Well, I had intended to make this blog entry sooner, but my
internet has been out of commission for the last few days. It’s been really
tough to get a connection and even tougher to do anything once I do get a
connection. It’s been taking about 30 minutes for me to send just one email.
It’s terrible!! I just renewed my internet on Sunday, so I should be having
really good service right now. I’m supposed to get 30 days of internet access;
2GB at a fast speed and once I use that up, I get the rest on a slower speed
which usually isn’t too bad.
Everything seems to be on the fritz, though. Even the power
and the water have been really touch and go lately. I guess when something
fails, everything fails all at the same time. Oh well… It’s just part of living
in a third world country.
This week has been a very busy and exciting week for me. A
friend of mine, Sara, is currently living in Japan and teaching English at a
school there. She asked me if I wanted to do a pen pal activity between the
English language learners here and there.
The goal is for the students to write about things that are important in
their culture. Well, the students wrote their first letters and it was a
disaster. I had taken a lot of class time to explain culture to students and we
came up with an entire list of cultural aspects they could write about. I told
them I wanted to write about at least 3 of the different things (food, clothes,
religion, arts, language, etc.). Well, I got the first letters and most of them
didn’t even write about one!!!! They simply wrote about themselves just like
the first pen pal letter they wrote to the students in Shreveport. Even the
ones who did write about culture just wrote: We speak Swahili. We wear skirts
and dresses. We eat ugali. One student’s letter was a grand total of 6
sentences.
Well, that doesn’t tell anyone hardly anything. So, we had
to have a discussion about how to write an informative letter. We also had to
discuss how to write about different cultural aspects. For example, many girls
wrote about clothes, but they wrote that everyone wears dresses and skirts. I
had to remind them that the boys do not wear dresses and skirts and they need
to write about what the boys wear too. Also, some wrote about how you have to
wear “long clothes”, but never explained why. So, we had to talk about that.
The main problem with the food is that they just made a list of foods, but that
doesn’t say anything about the food. I want them to build use vocabulary to
talk about how the food tastes, looks, how you make it, ect. So, we spent the
whole week, writing and re-writing these letters. I had hoped to be done by
Friday, but by Wednesday, that was no longer looking like an option. It doesn’t
bother me, though I think the students were upset that we weren’t done by Friday.
We’re just going to keep working on it. I can see that this is a really good
activity for them because it’s really forcing them to have to think and fight
with the English language. That’s what they need, though. It’s through our
fights that we grow the most, and they will be better for it.
Next, (and this is SUPER exciting) I have finally received
all my packages!!! I’m SOOO excited! How this came about is quite a story, but
I’m just glad that it’s over now and that I understand what I will need to do
in the future. Well, on Wednesday, Nadina’s husband went back to the post
office to find out about my packages and he found out that that post office has
not been received any mail from the main post office in months!!! Honestly, I’m
not sure how I received word about my aunt’s package back in April, but no word
about my mom’s packages. Well, once I found this out, I marched right over to
the post office and pretty much demanded to know what was going on. I was sent
to the sorting room where I explained what was happening and showed them the
card for the school’s PO Box. At first, they only handed me a package that had
been mailed to MATT way back in NOVEMBER!! I can’t even begin to imagine how
long it’s been sitting there!! Anyways, I asked if there was anything else for
that PO Box and they handed me the first package that my mom had sent me back
at the beginning of February. I asked again if there was not anything else and
you would not imagine the stack of mail that I was given for the church,
school, and myself. It was like all the mail for the last 3 months (including
two notices that my mom’s second package had arrived)!! So, as it turns out,
the first of my mom’s packages has been here since MID-FEBRUARY! And the other
one has been here since MARCH 30!! First of all, I was so excited and relieved
that they have arrived in good condition. But then I was simply LIVID that they
had been here for SOO long and I had NO idea!! I was able to walk away with
Matt’s package (which was school supplies) and my smaller package without any
problems or having to pay any money. But, I was forced to return Friday
afternoon to do the whole customs thing to receive my other, larger package. It
took 3 hours and they had to open it up with me there to see what was inside.
But, after paying a hefty $40 in import fees and taxes, I was able to walk away
with a wonderful package full of goodies from home. Thus, the day ended well
enough for me.
Finally, this week has been really tough for me, emotionally
and spiritually, as I have continued to wrestle with whether or not I should
stay for another year. It was really hard because every time I made a decision
in my mind, it would always seem like the wrong decision. It was so
overwhelming to think about and finally I messaged some other missionaries in
the area for help. I just really needed to talk to someone who would really
understand where I was coming from. They invited me to spend the night on
Wednesday and I was super excited! I had a great time getting to play with the
kids and help prepare tacos for dinner. It’s always strange to me being in an
American home environment after being in a Tanzanian home environment for so
long. Well, after talking it through out loud with them, it became clear to me
that I needed to stay. I’m so glad that God has blessed me with such wonderful
support, not just at home, but also here. It was really hard to reach out for
help, but God rewards those who stretch themselves beyond their comfort zones.
Although, I have admittance to the University of Utah for
this fall, and even though I accepted at first, I have emailed them my regrets.
I have talked to my recommenders and they have all agreed that they will
re-recommend me this fall when I reapply. I understand that this is a pretty
big risk, but this is the adventure of a lifetime and I’m not going to let it
pass me by. It occurred to me the other day that I am living my dream. I’m not
sure how many people actually get to say that, but I’m sure it’s not that many.
It’s completely overwhelming to realize that I’m doing exactly what I feel like
I was made to do; at least for now. I’ve been dreaming about coming here since
I was in 7th grade. It just doesn’t make sense to me why I should
have so much passion for so long and it only amounts to six months. I’ve come
to love it here, and even though it is hard quite often, I’m growing and
learning so much, even as I am teaching. I’m just not ready to move on yet. Thus,
I’m leaving it to God and I’m trusting that if it’s His will for me to go to
graduate school, it will happen. I have my bachelor’s at least, so it’s not
like I’ll be completely hopeless to get a job even if I don’t get into graduate
school.
Thus, I shall continue to run the race that God has placed
before me with everything that I have in me. I still plan to meet my parents in
Europe in June so we can tour Switzerland, Italy, and France. Then, I will be
home for a couple weeks at the end of June/beginning of July. Although I am
really looking forward to this time with the precious people I have missed so
much, I am also really glad that I’m going to be returning here afterwards. I’m
SOOOOO excited!!! I’m getting to do all the things I wanted to do when I was
growing up. I always wanted to be a world traveler and have the opportunity to
live with and learn from other cultures and here I am living it!! Honestly, I
don’t feel like I could be more blessed!! :D
“But one thing I do: forgetting what is behind and straining
toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God
has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” Phillippians 3:13-14
May the Lord Bless You and Keep You,
~Christine
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