I am ready to go home but now I am peaceful because I know God has everything under control and nothing happens without him knowing. Everything happens for a reason and today I learned a valuable lesson in patience. Waiting on the Lord is not easy but in the end it is rewarding.

The Last Volunteer Day

 

Yesterday was my last day working as a volunteer and I have to say it was a great day. I am not leaving until next Saturday but my last official working day was yesterday. Unfortunately, all of the kids were sick. They were all coughing and just not feeling their best, so the directors decided that the kids would stay home and rest. Which was a great idea, one of the boys didn’t wake up until almost nine and it did him a lot of good to get that extra rest.

After breakfast, their morning started.They had a easy and relaxed morning. We played with a flannel board and Bible story cut-outs. I even had a mini Bible study with the oldest. It was a nice just hanging out with the kids doing crafts. It was a great start for a awesome day.At first, I had a hard time enjoying myself because the kids were so tired and sick but when they started having fun and so did I.

After an easy non-straining morning we had lunch and then all the kids went to the clinic. After they came back they took a short nap and then it was time for Jordan and my activities.

Jordan and I planned a afternoon of Sabbath fun. It is not easy to find Sabbath appropriate activities to do with the children other than a walk. When I was kid, I used to love going on walks with my sister and brother. We loved exploring and just seeing what we could find. I still like going on nature walks when I am back home. I guess when you are in charge and you have to go for a walk every Sabbath, it kind of loses its appeal. To say the less Sabbath afternoon walks are something I dread and one way or another, it was always Jordan and I who got stuck on walk duty. Well, I decided we were going to do something special on our last Sabbath afternoon. Jordan came up with the idea of a thankfulness hand. We drew their hands and then they wrote things they are thankful for in the fingers. My idea was to act out Noah’s Ark. I have wanted to do face painting with them and today I was finally able to. We ended up just doing face painting and no acting, but it was still a lot of fun. They enjoyed themselves with the hands craft and the paint.

The Sun’s!

Yes, She was a Christmas tree

So the my last day working was one of the best I have had here, beside the fact that most of them were sick. It was nice because for about an hour, during the activities they forgot that they were not feeling good and just had fun. The good thing is that I still have one week left with them and I am going to enjoy it to the fullest. I plan on making the most of the time I have left.

Critters

 

The list of critters the children have brought me is never ending. From chameleons, to worms that look like half of a termite, to baby birds, to awesome looking praying manthis. The list is varied but none surprised me more than what they brought me Friday.

 

Jacki and the snake

Jacki the youngest girl brought me on a stick a dead garden snake. Working with children is not for the faint-hearted and one should be prepared for the constant surprises but that day my heart gave a little skip. At first, I thought it was alive but my kids assured me that it was dead. After close inspection, I saw that the head had been smashed by some sort of object, most likely a rock. Rocks are everywhere and they would be my choice of weapon if I ever encountered  a snake. Though, I don’t know why anyone would kill a harmless garden snake. Nevertheless, here was this snake and the kids were obviously enthralled by it. They even wanted to bring it inside, to which I strongly objected. At play time they wanted to continue playing with it, but after awhile Jordan, the other volunteer, told them to leave it alone.This encounter with this snake made me remember the other times when the kids had brought me critters.

 

 

 

Erick and his pet bird

Two weeks ago Erick, the eldest boy brought me a baby bird. According to Erick, he had caught the bird and was now going to keep it as a pet, for a little bit at least. He attached a piece of string to its foot to keep it from flying away. It was the cutest thing and I just could not believe he had actually caught it. Erick took it to the playground and everyone got to play with it. After a while, they let it go and I was relieved because they wanted to feed it rice and later I found out that supposedly kills them. So it would have suffered a terrible fate had we kept it.

 

 

Isaya and the stange worm

A couple of months ago, a tree behind our house fell down and the reason this tree had died was because these worms had basically eaten it away. There were a gazillion of holes in the tree and a bunch of white worms that looked like termites. I am not a scientist so I have no idea what these little critters are. When the kids heard that the tree had fallen down and that there were worms in it, of course they ran to investigate and they brought me back one so I could see it. Isaya is a 7 year-old boy, and of course he loves crawling critters. He was brave enough to carry it to me so I could see it. The one that he brought was near death I think, because there was this liquid coming out of its bottom. Later, it was eaten by the village dog, George Bush who we call Bushie. It was a sad fate but at least I got some pictures before it was eaten.

 

The Praying Manthis and I

We had just gotten back from a walk when I spotted something on the village statue. To my surprise it was a praying manthis. Now, I do not know what you think of manthis’ but I find them pretty fierce looking. These are the only bugs that I am scared of. Of course, this is silly because they cant sting you or bite you, but I once saw a video about  what they could do to other bugs and it terrified me, I have been deadly scared of them since. I know its silly but I still felt my hart stop when I saw this little critter. The only manthis’ I had seen were brown but this one was multi-colored. It was beautifull. All I can say is that the african manthis is so much cooler than the  American one and this comes from a girl that is scared of them. But don’t take my word take a look and compare.

So it seems the kids and I have something in common, we love critters. It was so much fun experiencing these animals with them. Learning about God’s creation with them was an experience that I thoroughly enjoyed. I thank God for nature and all the wonders he has made.I will always have this memories and I cant wait until we get to heaven to experience them again with the kids. All the wonders we will see together. I really cant wait, and maybe you will find me playing in the dirt with a praying manthis.