17 more days....

Hello friends and family!!

Let the countdown begin- only 17 more days in Africa. With such a short time left I have many conflicting and confusing emotions and thoughts swirling around my head. I guess I should rewind back to my expectations and reasons for dropping myself in the middle of no-where Africa for three months.

As we drove away last summer from Rehoboth I knew that I had to come back. I felt like there was a place for me to serve along side the Zulu women here to help raise these precious orphans. Not only have you all probably felt similar tugging at your heart to serve but the whole service thing is the politically correct answer to "why did you move to south africa to volunteer at an HIV/AIDS orphanage?" (So I will leave it at that.)

My desire to serve was not my only motivation. No, if I'm honest to myself I am way more selfish than that. Another reason for coming was to find rest, isolation and time. I find myself racing through life from class to work to BRH to Sonic happy hour to Monday "lugnut" lunches to driving to Austin in the middle of the night to studying for my 18 hours of course work.. you get the picture. Although my life seems next to perfect I leave myself no time for rest. No time to be still. No time to be quiet. Many weeks my only time alone is the 30 minute drive to and from work. I know you all have similar stories.

In a strange way I felt like the only way for me to find this time and rest was to switch continents. (sounds a little extreme.) Even during the "slow and lazy days of summer" I pack my schedule with things and people. The funny thing is that I think I use my time well... at least for the American standard. All of that just seems silly while I walk behind a Zulu woman. You don't move very far very quickly. :) With all of that being said, I love this slower paced life and find myself already missing it before I have even left. In fact, I went to bed at 8 o'clock last night just cause I could.

On the other hand, I would be lying if I told you that I wasn't excited to come home. I miss all of my friends and family very much. I am frustrated with myself at how much I miss the comforts of my American lifestyle... like my shower, pedicures, make-up and an ant-free kitchen. I feel like I will always have one foot in Africa, one foot in Waco and a hand in Amarillo. It'll be hard to feel complete for a while, I'm afraid.

Enough of that, let me give you a few updates on the past couple weeks. I am still enjoying working as the pre-school teacher but have never realized how difficult that job actually is. I'm forced to think backwards to knowledge that I guess we were all born with like the difference between a fruit and a vegetable or what it means to be sad or jealous or the days of the week. It's challenging to come up with new (and fun) ways to go back to the very, very basics of life. In any case, I am completely redecorating the whole class room (what did you expect)... I never knew how much fun it is to decorate bulletin boards!

Yesterday my preschoolers were having a breaktime outside when one of them colided with another. N got a bloody lip and without thinking about it I held a cube of ice on it until it started bleeding... I didn't even think about the fact that he was HIV positive. Fortunately N's little brother held a sand bucket under his lip to catch the blood and melting ice. So sweet. :) Don't get worried mom, you can only pass HIV if you have blood on blood contact so his blood cannot infect my skin or anything.

Two weeks ago I decided that I wanted to get my hair braided.... that was quite a decision. Auntie Thulie braided my hair for SEVEN HOURS over the course of three days. (I'm telling you, only in Africa would I ever have 7 hours to sit still.) She did a wonderful job but I must say it was itchy and kinda hurt my head. After a week of my Zulu hair, I decided to take it out. Tamara and I sad for over TWO hours unbraiding my hair... my hair was huge. I had the best afro you've ever seen. In fact, my hair was so huge that my ponytail was too big to hold with one hand. I washed my hair 4 times after that to get it to calm down... I don't think that I'll be braiding my hair again any time soon!!

To go with my African hair, I ate some delicious african lunches last week with our social worker, Sphume and our childcare supervisor, Khiwa. I must admit that I truly did like cow intestines and the chicken that Khiwa had killed herself the day before. :)

Well, for time's sake, that's all for now. We have to get back to Rehoboth early today cause a group of 30 something Americans (from TEXAS) are coming to play with the kids for a couple hours. I am wearing my Baylor shirt so that they know I'm a proud Texan as well. :)

Miss you and love you!!
-B