First of all I have to say THANK YOU so much to everyone back at home, all of the support you've given me financially and just with prayer has totally blown me away and I am so thankful for you, you are the best cheerleading team ever :)
For anyone who doesn't know, I am working with Zion Project, an NGO focused on healing and empowering women and girls that have been sexually exploited or affected by the war. There are two parts to Zion Project...a rescue home for younger girls, and a jewelry program, Imani (http://www.imanilove.com/), that employs women mostly from the Congo. I'm here to design jewelry for Imani, but I also get to spend time at the rescue home with the girls!
I've been slowly learning things and getting used to everything here. Last week was a little bit of a different week for Zion Project because the team was here, and they were awesome. It was amazing seeing them loving and playing with the girls and hanging out with the women. They were just down for anything, really fun to be around, and they loved the people here so well. This week I'll have a lot more training and I'll get much more familiar with what my role will look like here. For most of today I sat with Christine, one of the Ugandan staff members, who manages the jewelry line. We played around designing some new fashions with the extra beads the women had, and she explained a lot of things to me, and it was so much fun. I love any chance to get creative and design, and the fact that I get to do this for 6 months is seriously a dream.
I live in a guesthouse that is connected to our office, so the Imani women come here to make the beads and fashion the necklaces. I live with Janet, a Ugandan woman who helps out with Zion Project, and the three most adorable little kids ever. I have a king-sized bed which is the greatest thing ever for me and also for them, because they like to come in at night and roll around on it and squeal. It is so adorable. Another plus to living here is that I literally roll out of bed walk out the door and there I am at work. The women start out every morning with worship and devotions, which is full of lots of dancing and drumming. I don't know any of the words because they sing in Swahili, but all you gotta do is follow their moves. The women don't speak English, except one, so sometimes it's hard to find ways to connect with them. Emily, a volunteer who left yesterday, lived in the guesthouse with me and left me her Swahili dictionary, which I am SO thankful for, because I want to learn. Today I learned that Hakuna Matata actually literally means "no worries" in Swahili. I also practiced this one: "Kuna nyingi mdudus." There are many bugs. Which I think is a little off because the women just kind of looked and laughed at me.
However, nail polish goes a long way in making connections!
In Chile I volunteered at a similar rescue home to the one that is here...the girls were removed from their families for one reason or another, all had sad stories, and were the same age. I only went once or twice a week for a few hours, and I did not like it. It was such a heavy atmosphere, the girls fought and were nasty to each other, and every day when I left I just felt gross. Zion Project compared to that rescue home is like night and day. There are 17 girls in the home and they are so full of life, personality and joy. They've all been through things I can't even imagine, but the atmosphere there is indescribable and I love being with them. There is so much laughing and it's so easy to start to fall in love with these girls, they are so much fun. I can obviously only attribute this to the fact that God's presence is so sought after here, and all of the staff who has been here has created that kind of environment.
It really is a different world here. Women wrap babies around their backs and people carry water on their heads back from the well. I get around on bodas (motorcycle things), wear dresses and skirts, and sleep under a mosquito net. My hair looks like crap every day and the power goes out all the time. It's all part of the adventure though! It's also been fun to meet so many other people here working with different human rights groups or other organizations. I didn't realize how many other foreigners would be in the city! Most people are in their early, mid-20s, recently out of college, so it's been fun to start to get to know other people with similar interests. Brittany and Hailey are the other two volunteers with Zion Project from America, and they have been great helping me get accustomed and answering all my questions!
I honestly really like it here and am really excited about these next 6 months. It's been my dream to come to Africa for YEARS. Like all these things I have wanted for so long have been happening to me this year, and I'm only 21 and already I feel like I need to make a new dream list. It's seriously great. I loved being in Chile too last semester, but towards the end I could feel my heart starting to check out of there and start getting excited for this instead. I couldn't wait. Everyone would tell me "Oh wow, how brave of you to do all of this you are doing for a year!" But I never thought of it like that, I was more scared of staying than I was of going places. I longed to be overseas and the thought of being in Indiana seemed so boring. I thought the excitement would keep building up until I got here, but being in the US was such a teaser and it changed everything.
Right before I left the last thing I wanted to do was leave again. I didn't realize how hard it would be to drop life and leave the country for a year right in the middle of college. Maybe it would be different if I had already graduated and everyone else was starting new stages of life too. I don't like missing holidays or weddings or graduations or 21st birthdays, but most of all it's the little things, like having people I loved be part of my daily life and I can't have that when I keep leaving. I feel like I am missing out on so much. The whole month I was home I just realized how much I missed my life. It was so good to be back after being gone for so long, I didn't want to do it again because I was exhausted. I was a mess the last few days leading up to when I left and I landed in Africa feeling really sad instead of excited.
Last week I was starting to really like it here but still feeling really homesick and not truly on board with being here. Then one night God showed me a picture...I was standing on the side of a road with a lot of heavy baggage I couldn't carry. He pulled up alongside me in a jeep kinda thing and was asking, "Do you want to get in?" And I kept saying "no, please go away," because I knew as soon as I did He would drive me so far away, and I was tired and lonely and the last thing I wanted to do was go far. But finally I just thought... what the heck, and I got in with Him. And it was such a relief to set down all the heavy things I was carrying, and to be in the passenger seat. He was driving and I could see out the rearview mirror everything I knew getting smaller and smaller in the distance and it was awful, but when I looked into His eyes instead and saw Him laughing with me and talking to me about all of the adventures we were going to have, I stopped looking behind me.
So I'm all in, and sometimes I don't feel it in my heart but I know it deep down that this is where I'm supposed to be. I feel like God has been pouring into me and has been setting me up, and now I'm at the point where I want to take what He has given me and give it out to others here. I want to be serving out of the overflow of my own relationship with God and I am going to learn what that specifically looks like in Uganda :)
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