Sawobona friends!
Has another week already passed?? I'm still very happy here and am already dreading leaving this place.
It's funny, people always say two things about change: change is good and change is hard. I've been reflecting on change this week trying to come up with my own "change is ____" sentence. I miss my life in America but that's not the hard part for me here, strangely enough. Actually, the most challenging part is that, although I am the same person, the people here do not know that person exactly. hmm... that was a confusing sentence. Let's try again. In linguistics, there is a hypothesis that says that your meaning needs another person in order for it to be meaning. For example, if I want to be funny, I need other people to laugh at my jokes. If they don't laugh, I cannot be funny no matter how hilarious I think I am or want to be. (See, Dr. Butler, I do listen in class!)
Anyway, I guess what I'm getting at is that you all in America have had 21 years to try and figure me out and understand who I am. I've spent 21 years developing who I am and who I want to be but I cannot be that person exactly without all of you here. My "meaning" cannot be "complete" without you all. (Am I making any sense Hannah?) ok, enough of that rambling...
Before I got here I kept asking the director, Yvonne, what I would be doing here at Rehoboth and she kept saying, "we will use your talents." I figured that was her way of saying, "I dunno, we'll figure it out when you get here." Turns out, she meant "we will use your talents." (a whole other linguistic conversation...) I am amazed at how perfect the work is here for me. I've spent the last couple weeks observing, helping where I could jump in and learning how to live in SA. After looking in, I've worked with Yvonne to figure out how I will use the next two and a half months. Now, tell me if this isn't exactly what I love:
After a Zulu praise and worship and a devotional with the entire staff and all of the kids in the morning, I get to go help out with the toddler "creche," a daycare of sorts. Then we all break for Rooibos tea. (I'll be bringing boxes of that back to the US.) After tea, I get to teach crafts for the 13 preschoolers. The teacher has given me full reign over the craft cupboard... can you imagine?! My dad has always said that I'd end up going bankrupt because of crafts- not jewelry, cars or clothes. :)
It gets even better! Next week I will begin doing ABA therapy with a few of the disabled kids here. I could not be more excited. Because of the kid's rocky starts at life, most kids are developmentally, socially or physically behind. (about 80% have low IQs and we basically assume that any kid over the age of 5 has been sexually abused.) I will begin working with Aphiwe (the blind boy that I blogged about last week) to help him begin to learn his alphabet in braille... which means that I've been learning braille myself this past week! I'll also be helping him with other developmental skills, etc. I will also work with Nana, a 19-month-old girl who functions at about 5 months. I'll be working on her head stability, eye contact and language skills, etc. I will also be working with Mihlali who is 21-months-old but is behind because he was born very prematurely. His mother was trying to have an abortion by herself and accidentally delivered her baby at 28 weeks. That one's taken me a while to deal with. So at 21 months, Mihlali is not making any sounds and still cannot crawl. All this to say, I get to continue using ABA this summer. God is so good.
Many of you may not know this about me, but I am a talented potty-trainer. (shout out to Kendra!) Last summer, Kendra and I potty trained sweet Adam (a four-year old boy with Autism). So strangely enough, I will get to put those experences to help the kids who are very behind in potty training. Yvonne did say that they would use my talents...
I wish you were all here to enjoy this saturday morning with me. It's "winter" here and today its "cold" (21 degrees celsius) which basically feels like the best autumn day in waco, tx. Think baylor homecoming weather. I woke up early so I decided to make some lemon poppy-seed muffins only to find out that our kitchen did not have measuring cups, a muffin pan, or a mixer. I'm pretty proud to say that I made those dang muffins into a lemon-poppy seed cake all by eye-ing (how the heck do you spell that?) it. Tasted pretty good with my hot tea outside in the fairyland that I call my front yard. :)
Here's your weekly list:
Things that I didn't know that I was thankful for until now...
1. dishwasher
2. power stirring
3. automatic cars
4. three-ply toilet paper
5. indoor bathrooms
6. my entire kitchen
So, enjoy those special blessings this week for me! ;)
One last thought from the week. One of the Zulu songs that we sing in the morning says simply, "You [God] deserve the best." (repeat for about 5 minutes with different ladies soaring above the rest of us with their incredible Zulu improvization (sp?)!)
Miss and love you all.
-Brigid
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Saturday, May 22, 2010
"was blind but now I see"
Just finished my first real week in SA! God is good. I can hardly wait to tell you all about it... we'll see how much I can cram in to this post!
I've sung "amazing grace" a million times. Last week, I think I understood it for the first time. One afternoon I was out playing with a bunch of the kids on the jungle gym when Aphiwe toddled up crying because he was lost from the group of kids. Aphiwe is 5-years-old, is an orphan with HIV and is also blind. He had never met me so whenever I grabbed his hand he immediately started touching my arms, hands and face and smelling me all over. He asked for my name and hasn't forgotten it yet. He climbed up into my lab and then started singing "Amazing Grace." How awesome to hear those words coming from his mouth:
"Amazing grace! How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but now am found. Was blind but now, I see."
