How Africa Has Changed Me

One of the most common reactions I got when telling people I was moving to Africa last year was, "That experience will completely change your life!"

What I wanted to respond with (but usually refrained from doing so, since I knew my friends' intentions were sincere) was: "My life has ALREADY been changed by Africa. That's why I'm moving there!"

And that was true. My previous short-term trips to Africa HAD changed my life. They had opened up my eyes to the circumstances that the majority of the world lives in, and they left me completely unsatisfied living a comfortable, "cushy" life in America. They had grieved my spirit as I saw the hunger, the need, the orphans, the poverty.... the lack of clean water, health care, regular meals that these people in the majority world live with.

Yes, my life had been changed. And living in America where I had anything and everything (materially) that I could ever want was now totally unsatisfying to me. Repulsive, even. I wanted to boldly declare this to my friends whenever they idealistically remarked how much "Africa would change me". But I didn't. I knew I needed to keep my mouth shut and just come and see.

....

And now I have been here for almost 6 months. I am about to come home for 2 weeks for Christmas, and in looking ahead to this trip home, I see how much Africa HAS changed me. But it hasn't necessarily "given me a bigger heart for the poor" or "opened my eyes up to the poverty in the world." Yes, those are of utmost importance and I wish for everyone to be changed in those ways, but those were the ways I'd already been changed. That's why I moved here. Yes, I will continually be changing in my attitudes, actions, and service toward the poor- for the rest of my life- but the "big" eye openers in those regards had already happened for me.

As I look ahead to these 2 weeks I'll spend at home, though, in my anticipations of how I want to spend my time, I see how much I've changed in OTHER ways. In good ways. In ways that I wasn't expecting.

Before coming here, one of my favorite things to do was go to group dinners at Mi Cocina or big group events where I could see multitudes of friends at a time and carry on 2-3 sentence conversations with each one of them over the course of a night. Now the thoughts of those big group settings overwhelm me and feel so pointless. YES, I want to go to dinner at Mi Cocina. But I want to go with one friend or maybe two, and sit and have hours-long conversations where we talk and share and are real and open with each other. I don't have any desire to be at a large group event where the most I can speak with any given person is 2 or 3 sentences. What is the point of that?

I want to go to Drip Coffee for a delicious cappuccino, but I want to carry on conversations with the baristas and catch up on each others' lives. The same friendly baristas who I've always exchanged polite greetings with but who I'm always too tired on an early morning to say any more to than "I'm doing well. How are you?" Or just too busy and rushed to listen.

In looking ahead to this time, I realize that Africa has changed me greatly. It has made me more RELATIONAL. It has made me LIVE LIFE without an iphone that I'm constantly checking for texts or emails or Facebook notifications. Without the constant bombarding distractions from the media, the stores, the nagging feeling that I need to DO more and HAVE more and SHOP more. It has forced me to get away from this busy-ness and emptiness of life in America and genuinely ENGAGE with everyone I am in contact with. To be fully present and fully aware and thus fully LIVING.

I want my time at home to be full of these meaningful interactions and relationships. None of the emptiness and the shallow pursuits of life in America, and all of the richness of the relationships that I hold there.

No, this is not how I expected Africa to change me. But this is how it has. And I like it. It is good. I wish the Western world knew more of this secret of the joys and fulfillment that simplicity of life brings.... this secret that the majority of the world holds and that gives their life meaning.

I'll be curious to see what my reactions are and how I process things upon actually returning and spending time in America. But for now, this is what I foresee. And I like it.


***

and for the record, the other things I am REALLY looking forward to in America are:

watching a COWBOYS game!
yes, Mi Cocina! and especially in HP Village with all the Christmas lights up!!
COLD weather and Christmas lights and Christmas songs and Christmas movies and (*some of*) the Christmas shopping/store windows/etc. etc.
the Christmas Eve service at Fellowship!! (**the music**)
spending time with my DOG!
curling up on a comfortable SOFA (in a house with a temperature set to my choosing... can't even fathom that right now) and lying there and doing a little bit of nothing for a second (i.e. watching Elf or Love Actually)
sleeping in a BIG comfortable BED!!!
watching a film at Angelika or Magnolia (hopefully a foreign one)
eating Cake Batter frozen yogurt at Yogalicious
RUNNING AT WHITE ROCK!!!!!!!!!! in the cold weather!!! every day! all the way around the lake!!
eating SPINACH SALADS..... BIG ones, every day!!!


I leave in just 5 days.... Oh, I cannot WAIT!!!! :-D

William & Stella

(Apparently my new trend in blogging is to post several things at a time. I neglect it for weeks and then update all at once.... So, here's another one...)

For a couple months now it has been on my heart to blog about the amazing servant and man of God who cleans at our school, William. This was on my heart even before the new urgency to pray for his family; so now that there is an urgency, please hear their story...

