Yesterday was our day off, and Lesley and I took full advantage and slept in until 9:30. It's amazing how on a day with no agenda, you can so easily fill up your time. We visited with Belinda, read, I painted, caught up on emails and blogging. It was a good, relaxing day. Oh, and also I've got her addicted to Downton Abbey, so we've been re-watching all of those episodes! Takes my mind of off missing home :)
Today we had our second day of school, and it was amazing to see the change in the kids! One boy, Jonathan, who was shy and timid and cried and cried after his dad dropped him off actually ran up to me when I arrived to give me a hug! I was floored! But with newfound comfort in their new environment also means that the kids felt a lot more free to be wild and crazy - and I will say that I never expected kindergarten kids to tire you out so much! I have a new found respect for any mom - kids are exhausting!
I've done a lot of thinking while I've been here. Being thrown into a new culture, a new environment definitely makes me appreciate my family and friends from back home. I am unbelievably grateful for everyone who has wished me well, reached out through email, and just checked in to see how I am doing and adjusting. I am blown away by how blessed I am to have family and friends who care so much about me. I'm thankful for this time that has allowed me to see how blessed I am, especially in a school setting where kids long for love and attention, if the kids hanging off of me at school today were any indication of. I'm thankful for all of you who believe in me, even when I don't believe in myself. You are so appreciated and loved.
It's also really interesting to me the things that I miss while I'm here (besides the people). Everything is different here; I think moreso than I ever expected, from the food to the weather to the ground to the language. It's interesting, though, as I walked home from the school today I realized how much I missed grass. Here there is so much dirt (and it is a rich red, so different than our brown at home!); so many rocks; and so much brush and weeds.. But no lawns, no fields of grass. And funny enough, I realized what a blessing it is, to have a soft place to lay on in the summer, a lawn which fills with snow in the winter, and an outdoor carpet that cushions my bare feet as I walk across. I took it for granted until it wasn't there anymore!
I wish I could bottle up my experiences and hand them to all of you back home so you could experience them as well, because I don't think words do it justice. I wish you could hear the sounds of the Africans dancing and singing late into the night, as if darkness brings with it a newfound exuberance. I wish you could see the bright orange African sun that seems to shine much more boldly than at home. I wish you could find yourself in my chair in my small living room, wrestling with the idea of how to be content in a place yet all the while longing for home, and if those two opposites are possible.
No matter how difficult these past two weeks have been to adjust, and how homesickness still lingers heavily, I find within myself tonight a very grateful heart. For no matter the trials we face, if we look for it, our blessings are immense.
Missing you all!
Angie
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