Bad Foot.

3/10/11

Today, ladies and gentleman, was the day we have all been waiting for.

For TODAY, my faithful friends, was a glorious day.

It was the day… that shan’t be forgotten.

T’was the day…

When SERVICE SITES BEGAN!!! Haaaaaalelujah! Halelujah!

AH! The day of expectation!!!!

Actually, no. I had prided myself on NOT having any expectations for the service sites. “No, man, I am going in with a CLEAN slate! I am a white board ready to be drawn on! A blank canvas ready to be colored!” Pshh. What a LIE.

Today when my expectations were totally, utterly, and completely DEMOLISHED, I realized that indeed, I totally did have expectations.

Bad foot!

Literally.

In Zulu, the phrase “bad foot” is like shoot, danggit, snap, sad day, etc. But I just really have a bad foot… ps, my foot is obese. It looks like I gained 50 pounds. My shoes don’t even fit on it. Niiiice.

ANYWHO! Service sites! I am Ethembeni with the lovely Karissa, phenomenal Lindsay, irreplaceable Tyler, angel Shayna, and wonderful Aimee. What a TEAM!

We began by writing out our goals for our 4 weeks at Ethembeni. What is super cool is that we have mostly the same goals! Convenient? I think so!!!

I LOVE Claire. She is my supervisor from England. She has requested that whenever I am around her, I whip out my English accent because it is “so good it’s scary” and she misses hearing people talk like her. You don’t need to ask a theatre freak twice to do an accent! And GUESS who joined me?! Tyler. I love that kid. Such an awesome big brother J He is switching between Scottish, English, and South African. Impressive. J

At lunch time, all of the staff gathered. Out of NOWHERE, they began singing! In FOUR PART HARMONIES!

I was like, THIS IS WHERE I BELONG!!! FINALLY I GET TO LIVE IN A MUSICAL!!!!!!!!!! SO glorious.

Hey, Danielle? You have often asked me what my favorite sound I’ve ever heard is. And I didn’t have an answer for you. But now I do. Hearing Africans randomly bust into worship songs is definitely the most beautiful thing I have ever heard. Not only are their voices lovely, but their hearts SHINE. They don’t sing songs like we do. They choose music that is on their mind RIGHT at that moment, and SING it from their HEARTS! They BELIEVE what they are singing! It is such a worshipful experience. I LOVE IT.

Oh my goodness! I just realized that I FINALLY got my random lunchtime sing along! YESSS.

When the kids arrived, they taught me a beautiful lesson.

I want to have the love of a child.

You know about the faith of a child, right? Blindly accepting and trusting fearlessly?

Well, the love of a child is quite similar. They blindly and fearlessly love. They don’t care who you are! They don’t care what you look like, what you do, where you’ve been, they simply love YOU. They want to be held and cared for.

THAT is the love of Christ! I need to love people not because I know them or enjoy them. But because they are children of God, and that is ENOUGH. I want to love as Christ loves me.

Don’t confuse this with true friendship. Obviously, I am going to choose friends wisely. But I mean, loving my neighbor! Going into live with the attitude of you need love and I’m going to give it to you.

That’s what I want my life to be about.

It was frustrating to be on crutches, because most of the time, the kids played games requiring some type of movement, which counted me out. So I did a lot of listening and observing.

I also met my social worker today. Each of us Americans are paired with one social worker to get to know the community. My social worker is very sweet. She is uuber quiet… and her English? It’s about as good and polished as my Zulu. Ahem.

So, that is a serious challenge. She won’t talk to me unless I ask her questions. But she doesn’t understand the words “how” or “what.” So… it’s a lot of me pulling out my Zulu.

This is hilarious. Why? Because we only learned how to talk about the GARDEN and the KITCHEN. My teacher thought that would be the most practical.

My winner sentences:

Uthanda yimba imigodi? You like to dig holes?

Uyakwazi ukupeka iqanda? Do you know how to cook eggs?

Nigthanda izimbali. I like flowers.

Yeah. I’m practically fluent now.

There was one boy in particular that I am in LOVE with! He was about 8 years old, wearing a yellow Batman shirt. Obviously great. For like 30 minutes, all he wanted to do was play with my hands. I have never seen a sweeter smile.

I wanted to ask him if he had parents. ‘Cause if he didn’t I was going to take him home. Unfortunately, I only know how to say, Ngithanda ifosholo. Or, I like shovels.

On the way home, I got to be DJ since I was in the front seat. We all rocked out to A Walk to Remember. PRICELESS.

I am going to be VERY challenged by this site. There is no schedule, which freaks me out. And plus, I feel like I am being served instead of serving others, thanks to my foot. I am SO grateful to everyone who continues to help me WITHOUT COMPLAINT!!! SHAYNA, you are a gift from the Lord in this time!!! Thank you for your beautiful attitude and lovely heart. I really appreciate it!

Going on a retreat tomorrow with the Ethembeni team! So excited! (PS, I couldn’t spell “excited.” So, I made it “exited.” And I was all, “Karissa,” who is sitting next to me, “I just discovered there is no “c” in “excited.” She looks. “No, Renna. That’s definitely “EXITED.” Goood one.)

PS: here is a pic of the waterfall I survived.

See where the water stops at the top on the right? I fell juuuuust about there. 

I’m proud.

If I had to hurt my foot, I totally would have chosen to fall of the waterfall. Come on. THAT'S epic. :)

Just trying to be positive, don't mind me!

Goodnight, Moon.