Day 6, 6-22-09

Today started out wonderfully! I woke up freezing, but warmed up soon after some coffee! Had breakfast (toast and pineapple), got dressed, made sure everything was ready to go for Anna to do our laundry…. I feel sorry that she has to even TOUCH the guy’s clothes.
Let’s see, went to the office again, then picked up some more food, laundry supplies, and enjoyed a little bit of chocolate deliciousness!
We went to the bank to pull out some shillings, and while waiting for the rest of the team, Brad surprised me by buying me a Kiswahili to English translation book. How very sweet! After that we picked up lunch for everyone, Sombossas from Coffee Garden! Brad and I got into a mini-argument because I offered to pay for the food and he didn’t think I should have to. Couldn’t help my sassiness, told the poor guy to shut up, and I DID end up paying for lunch. I was glad, because I felt compelled to do something nice for my teammates. I’m surprised at how much I actually like them!
We had our sombossas at the office, and they were delicious! The men started throwing around ideas of what would make the sombossas better, and I think the one thing they agreed upon was sweet and sour sauce. I might be more enthusiastic if I liked sweet and sour sauce, but I don’t like it very much so I’m thinking that it would ruin the beautiful, culinary masterpiece that is a sombossa.
The team (minus Jim who was staying at the office and Mike who wasn’t feeling well) went back to the compound and held a children’s ministry thing for the school. It was so much fun! Jan and I put on two puppet shows. The kids loved it! It really got their attention, and I was so happy to hear their little giggles when my puppet (Rhino) started crying because “Noah was going to DIE!!!! Well, someday.” I got to be a bit dramatic with my puppet, and Jan (whose puppet was Froggie) was a good match for me to do a puppet with. I suppose being good with puppets is just what teachers do! Next we got to help the kids make these little “scrapbooks”. Honestly I don’t know why we had the kids make books, but they seemed to really love the project! Some of the kids I talked and sat with were SO cute! They had a lot of fun and were very creative! Some kids didn’t know how to write their names, others were complexed over where to put the paper, and most of them were very excited to show off just how creative they were! I will never forget how they drew pictures of the rain, the trees, their huts, and stick figures of their families. It was quite an honor to hear them tell me stories of their families (even though I could hardly understand what they were saying because half the time they weren’t speaking English). I really felt blessed after this, and to be honest I haven’t been so happy in a long time! About half way through childrens ministry, I heard some music, and brad was being schooled on how to play this guitar thing that’s popular in Africa. I hope he had a blast with that, because it looked like so much fun! The people here are very musically inclined, it made me wish Nathan were able to come on this trip, he would have loved it!
Later the team went back to town to pick up Mike and Jim, and we stopped for a quick visit to the internet café. I was very glad to get to write from my family, and loved reading the e-mails they sent me!!! I got pictures of my sister after she lost her tooth (and who was smiling big because the tooth fairy let me send her a letter for because that’s the first tooth she lost while I was away). It made my day, I miss my sister so much!!
FAST FORWARD to tonight…
Brad told the team the story of why he was single. I won’t go into detail about it, that’s his story to tell, but it really broke my heart. I told him that I really felt for him, but I don’t think it meant much to him, he doesn’t know of why his story affected me so much, all he knows is that some girl who’s never been married is telling him how sorry she is. Looking back on it (it’s bed time as I’m writing this down) I’m quite sure he and Jan (the other person to hear my comments to brad) are viewing me as just a kid….. I’m sure that to them, I’m living up to the oh-so “high” standard as the baby of the group.
As far as other insecurities, I really don’t know what God has me here for yet. I hope it get’s revealed to me soon, but until then I guess I’ll just see what it is He’s unfolding. I guess this is one of those “Jesus take the Wheel” kind of moments.

I guess this is goodnight, then. Way to end the day on a bad note, heather....