familiar faces, smiles, more hugs, "Sawubonnas," connections and new…
a whole lot of new. We got off to a good start this morning with the
world's best hot chocolate. James and I were super excited as we have
waited so long to drink it again! Then we packed up at 7:15 to head
out to DonDon, our village. At that moment, I barely had any feeling.
In my mind, I imagined some huge emotional ride with a huge smile &
maybe some happy tears and huge butterflies in my stomach, but in
reality, it all felt so surreal that I could barley show my
excitement. Yes, I was definitely excited… but I've spent the whole
past YEAR being excited and anticipating this moment so when it
actually came down to it, I was just ready for it to happen!!! The 20
minute bus ride seemed to last FOREVER! Just looking out the window
at the familiar scenery was amazing. The past year just faded away,
and it felt like I was just here. There are some new buildings up but
otherwise it's the same Swaziland I fell in love with a year ago.
Now for the reunion. When we got to the dirt road, it started to feel
real. And let me tell you, that was THE LONGEST dirt road EVER!!!
And then we finally made it. Just up the hill was the community, OUR
community. And then we drove up the hill and there was a whole lotta
that new I was talking about. No church building. Fence around most
of the property. New concrete block building. Smaller team. That
doesn't seem like a lot, but it seemed almost unrecognizable to me.
We could see the old church building foundation, but it had been grown
over by grass. The fence just seemed so weird… like it blocked us off
from the community. The half-built building is now almost finished
and they are using it as their church; except it's on the other side
of the food structure so we hang out way over there. Again, new,
change, different. Our team went from 23 or 24 (we couldn't remember)
to 9. BIG DIFFERENCE! The biggest difference, though, with the
smaller team is not having Claire. I keep trying to go grab her to
take a pic or want to talk to someone but she's not there. CLAIRE I
MISS YOU! The newest part was that when we arrived it was only Pastor
Percy, his wife, and 2 gogos. I had never considered this would
happen. In my head I was picturing this huge reunion, with all the
kids waving and chasing the combi up until we park and get out with a
million hugs. But yet again, I gave it to God. My little
disappointment for not getting my ideal meeting was my fault. I had
expectations. I put God in a box and had my own plan for how things
were going to happen. And God put me in my place and was like: okay,
now trust me. This is going to be a great trip… better than last
year… but it's going to be different than last year. You are not here
for YOU. You are here for ME. Okay, okay God. I got it now… I need
to stop assuming things are going to be a cookie cutter version of
last year. So I did. And then children showed up. We started with
three right after we arrived and the group just kept growing. For
most of the morning we had about 15-20 young children. And even
though that's not how I pictured it, it was wonderful. Because with
just Karen, Keely (Derek's daughter) and I, it was a manageable number
and we got to really connect with them. We brought out the stickers
and we also played with the bubbles. Oh, they LOVED the bubbles! I
loved hearing their squeals of joy and their little accented voices
saying "bubble." As more children arrived, I of course had my eye out
for Nongcebo. Soon enough, her gogo (gma) came and I went right up to
her to give her a huge hug and she just smiled soooo big and told me
in her broken English how she is so glad we came back. "Hallelujah!"
She kept repeating as we hugged and walked over to the group. Then
Precious arrived and I took my opportunity and had her ask N's gogo
where N was. She said she moved. She is living with her mom in a
city about an hour away. My heart SANK. On the verge of tears, I
asked her if there was any way I could see her and I told her that I
love N and have missed her so much. N's gogo said they didn't have
enough money to get a bus here so probably not. At that point, I was
about to pay for the bus ticket myself or pack up and get on the plane
right then. My whole purpose seemed lost. But then God showed up
again. I am so glad that He has been so present this week. And just
like that, after being on the verge of an inside meltdown, I felt at
peace. And I just decided that last year was a gift, a wonderful
wonderful gift, and this year it just wasn't meant to be. So I went
on and played with the other children. And I found about 5 new little
ones that hung to me. And we played duck duck goose (or actually
goose goose goose goose goose hit and run), took lots of pictures and
soaked in our time together. And more gogos showed up. I cannot say
enough how much I LOVE gogos. They are THE SWEETEST people on the
planet and so God-centered. I also got to love on a little
6-month-old boy. I held him for a little bit and then I turned around
and his mom wasn't there. So I got to carry him around with me for a
long time… and I didn't mind one bit ☺ While I played with the
children, the men (and James and Flipper) planted 3 fruit trees and
replanted the garden we built last year. They were hard workers! I
just walked around and checked up on everyone. I joined Precious and
another woman (I remember her from last year but not her name) to
watch them make the beans we brought. It was fascinating. They cook
them on an open fire. And then I got summoned over to the gogos and
one younger mother who is new this year. She sais N's gogo wanted me.
