DAY #2

Reflections on the first night of sleep in Africa. After waking up at 3:00 am, forgetting where I was and throughougly confused as to why I was entrapped by a giant net (mosquito net), I was able to go back to sleep only to wake up to extremely loud chanting at 4:00 am by the Orthodox Christians at the church across the street from our hostel. Again, went back to sleep and then ready to go for breakfast (peanut butter and banana sandwich) and then hit the road to begin our day of work. We returned to Sonoki One Village where we spent a little time yesterday. It was amazing to see the greeting we received again today as our buses made their way back down the dirt road to the village. It makes me laugh so much to see a little African child scream and point “Muzungas!” (translation: white person) as we got into town. It was really neat to see some of our friends from yesterday come and run and jump into our arms. It is amazing to see how fast a relationship can form between an English speaking Muzunga from Atlanta, GA and a Swahili speaking five year old child from Arusha, Tanzania. The language barrier is frustrating, but we’re picking up some Swahili and the kids just laugh at our pronunciations- but I will give them props for being so patient with us! Most of us have learned a Swahili song that they sing at Young Life club here in Arusha. Our work today consisted of laying the first part of the foundation for a club room/community center (spreading dirt and moving big rocks).

Lunch was a special time as some of the mothers in the village prepared lunch for us. They prepared a bowl for each one of us with rice, pinto beans, spinach, avocado, pineapple, banana, and cucumbers all piled up together. The community and fellowship with one another was incredible. It was hard to process though as the mothers made the children sit up on the hill and wait for us to finish our lunch. As we would finish lunch and bring our bowls back up, they would distribute the food that was left in the pots and immediately put it back in the same bowls that we had just used without washing them for the children. It was hard not to feel guilty that we got to go first and that essentially these children were being given our leftovers. Randy gave some great encouraging words for us this morning and sitting here tonight and thinking back on our day, it was evident that the Lord was speaking through him this morning. He reminded us of the Serenity Prayer and just encouraged us to reflect on this during our time here in Africa. We definitely saw some tough things today in the village that none of us have ever seen before and it will take a good while to process these things. Tonight after dinner, we came together as a group and sang songs, gave our highs and lows of the day, prayed, and listened to Alexis (Arusha Young Life Staff) share some encouraging words. I can’t explain how incredible it was to be singing and looking around the room at how the Lord has brought us all together. It was indescribable to be worshipping sitting next to Lebon, one of the Arusha Young Life leaders who is a member of the Mossai tribe, singing "How Great is Our God"and to think how different he and I are from one another and yet we both have the priveledge to worship the same God. Thanks y'all.

How great is our God
Sing with me how great is our God,
and all will see
how great, how great is our God…

by ASHTON THURMOND