life

I have realized that Ty and I have been terrible at actually giving everyone an update just on "life" here. I guess the longer you are in a place the more days just pass you by and then you end up 6 months down the road with so much to say but with no idea how to say it all. In any case let me try to give you a bit of a snapshot.



In one word, life is BUSY. I never thought that I would come to Africa and be busier than I have ever been in my life. I am constantly trying to balance the different roles that I am playing...all while learning to keep my cool when things become overwhelming (some days not an easy feat). For both Tyler and I, we spend many hours communicating over email to many people over the world who are planning trips to visit Hands here in South Africa. I am not exaggerating when I say that hundreds of emails go out every week arranging schedules, planning itineraries and answering questions from people from the UK, Australia, Canada, Germany and the USA. Then when teams are on the ground here (which is now until September...we have over 11 teams visiting SA alone in 3 short months) we are busy hosting them in the community, debriefing with them and helping them to understand and make sense of what they are seeing and experiencing. The last team that was here was actually from Puerto Rico and they were such a fantastic group to spend time with (I couldn’t get enough of dancing salsa with them and we even had a night where we all got together and salsa’ed into the night!!). The joy and excitement that radiated off of them was infectious and despite some of them speaking little to no English (never mind Siswati) they were amazing at building relationships with our care workers and children. I even was able to host them in Swaziland (that is where the photo below was taken) one of the most beautiful place I have ever been. The views are indescibable...especially this time of year - when the grasses are golden and the sky so blue - the colors just take my breath away. The team actually spend an entire moth here so I was able to get to know some of the team members quite well and am hoping that some return to Africa again.

 

In addition to this Ty and I both support service centers (myself in SA - Bushbuckridge and Tyler in Swaziland and Zimbabwe, where he is currently). This means that we work very closely with local men and woman who are supporting anywhere from 3-5 community based organizations (CBOs). These CBO's are made of local people who volunteer their time and their lives to look after the most vulnerable children in their communities.. What Tyler and I do is help to provide project support and mentorship to our service centers as they help communities care holistically (mind, body, soul) for their children. It is a bit hard to describe as there are so many ways which we work with our service centers. From planning schedules for teams, to helping implement feeding programs, to teaching to write proposals for donors and then reporting on them, to helping them guide their CBOs to have healthy leadership and equip their care workers with skills to care for children who are deeply wounded from loss, abuse and other symptoms of poverty...and the list goes on.

 

Truthfully, when I really think about it, I know that I could never make it through some days without God, Tyler and a strong community of people around me. There are just so many things to consider with each email written, with each word said and with each action. Its been a real shift for me considering that I grew up in a world that puts so little emphasis on relationships in work situations and so much on "getting the job done". Maybe it doesn't make sense, but it is just so different here. Not only because it is Africa, but also because I am committed to an organization that has a foundation based on relationship and discipleship of others. That said, the longer I am here the more comfortable I am in my roles and am thus able to invest in others.  It’s actually amazing to look and see how much I have been learning to trust, to let go, to share burdens, to mentor and to be mentored...and I can say that I wouldn't trade these difficult experiences for anything.    -a

Friday fotos - Swaziland