My mind is racing today as I sit down to
write because of all of the things I am thankful for. Mel and I are continually thanking God so
much as we reflect on all of the amazing opportunities we have had here. Looking back on everything, we can see how he
was piecing the puzzle together for us before we even left America.
God has placed so many amazing people in
our lives, both the relationships we have with people in America and the
relationships that we have formed with people here. Countless times people have reached out to us
via social media, email, text messages, phone calls, etc. sharing with us their
thoughts and prayers and supporting us in this journey. We are thankful for your continued supper and
encouragement!
We also are so thankful for each and every person we have met during our
time here. We have already said “Til we
meet again” to the Hartmann’s and last night, our dear friend Molly. On Tuesday we will be saying “See you later!”
to Mrs. Birner…and shortly after that we will be giving many hugs and praying
God’s blessings to the amazing women and children we have been so blessed to
work with. Here are a few of our “last
minutes” we are squeezing in before we leave!
1. On our last day of
class we are hosting a food party! Pizza
and cookies are not very common and most of the women and children have not had
either. Mel and I are excited to share
with them a little taste of some of our favorites from back home. (As we have stated earlier in our blog
chocolate chips are not sold here so we will be making “broken candy bar
cookies” rather than “chocolate chip cookies”!)
2.
Next Wednesday we
are taking our final excursion and heading to South Luangwa. We are told that the game viewing there is
amazing and we can’t wait to see so many more beautiful animals. This time if there is a hippo outside our
tent during the middle of the night we will be sure to take some
pictures/videos! *fingers crossed*
3.
Chisamo and Vicki
want to go on one last outing together.
We think we are going to be able to experience an African movie
theater! We are excited to see how
similar the inside is compared to ones we have been to in America. We are even more excited to compare movie theater
popcorn… :D
4.
On the Friday before
we leave we are planning a giant game of kickball to enjoy each other’s
company. Any and all are invited so we
are hoping for a great turnout with some amazing people!
The thankfulness continues…
We
also have now realized how much God has allowed our minds (and bodies) to adapt
to living here. We both would agree we
were extremely uncomfortable when we first got here -- there are literally
people everywhere and 99.9% of the people we see on a daily basis are not
Caucasian. They also do not hesitate to
stare, smile, and greet us. We have adapted
to being ok with everyone staring although we will not miss that when we go
back home. The children and wives have
become much more comfortable with us as well and that’s what is going to make
goodbyes all the more harder. As Mel
wrote about earlier, a lot of the toddlers would run in extreme fear of us when
we first got here. The sounds that came
out of some of those children were excruciating and we just wanted them to let
us love them and hold them! Well we have
made leaps and bounds with most of them.
Mel talked about Chisomo in the last post - he was definitely the worst “scared
for my life” screamer of them all but now he is all smiles when he sees us
(well most of the time). Here are a few
more adorable cuties…
Benj: Benj always comes to tutoring with
his older sister Faith. This little boy
is a pistol and he is not afraid to tell people what he wants - even if it
means giving them a big old slap on the back.
Mel and I have had many opportunity to “teach him to treat one another
with love” even if he has no idea what we are saying we still try. He has become one of our best little
buddies. He often walks up to us and
lays his little head on our thigh as we are standing. Even when he is distraught for some reason or
another he comes by us and wipes his teary-eyed, snotty-nosed face on our
shoulders. Those big brown eyes though!
Beatrice: Beatrice is in the preschool
here but she likes to come and hang out every now and then at the school
children’s tutoring. Mel and I have to
chuckle when we see her waddling over before tutoring, looking like she just
rolled out of bed. She comes and slowly
gives us the biggest hugs if only to rest her head for a little while longer,
we think it is adorable. She loves to
just silently watch all that is going on at tutoring even if she is not
participating. Beatrice is such a smiley
kiddo and very helpful. She is so sweet…
Elisha: Elisha hangs out with mom at
class every day and frankly he likes to walk around wherever and whenever. This little boy is quite loud and Mel and I
often look at each other because we feel like we are in a yelling competition
when we are teaching.. a yelling competition that we are never going to
win. He is a very kind and helpful
little boy and he is highly entertained when he is able to crawl through our
legs while we are teaching. We can’t
help but giggle and the women get a good chuckle as well. He also thinks it is a fun game to through things
at us like shoes, oranges, pens, you name it!
Thankful to say his aim hasn’t developed to the fullest and we’ve only
been knocked a couple of times.
I have to give a shout out to Mel for
helping make this experience one that will never be forgotten. More and more times we are realizing that we
are starting to share some of the same crazy thoughts. Example:
Last night walking home from the Birner’s we both were expressing how
the weather has been so extremely beautiful the entire time we have been
here. We agreed that the cool weather at
night made for great sleeping. As we
walked across campus, we shivered and realized it was even cool enough to see
our breath! We chuckled and realized
that people back home would most likely be laughing at us for being so cold. We proceeded in a synchronized, whiny but
joking fashion and we both stated, “Feel bad for uuuuussss…” (Referring to all of you back home reading
this from a place not as warm as here J) We both burst into laughter and concluded
with, “We’ve been living together too long…”
Couldn’t imagine doing this without her!
God is great! Shout out to all the mothers out there that
will read this post! You are much
appreciated!!
Hugs,
Kelsi and Melanie
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