Week 8

Week 8 26/2/13 - 4/2/13

Tuesday -26/2/13

Today’s blog will be short. We started our first day helping living hope clean up. I also made myself a list of biblical things to do each day. I then went to sleep after watching Sky fall and feeling depressed that this might be Daniel Craig’s last James Bond movie. An interesting day which I didn’t blog thus it’s shortness.

Wednesday -27/2/13

Today was our second day helping Living Hope clean out. Our day started off with waking up, putting on some clothes, eating a penutbutter and jam sandwich and boarding our taxi bus (which has a sun roof) to central as this week Arbbay is having the week off. We had our morning devotion where we learnt about serving and the seven points about excellent serving. Then we sorted bags and counted beads in the living hope shop. At lunch the fun began as I scored Jess’s piece of chicken and then Thomas, Jess and I walked to the markets were with my intentions of buying a Giraffe and hopefully a Buffalo if my seller met my budget. After some serious looking and searching throughout the market I picked up a giraffe in the first shop I walked into and asked how much to promptly deliver my buying price. They were asking 25’000 shillings and I got them down to 16’000 shillings. Then I asked if they had a buffalo and she brought one over saying how perfect it was said it was 50’000 shillings. I pulled out my wallet and in a dramatic way showed her I only had 30’000 and said I wanted two. She had previously told me I was the first customer so I had em were I wanted them...desperate (I am not dramatising it). So after some bargaining I was getting both for 32’000. You might think I was being cheap but that was still a white person price. They milk us for all they can and so they should so you have to play a whole bargaining game and you can never show how much you love something otherwise they aren’t as easy with the price. So I walked out very happy and we had a walk around were I saw some future purchases. So I had scored two animals for the price I thought I might be spending for one and thus I will be able to get through my lit of purchases quicker. We then went back Jess had brought some cool leather sandals. We spent the afternoon helping Central with sorting beads and at three we were dismissed. We than waited in the room for about 45 minutes for no apparent reason as we were supposed to have left, then we boarded our disco van and left for our African Haven with its barbed walls and white walls. I had an early shower and have been working through my biblical things to do list. Today my throat and chest have been really sore and tight and I don’t know why. I am not sure if I should just struggle threw it or be strong. So here I am now writing my blog and admiring my nearly complete array of animals. Next to buy is a lion and an antelope. Then I will start on my family’s things. I hope to also buy a painting form the painting market. I know it sounds that my most exciting thing today was my purchases and to be honest they were, but did I learn the most from them probably not; so every experience has its own emotional and learning experience. I have also been reading my Mums emails and really like them, because I feel connected still to home.  Peace out from Africa.

Thursday -28/2/13

Today was our last day helping living hope. I didn’t write a blog in this day and I don’t think anything to interesting happened.

Friday -1/2/13

Today is a day off so even though I am happy for the break I am also feeling a bit lost with what to do with myself now. I had a nice big sleep till 9:00am. Having nothing to major to do I read my bible, watched a movie and then we had lunch. The morning as you can tell wasn’t very busy in any way. After lunch we had planned to go to Java’s, than some of us would go and look at the Friday markets and then come home. We set off for the long walk which we calculated was about 5.3km. At Java’s I shared a cookie ice-cream thing with Jess; we choose chocolate, vanilla and tutti frutti. I like to stick with flavours which are safe and reliable like chocolate and vanilla. Tutti frutti in my opinion was very unsafe and did turn out to be dangerous. Next time I will choose vanilla, chocolate and choc chip mint; and will be very happy. We then went to the markets where we were probably out of place being the only three white people in a totally African market. I had two guys walk past me and greet me like a friend and then grab my hand but lucky I was on to them because they were actually trying to snatch my arm bands I felt them being tugged so I quickly threw them off. I think the trick is to just ignore them calling you and just look casual and relaxed as to not attract attention. We then went to two art galleries which were really cool, but unfortunately were overpriced in my opinion.  We then stopped buy the DVD shack and brought some DVD’s including Australia. I walked home while Thomas waited for some other DVD’s and met Isaiah and another boy whom we had played with one Sunday. So I walked home with him asking various questions and enjoying both boys holding my hand. Ounce home I lay outside trying to meditate like a good spiritual Christian but ended up thinking about if I was a small person and how I would survive in the garden. Then a night we watched Australia, I sewed and put beads in Natalie’s dread and painted. I then had a shower listened to some Mark Driscoll and went to bed.