And I LOVE N's gogo so I was happy to leave my chef position. As the
new woman translated, I heard N's name. And she told me that Nongcebo
is coming THIS EVENING!!! So, SHE WILL BE HERE TOMORROW!!!! First
thought? GOD IS AMAZING!!! He knew ALL ALONG that Nongcebo was going
to come. He just wanted to test me and see if I would trust Him. At
that point, I squealed and jumped up and down and hugged N's gogo so
tight. Her gogo gets how much I love her granddaughter. I have no
idea how it went from not possible to coming that evening. All I have
to say is THIS IS GOD'S TRIP.
Okay, so that MADE MY DAY!!! More like my year! Tomorrow I will have
my arms around my sweet little friend! And, because it has been an
argument all year long, I asked if Nongcebo is a girl or boy. SHE'S A
GIRL!!! Of course she is! Tophe and Claire are just dumb and were
totally wrong!!
Then we went to lunch at the creek with the beautiful waterfall and I
ate my classic lunch, the fruit & the lunch bar. Oh, how I have
missed those precious lunch bars!!!! I savored every bite of it. I
bought 3 on the way here… my collection has started. I heart lunch
bars ☺
After lunch we went back to about 20 new children. All from last
year. It's so cool to see all the children grown up! We pretty much
did the same thing, and more and more kids kept showing up. At 2, the
school children started to come down the mountain. So then they
started to show up. But around that time we went into the community.
We found out that Ngobile got in a car accident last Thursday. The
combi flipped. So we went to see her first, luckily because I was
dying to see her. We went into her house and she was lying down. She
had a bandage over her left eye, abrasions all down her left leg, and
her right leg is very swollen. It was so sad. And then we went to
visit a man dying of AIDS, but I didn't go in there. After that we
went to see this adorable TEENY 11 month old baby girl. She was
adorable… but literally TEENY! She was like 4-month-old size. And
even sadder, she was HIV+. That is why she was so small. It was
heart breaking. I can't stop thinking about her. Her mother died of
HIV so now her gogo is taking care of her. We prayed over she and her
gogo, for strength and health. I will be praying for and about her…
when I get back to the States, I am really going to look into helping
her. With the right medicine and love, she can live a perfectly
wonderful life.
We got back to our community to about 130 children. I have no idea
how they got there or where they came from but we had fun with all of
them. It was a bit overwhelming because they were all charging at me
telling me "Shoot me shoot me!" but it was fine. I just loved on the
sweet ones and didn't let the others take advantage of me. Taking
multiple pictures of 130 children is too much. I have 3 days to take
pics of them all so I didn't feel too bad about saying no.
After that, we had the women sing for us. Ummmm can I please have a
whole CD of this? I would play it on repeat! I love their voices.
Their harmony. The way they praise God. I took lots of video of them
singing… I'll have to upload the videos when I get back because I
can't even get one picture to upload now. But anyway, it was so
awesome! They even sang all the songs we taught them last year,
especially the favorite "woohoohoo" song! I love watching the gogos
dance to that! Best song ever!!
Well I better get to sleep! It's past 11:30 and I have an early
morning tomorrow… and a BUSY BUSY day ahead of me… and NONGCEBO TO
SEE!!! AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't wait!!!
Love you Grace, Mom, John, Ella and Joe! And Nanny and Gary!
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