I'm a little late (it's a Swahili curse, I think), but I have now officially been in Africa for ONE YEAR! May 22nd was my one year mark of moving away from America. What a year it has been!
May 22, 2013
Leaving the USA with all my belongings
May 24, 2013
Arriving on the Big Island to this sweet, smiling face
I look so young and naive in these pics.
Now, of course, I am wise and mature.
When I arrived, I was pretty helpless- couldn't cook anything, didn't know how to communicate with people, and was so dependent on others to help me.
Twelve months later, I can cook a few good meals, I'm learning to communicate, and am daily growing in dependence on the One who has asked me to come here. While I've got a lifetime of learning ahead of me, God has taught me so much over the past year. It has been an awesome adventure learning first hand His faithfulness, Fatherliness, and love for me. All of which I am so underserving of, yet so grateful for. There have been times of enjoying life here. Times of really missing my family and friends back home. Times of laughter. Times of crying. Times of feeling like I'm making progress in learning the language. Times of feeling like a complete failure. Times where I feel like I'm surrounded by great friends. Times when I feel like I have no friends. Times where life seems easy. Times when life seems ridiculously difficult. It seems to be an up and down pattern.
BUT, no matter what kind of days I have had, or what kind of emotions I have felt, NEVER ONCE have I felt alone in this place so far away. Lonely, sometimes, but never alone. God has been with me every day. On my best days, He has been with me. On my worst days, He has been with me. I love that He loves me the same no matter what kind of day I'm having. I love that He is still sitting on His throne waiting on me to enter into His presence. I love that I can come in confidence and know that I will find rest, comfort, and peace, and I can lay everything I'm struggling with down at His feet. I love that He is in me and my friends get to experience Him. I tried to explain this relationship and joy I have in my relationship with Him to my friend today in the car. She couldn't understand this intimacy. This intimacy with Him is what I so desperately desire for her to experience first hand one day.
I'm absolutely not claiming to have it all together. There are days (most of them) where I'm a complete mess so baffled by the fact that the God who created this Universe wants to use me. I'm not claiming that this life here has been perfect without any hardships or bumps in the road. That is definitely not true. I am saying that God has been faithful. He hasn't changed. He is full of grace and mercy, and loves me in the midst of my mess. This past year you may have seen many thankful and happy posts, and not so many complaints and "bad stuff". Not that I don't think it's important to share struggles and hardships, but this past year has been one of learning to be thankful in whatever circumstances I am in. My tendency is to complain. I'm kind of a glass half empty girl. I'm learning to be content. I committed to write down things I was thankful for at the end of every day over the past year. Focusing on the things you are thankful for make the hardships and complaints not seem so bad after all. Every day we have here is a gift and blessing from Him to use to bring glory to His name. I am alive and beyond grateful I get to "do life" with Him every day.
Because I love celebrations, I celebrated my one year anniversary TWICE :)
First, I celebrated my one year anniversary of the day I left America with my Wazungu friends. Complete with Ice Cream and chocolate chips.
AND I celebrated my one year anniversary from when I arrived in Africa with my local friends (some refused to be in a picture- but Hawa loves pics)! We made pizza, and watched a movie together.
Since I am so late in posting this post about my one year anniversary, I figured I'd tag on some extra pics for your viewing pleasure. Here are some pics of some friends and students from the past couple of weeks. They are a blessing to me, and make life here so enjoyable.
Pics from a wedding I went to last Friday
I LOVE all the colors in these photos! It's kind of fun being the only white person sometimes, because you kind of have celebrity status at weddings. They love to try to make you dance with them- and not gonna lie I can dance with the best of them. Word on the street is there is some video footage from a wedding a few months back to prove it. Apparently everyone has seen the video but me.
Here are some pics from our last day of class last week. We played BINGO- which they had never played, and really loved. We have had small numbers in our classes recently because Ramadhan is coming quick, and everyone is already in "rest" mode. These are the faithful few who persevered until the end.
This student was so anxious to call BINGO that he kept false calling it (thinking he really had it-but he would be missing two squares in the row-didn't quite understand how to play). He couldn't stop giggling either. He FINALLY got BINGO for real, and couldn't have been happier!
These girls are so special to me! They were in my beginner class, and all of them are continuing on to Level 2 for our next round of classes. They make teaching English super fun, and they are teaching me all sorts of new things to fit in around here.
Certificate time!
One of my students is well educated and spends a lot of time on the computer checking on global news. After all the students got their certificates, he said, "Now can we take a selfie?" Haha this was the best selfie we could get, unfortunately.
Had some friends over for dinner on Friday night- they tried tacos and really liked them! They thought it was hilarious, though, because taco is the swahili word for butt. We ate butt for dinner, and it was delicious.
I love that even when they ask for a picture to be taken, they don't want to look at the camera. Cracks me up every time.
One of my new favorite things to do is to try to get them to make a funny face for a picture. They aren't really sure what to do, which makes the pictures a lot funnier. (Yes, I know, I must be really bored to think this is so entertaining. It's true. I do what I can to keep myself sane.)
I am incredibly blessed. I say that a lot, but it's true. God is good. All the time. Looking forward to year number two!
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