Welcome back, friends. Romans. Countrymen.
Once again, things are going pretty great here! The longer I’m here, the better I feel about the situation. There are still times I miss American things, like my family, friends, food, etc. Usually these times happen when I’m relaxing in my hut. But I’ve found that every time I go outside to find kids to talk to, I feel so much better and I miss everything a little bit less. So I’m trying to motivate myself to get out as much as possible to hang out with the students.
Tanga, the resident dog, blocking the view from inside my hut.
Three weeks seems like a long time to me when simply stated, but since an opportunity like this may not happen again, three weeks doesn’t seem like that much time to get to know everyone here as best I can. That’s my prayer now, that I can be open to take every chance I can get to find my niche and familiarize myself with the beautiful Acholi people here.
I definitely am learning to overcome some of my introverted tendencies, so I guess that’s good. 🙂 Most of my interactions here are introductions with new faces, which would normally be very daunting for me. It’s not so bad here, though, since these kids are so sweet and laid-back. Some of them have even started to help me with my Acholi, knowing that my vocabulary was previously limited to “hello” and “good morning”. Now, I have a couple of pages full of words and phrases, thanks to Janet, Steven, and Flavia!
I’ve been overseas for a little over a week now, but somehow it feels like forever since I’ve hugged my family. God has given me comfort, though. He put me in a place full of wonderful people who make me feel cared for. He’s given me ways to keep in touch with people back home. It’s such a weird feeling to think that this will last for over a month. I’ve never been by myself overseas, let alone been by myself for more than two weeks. I know I’m not really by myself, but for a person like me who needs good, old friends by their side, it takes time to get used to living with only new friends. If any of you followed my friend Lizzy King’s blog posts while she was here, she said something in one post that really resonates with me. She said that missional living is not romantic – it’s not easy, it’s not safe, it’s not something that American life really prepares you for. It gets uncomfortable, it challenges you, it makes you see the world in a brand new light, and it reminds you of what is most important in life. I feel truly blessed to be in a place like VOH, where I have electricity, three meals a day, and access to clean water. There are many places, some even right outside this compound, that aren’t so privileged. I have no idea how I’ll react to American culture once July 30th comes around, if things like this have been made so obviously to me after only one week.
These challenges I’m facing are, in my opinion, some of the most important kind that a person can face. At some point in every person’s life, I think some time should be taken to leave behind American culture to experience a new way of living. We get so caught up in the way we live, and we’re kind of blind to the fact that most places around the world are nothing like that. In high school, we all joked that we were trapped inside the “Lovejoy bubble”, a community of rich white kids that knew nothing about the world. Especially where I’m from in Texas, I think we can all say we live in the “North Texas bubble”. Home is just about the safest place you can be, but it’s also the most dangerous. The danger comes from being too comfortable to ever leave it behind, to walk out the front gates and into the world around you. It’s an amazing place, and I want to encourage you to go out and see it sometime.
{Haley}