One Month

Afrikan Adventure: Where do we go from here?

Greetings and Salutations dearly beloved! Or as they say here in the motherland, “Muli bwanji.” Four weeks have come and gone and my Zebra riding skills still aren’t quite where I would like them to be!

So with orientation over this past week we said goodbye to the Ripley family (the team leader and family who are back in the states for several months) and hello Shannon, not me, but a new Shannon. She is here for three months to shadow the medical team. As you may have noticed, her name is the same as my name which creates confusion all around. Therefore, I have taken the name Shakira-Sholonda Jackson to avoid confusion…it really just rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it!? Okay, perhaps that has not happened, but maybe it should.

This past week I had the opportunity to tag along with the Cross Project Team who works in HIV/AIDS ministry. I attended their team meeting, sat in as they wrote the curriculum for that weeks class and then attended the class with them. There is talk of starting a more youth oriented aspect which I am very interested in. Also this week I visited a couple of the community schools. These are schools in the compounds (aka the poorest parts of the city) that the local compound church helps run. There is typically about five different grades all being taught at the same time in the same room…pretty crazy.

On Saturday we had our little kids club and I learned a new game along the lines of “Duck, Duck, Goose” except you take a ball and chase the person you choose around the circle and try to peg them off with the ball. Pretty entertaining, I must say.

With my first month past here I have hit a bit of a funky state of frustration and discouragement. I am in a place where there is so much need and yet I feel helpless and like I am not doing anything right now. It is like I am in some strange warp, stuck behind barriers, both physical and cultural. I miss my home and the things I know, the people I love, being able to get to the places I want to go, being able to walk around by myself, and swimming in the public pool. Well, maybe not the latter! I am told this is a normal thing that happens to everyone and so I’m sure it will pass. God has brought me here and will continue to guide me. There is much I have to learn.

I hope you are all well. Let me know what you are up to these days…and feel free to send pictures so I can put you on my wall of fame!

God Bless,

Shannon

“And He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him who died for them and was raised again” ~ 2 Corinthians 5:15