Hope, joy and love are all very alive here.
Kids are funny. You can tell that all 52 of the kids are drilled in the Gospel. I was out on the jungle gym when group of pre-schoolers came up with a dead frog "crucified" to a cross made out of sticks and a broken balloon. Can't help but laugh. :) The kids love playing with my curly hair and keep asking me why my hair looks like that. Yesterday the girls gave me a new hair-do using sticks and sandbox shovels as brushes and combs. Yikes!
Kids are survivors. Most of the kids here are not just living with HIV. Most come from dark pasts including malnutrition, sexual abuse, domestic abuse and so on. One little boy came to Rehoboth barely alive weighing 2.2kg at SIX months!! He's a year old now and is quite chubby but is very developmentally behind. Some were raped as babies, left in toilets or hospitals to die, some relatives don't even know the child's name. Please pray for these kids.
Life is excited here at Rehoboth. Last week we were approved to begin building the second village so they can begin to care for another 50 HIV orphans. Great news! We celebrated by going to a Michael W. Smith concert in Durban! That was quite a treat! It was refreshing to here another American accent so I didn't have to strain my ears while he was talking and singing. I especially loved singing "A New Hallelujah" with him as it has been a BRH favorite this past semester. Really missing my 30 best friends that were with my last May experiencing this with me.
I have learned so much about HIV/AIDS, Africa and myself and it's only been a week. Here's are a couple of lists for you:
You know you are in Africa when (roadside edition)...
1. You smell sugar cane and chicken farms from the road instead of feed-lots.
2. You see zebras, ostridges (sp?), and monkies from the car window.
3. People are taking a nap literally ON the highway. Like on the actual road where cars are driving!!
4. A Zulu woman is walking with a matress on her head, a baby strapped to her back and bags in both hands while her no-good-lazy-non-gentleman husband is walking ahead with NOTHING in his hands.
5. Three-year-olds are walking on the side of the highway with no supervision.
6. The speed limit is 60 kilometers/hour but the taxis are driving at least 120 kph.
Each day last week I had some sort of training. Here are some of the things I learned on the "HIV/AIDS training day" and other cultural lessons.
1. Three million people die each year from AIDS (that's the population of Chicago)
2. 8000 people day per DAY from AIDS.
3. 50% of people living with AIDS in America do not know.
4. 14,000 people contract HIV each day.
5. The going rate for sex here in Kwa-Zulu Natal is about $5.
With all that said, life is so good here. I'm continually reminded of God's majesty from the children and the beautiful rolling hills outside my window. The other night I sat outside and starred at the stars. I've never seen so many in my life. Psalm 8 pretty much sums it up for me:
"Oh LORD, our Lord. How majestic is your name in all the earth. You have set your glory above the heavens. From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise because of your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger.
When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet: all the flocks and herds, and the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, all that swim the paths of the sea.
Oh LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth."
-Brigid
I've sung "amazing grace" a million times. Last week, I think I understood it for the first time. One afternoon I was out playing with a bunch of the kids on the jungle gym when Aphiwe toddled up crying because he was lost from the group of kids. Aphiwe is 5-years-old, is an orphan with HIV and is also blind. He had never met me so whenever I grabbed his hand he immediately started touching my arms, hands and face and smelling me all over. He asked for my name and hasn't forgotten it yet. He climbed up into my lab and then started singing "Amazing Grace." How awesome to hear those words coming from his mouth:
"Amazing grace! How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but now am found. Was blind but now, I see."
Hope, joy and love are all very alive here.
Kids are funny. You can tell that all 52 of the kids are drilled in the Gospel. I was out on the jungle gym when group of pre-schoolers came up with a dead frog "crucified" to a cross made out of sticks and a broken balloon. Can't help but laugh. :) The kids love playing with my curly hair and keep asking me why my hair looks like that. Yesterday the girls gave me a new hair-do using sticks and sandbox shovels as brushes and combs. Yikes!
Kids are survivors. Most of the kids here are not just living with HIV. Most come from dark pasts including malnutrition, sexual abuse, domestic abuse and so on. One little boy came to Rehoboth barely alive weighing 2.2kg at SIX months!! He's a year old now and is quite chubby but is very developmentally behind. Some were raped as babies, left in toilets or hospitals to die, some relatives don't even know the child's name. Please pray for these kids.
Life is excited here at Rehoboth. Last week we were approved to begin building the second village so they can begin to care for another 50 HIV orphans. Great news! We celebrated by going to a Michael W. Smith concert in Durban! That was quite a treat! It was refreshing to here another American accent so I didn't have to strain my ears while he was talking and singing. I especially loved singing "A New Hallelujah" with him as it has been a BRH favorite this past semester. Really missing my 30 best friends that were with my last May experiencing this with me.