Saturday -2/2/13

Today is another lazy day. I feel like I am achieving nothing at the moment and am just going with the flow to much. I want to be challenged and broken, and become totally captivated and dependent upon God. I want to feel passion and vulnerability, I am ready to be challenged and put in deep water. I feel like I have jumped deep into the sea buy coming here but now the tide has gone out and I am now up to my ankles in water. I want cool things to write about and how God is changing me spiritually, mentally, emotionally and physically. But here I am reading the bible trying to be captivated or interested, feeling flat and unmotivated and just wondering why I am here. In simple terms bring on the hard times God because even though I might feel like it’s all too hard in the deep at least I will know I am growing. I need to be blown out of the water. I mean each day is just what I did and not much else because nothing is really going on in my head. So if you want to pray for me, pray that I be challenged, broken and lit on fire for God. I need to be inspired by life.

Otherwise today nothing much will happen and it will be like every other day. I have been going through some old folders and seeing all my school assignments and reading them, there is a part of me that misses those times and the feeling of creating a complex spider web of ideas. It’s like I miss the challenge of juggling the stress. And in a way it is sad because my childhood is somewhat behind me now and I am now responsible for myself. It is a scar concept of facing this awkward transition that is generally blunt and doesn’t leave much room for graduation into it. You finish school and bam you’re in the adult world, no ceremony or recognition into adulthood you just get dropped into it. So I think a part of me is still grieving everything like that. I mean its funny how as a kid you would always want to be a big kid, an adult and each year you would go into the next grade oblivious that your school days were running out. And then you find yourself in the last day of school; some are happy, some sad but I think underneath we are all a little confused as to what it all means and what to do next. What will I do with my life? How will I use it to glorify God? How will I cope?

For me the importance of memories is becoming clearer and how much I cherish each one. So to give you a taste of what’s going on in my head that is what is.

Sunday -3/2/13

Church serving- nothing much else happened.

I have had a thought today. As you know serving at church isn’t my favourite of the weekly activities but I feel like that maybe my purpose here is to connect with my East team and even though I will serve as best I can, that isn’t my main focus for being there.

Monday -4/2/13

Today I have come to a few conclusions. Instead of everyday telling you what I did I am going to skip some days because in all honestly no one wants to hear about I did nothing that day. On days that something interesting happens or when I discover something concerning the mystery of life; I will talk about.

Today I talked to my family. It was fantastic and I actually can’t wait to talk to them again. We also discovered that by turning of the video less megabits were used. I painted in the yard for a long time today, just experimenting and mucking around. I then was listening to a sermon about Mary and Martha and became motivated to rearrange my room and organised it. I feel like that as I enter month three there will be some big changes for me spiritually and mentally, so pray for that please.

Another week has come to an end which reminds me just how fast my time here is going and I want to get as much as I can out of it and have so many experiences I am overwhelmed with change in my heart. 

I was watching Australia and one of the quotes was 'In the end the only thing you really own is your story; I'm just trying to live a good one'. I really like this and it really just spoke to me that God has me in a specific place at a specific time to feel specific things. That my story is Gods book and that he will surely make the book exciting and life changing each chapter, taking each moment and embracing each thougt, because you will never go back to a place you have already been. You may think the same thing again but you will never have the experience of discovering that thought for the first time again. Living is about being bold, falling over and getting back up and looking our fears in the eye to see our deepest vulnerabilities. I sometimes feel out of place, or wasting the moment, that I feel restless and unfulfilled, but God has me here and even though I have no idea what he is doing he is working in me, in places of my soul I am not aware that are causing me to have side effects in an unexpected way. I have to cling to the fact that God has me in his hands and that if my heart is willing than I must be in the will of God.