William & Stella

William is a beacon of joy and light on this campus and a blessing to all who know him. He pastors a church in his small impoverished village outside of town (this is the village/church that I posted about volunteering at, here ). He serves his community faithfully and tirelessly, all while serving faithfully and tirelessly at our school each day. I was privileged to meet his beautiful wife Stella, see the very small 1-bedroom house they live in, and pray over his home and his family when we went to his village. They do not have any children and Stella has had a very tragic past concerning her pregnancies. She has had 2 miscarriages and lost 2 babies since 2008 (and could easily have lost her own life). From what I heard, after Stella gave birth last year (and lost the child a few minutes later), William was at school the next day serving faithfully with the same huge, joyful smile on his face that he wears every day. My heart grieves for their story.

Stella is now pregnant again and many of us are coming together to pray for them and financially assist them so that they can receive better medical care than they have received in the past. A friend here, Amy Medina, has organized assistance for them; I am so thankful for her willingness to listen to and follow God's prompting in helping this couple.

I've long wanted to write a heart-felt post about William and his story, but Amy has written a few great ones already, telling more details of their story and some about their previous pregnancies. So please read them here:

http://www.gilandamy.blogspot.com/

(Read the latest post as well as the previous 2 posts she links about their past pregnancies.)

As Amy states, it is tragic to see the pain this couple has gone through. Pain that it seems no one should have to bear. Yet it is common in Tanzania to have a story such as this. All too common, which makes the situation even more grievous. Please pray for William and Stella. Pray for the precious life inside of her right now. Pray that William and Stella come home from the hospital with a precious and HEALTHY baby in their arms in a few months. Please. Pray big. God answers the prayers of His people.

And pray for the countless other women in Tanzania and beyond who bear the same wounds of lost pregnancies and lost hope. Pray for HOPE. Pray for HEALTH. Pray for God's abundant comfort and His presence in the midst of their pain. And pray that WE the church would rise up and do our part in assisting His hurting children and working towards access to better health care in these majority parts of the world. (And then act!)


**Another related prayer request: "Mama Jane", the head housekeeper at the Young Life Training Center here, gave birth to a precious baby girl Monica about a month ago. Monica was born severely under-developed with severe birth defects (due to bad medical care that was received during her pregnancy). She was just recently released from the hospital and is now in the loving care of her family. She has little chance for long-term survival, though, due to her severely under-developed brain. Another all-too-common story here. Please pray also for baby Monica, Mama Jane, and their family. Thank you.

Service Learning

One of my highlights of teaching at HOPAC has been the Service Learning emphasis, where a group of my students (grades 6-8) and I work with a local school and do art activities with them. For several weeks we've gone out to their school and brought simple arts & crafts activities for them to do (which they've LOVED) and these past couple of weeks we've had them come to our school where they've been able to paint. The school these students go to have nothing but the *very, very* bare minimum of supplies, so the opportunity even just to use crayons or colored pencils is an incredible one for them. Most if not all of them have never painted in their lives (and don't know when they'll be able to in the future) so it has been such a privilege giving these opportunities to these children.

The classes we've worked with have about 70+ students in them (in one small classroom); we split the class in half each week and only work with half a class at a time. Because of the number of students in the classes and the lack of teaching supplies or resources, most learning in these schools takes place by rote memorization so the opportunity for creativity is very limited. Because of this, the children had a very difficult time expressing themselves creatively when we first started working with them.

The first couple of weeks we came to the school, we brought construction paper, crayons, and colored pencils. We had them write/draw their name and then decorate it however they wished. It took quite a while for the students to even get started and was very difficult for them to "draw freely" as they weren't quite sure what to do with the creative space. By the end of these days, a few of the students were opening up and drawing freely while most of them were copying pictures that our students were drawing.

Over the next couple weeks, we brought supplies for the kids to make greeting cards. Construction paper, markers, cut-out shapes we'd prepared in advance, gluesticks, and stickers. During these days the students warmed up more quickly, and many were very freely drawing all sorts of pictures. Some were still copying pictures our kids drew, but they were much more comfortable with it and filled their pages up in every corner with pictures. They LOVED the stickers and could not get enough of them! Here are some pics from those days:

These past couple of weeks, the students have come to our school. This time we've had them paint (again, probably the first time in any of their lives to do so), and we gave them very little guidance... instead just telling them they could paint whatever they wished. They painted so freely and loved every second of it!! Their creativity came forth so quickly; it was beautiful to see. It has been such a blessing to watch them creatively open up over these past few months. To give these children the opportunity to express themselves creatively, and the space and encouragement to do so.... what a blessing it has been. Some of these students are clearly very artistically talented, so giving them one of their very first opportunities to express or realize that talent has been really wonderful.

Here are some pictures of them at our school:

(look at that portrait and that car; such talent!)

(there's my classroom, by the way!) :)

(our students playing a game with them after they painted)