I have learned so much about HIV/AIDS, Africa and myself and it's only been a week. Here's are a couple of lists for you:
You know you are in Africa when (roadside edition)...
1. You smell sugar cane and chicken farms from the road instead of feed-lots.
2. You see zebras, ostridges (sp?), and monkies from the car window.
3. People are taking a nap literally ON the highway. Like on the actual road where cars are driving!!
4. A Zulu woman is walking with a matress on her head, a baby strapped to her back and bags in both hands while her no-good-lazy-non-gentleman husband is walking ahead with NOTHING in his hands.
5. Three-year-olds are walking on the side of the highway with no supervision.
6. The speed limit is 60 kilometers/hour but the taxis are driving at least 120 kph.
Each day last week I had some sort of training. Here are some of the things I learned on the "HIV/AIDS training day" and other cultural lessons.
1. Three million people die each year from AIDS (that's the population of Chicago)
2. 8000 people day per DAY from AIDS.
3. 50% of people living with AIDS in America do not know.
4. 14,000 people contract HIV each day.
5. The going rate for sex here in Kwa-Zulu Natal is about $5.
With all that said, life is so good here. I'm continually reminded of God's majesty from the children and the beautiful rolling hills outside my window. The other night I sat outside and starred at the stars. I've never seen so many in my life. Psalm 8 pretty much sums it up for me:
"Oh LORD, our Lord. How majestic is your name in all the earth. You have set your glory above the heavens. From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise because of your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger.
When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet: all the flocks and herds, and the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, all that swim the paths of the sea.
Oh LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth."
-Brigid
Saturday, May 15, 2010
South Africa!!
Hi everyone!!
I'll have to keep this real short cause my ride is about to leave me. Too bad I've been kicked off the internet three times so I didn't get very far here in cyber space this time! Here are a couple of lists:
You know you are in South Africa when...
1. After Yvonne (the missionaries I'm staying with) picked me up, we had to go to the police office to pay for a ticket. A suspect was behind the counter in rope hand cuffs standing in a puddle of blood. Apparently he was a theif and was caught and attacked by the police dogs. He just stood in the corner while the police officer took down the ticket info. The criminal didn't even have a guard. first african experience.
2. Monkies are on the side of the roads eating bananas.
3. You eat an egg on bread and that's lunch.
4. Still haven't showered in 4 days because the light was broken in the bathroom and it's pitch dark. (hoping to shower today!!!)
Some of my favorite finds:
1. ALL of the kids are still alive from last year. BRH, I'll email you a full report whenever I have more time on the internet.
2. Yongama, the kid I spent the most time with at Rehoboth last year, was the first kid to run and jump into my arms.
3. Outside of my bedroom looks like a fairy tale. pictures to come, i hope.
4. I went to sleep at 8pm last night and only woke up when another volunteer woke me up this morning at 11am!! :)
To BRH:
1. Lisa, that little baby that you played with last year is so big! He's walking and talking now. He also has sores all over his face, not sure what that's about.
2. Chad, Siphamondla was riding a bike yesterday and looks great! Nkosi just got a hair cut and is completely bald!
3. Rachel, that sweet and shy boy is still sweet and shy. :)
4. Everyone, I got the full story on Sarah Nesbitt and will email y'all when I have more time.
Well, that's all the time I have for now. Dang!!
Love and miss you all!
-Brigid
I'll have to keep this real short cause my ride is about to leave me. Too bad I've been kicked off the internet three times so I didn't get very far here in cyber space this time! Here are a couple of lists:
You know you are in South Africa when...
1. After Yvonne (the missionaries I'm staying with) picked me up, we had to go to the police office to pay for a ticket. A suspect was behind the counter in rope hand cuffs standing in a puddle of blood. Apparently he was a theif and was caught and attacked by the police dogs. He just stood in the corner while the police officer took down the ticket info. The criminal didn't even have a guard. first african experience.
2. Monkies are on the side of the roads eating bananas.
3. You eat an egg on bread and that's lunch.
4. Still haven't showered in 4 days because the light was broken in the bathroom and it's pitch dark. (hoping to shower today!!!)
Some of my favorite finds:
1. ALL of the kids are still alive from last year. BRH, I'll email you a full report whenever I have more time on the internet.
2. Yongama, the kid I spent the most time with at Rehoboth last year, was the first kid to run and jump into my arms.
3. Outside of my bedroom looks like a fairy tale. pictures to come, i hope.
4. I went to sleep at 8pm last night and only woke up when another volunteer woke me up this morning at 11am!! :)
To BRH:
1. Lisa, that little baby that you played with last year is so big! He's walking and talking now. He also has sores all over his face, not sure what that's about.
2. Chad, Siphamondla was riding a bike yesterday and looks great! Nkosi just got a hair cut and is completely bald!
3. Rachel, that sweet and shy boy is still sweet and shy. :)
4. Everyone, I got the full story on Sarah Nesbitt and will email y'all when I have more time.
Well, that's all the time I have for now. Dang!!
Love and miss you all!
-Brigid
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Look mom; I'm still alive!! :)
Hello from my 12-over-layover in London!
I must say, I am much better with hellos than goodbyes. In the past week I've said goodbye to many close friends graduating from Baylor next week, goodbye to a junior year full of hard work, stress and the best friends. Goodbye to America and all of its comforts... especially text messaging! My last goodbye went to my parents who, I must say, kept it together much better than I expected. :)
Strangely enough, I think that my goodbyes at the end of my trip will be even more difficult than the last week because my "African goodbyes" will most likely be real "goodbyes" rather than "seeya laters." I hope that I am prepared to say goodbye to the orphans whenever I leave Rehoboth or if they leave first.
On to hellos..
Thankfully all of my travels have gone without a hitch (so far)! I've had no delays, all aisle seats and friendly seat buddies. You'll be so glad to know, Mom, that I ended up sitting with a 25-year-old girl from London, named Kylie, who pulled up a map of the "tube" on her iPhone, gave me tips and directions as well as her phone number and email adderss in case I needed her help throughout my day here in the UK.
As for today, I am just mozying (sp?) around the city with no particular plan. I overpaid for a one-day tube pass so I intend to use it. After riding for an hour or so I picked "green park" as my first stop mainly cause I wanted to spend time at a green park. Just as I thought, I found one and enjoyed the crisp spring morning in a beautiful park surrounded by old British buildings.
I rarely (never) have time to doddle around back in the US so I thought I'd "seize the day" by sitting back. All around me people and taxis were speeding off to work but I just sat, still, on a bench. Reminds me of one of my favorite Psalms:
"I wait for you, O LORD; I lift up my soul to my God. In you I trust; do not let me be disgraced. . . Make known to me your ways, LORD; teach my your paths. Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my savior. For you I wait all the long day, because of your goodness, LORD; for they are ages old. . . Let honesty and virtue preserve me; I wait for you, O LORD. . ." -Psalm 25
So from here, I have a flight at 7:05pm from London to Johannesburg (that's 11 hours long...), then my last flight to Durban where my hosts will pick me up and drive another three hours to Rehoboth which will be my home for the next 90 days.
Thank you all for your prayers. I am so blessed and looking forward to saying hello again in August.
Until more wifi,
-Brigid
I must say, I am much better with hellos than goodbyes. In the past week I've said goodbye to many close friends graduating from Baylor next week, goodbye to a junior year full of hard work, stress and the best friends. Goodbye to America and all of its comforts... especially text messaging! My last goodbye went to my parents who, I must say, kept it together much better than I expected. :)
Strangely enough, I think that my goodbyes at the end of my trip will be even more difficult than the last week because my "African goodbyes" will most likely be real "goodbyes" rather than "seeya laters." I hope that I am prepared to say goodbye to the orphans whenever I leave Rehoboth or if they leave first.
On to hellos..
Thankfully all of my travels have gone without a hitch (so far)! I've had no delays, all aisle seats and friendly seat buddies. You'll be so glad to know, Mom, that I ended up sitting with a 25-year-old girl from London, named Kylie, who pulled up a map of the "tube" on her iPhone, gave me tips and directions as well as her phone number and email adderss in case I needed her help throughout my day here in the UK.
As for today, I am just mozying (sp?) around the city with no particular plan. I overpaid for a one-day tube pass so I intend to use it. After riding for an hour or so I picked "green park" as my first stop mainly cause I wanted to spend time at a green park. Just as I thought, I found one and enjoyed the crisp spring morning in a beautiful park surrounded by old British buildings.
I rarely (never) have time to doddle around back in the US so I thought I'd "seize the day" by sitting back. All around me people and taxis were speeding off to work but I just sat, still, on a bench. Reminds me of one of my favorite Psalms:
"I wait for you, O LORD; I lift up my soul to my God. In you I trust; do not let me be disgraced. . . Make known to me your ways, LORD; teach my your paths. Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my savior. For you I wait all the long day, because of your goodness, LORD; for they are ages old. . . Let honesty and virtue preserve me; I wait for you, O LORD. . ." -Psalm 25
So from here, I have a flight at 7:05pm from London to Johannesburg (that's 11 hours long...), then my last flight to Durban where my hosts will pick me up and drive another three hours to Rehoboth which will be my home for the next 90 days.
Thank you all for your prayers. I am so blessed and looking forward to saying hello again in August.
Until more wifi,
-Brigid
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