Pictures I Did Take...Part 2

Here are a few more...

Pictures I Did Take...

A lot of these are up on Facebook already, but I thought I would post a few of my favorites here too...it may take a couple of days' posts to do it!

Pictures I Didn't Take...

One of my traditions I have started doing on the plane ride home from anywhere is making a list of "Pictures I Didn't Take" on each trip. Most of the times, these are moments when it would just be impersonal and awkward to pull out a camera to take a picture during these special times; others I simply didn't have my camera with me...but for most of them, a camera wouldn't begin to capture the moment! Here are just a few from this trip:

• getting out of the van our last morning at the care point to have a little boy that I had been building relationship with all week walk over to me to pick him up
• knocking that same little boy over later that same day...I was standing at our van talking to our driver, and didn't realize this little boy had walked around the van to follow me, and was about to grab onto my leg, but I didn't see him and turned to walk away from the van and walked right into him.
  
• seeing the red sun set every afternoon over the hills as we drove on the bumpy, dusty, dirt road back to our hotel
• having random strangers and children wave to us as we drove past
  
• talking to myself, to remind myself I was driving in Africa on the left side of the road, as I drove one of the missionary's car to run an errand
• watching the women of the church give gifts to the pastor & his wife (for pastor appreciation Sunday) and pray for a long time over he & his wife
• seeing elementary aged kids caring for their younger brothers & sisters as if they were their parents
• watching a high school girl's eyes light up over the dress she was given
• having the kids allow us as complete strangers wash their faces and give them new & clean clothes to wear
• watching my teammates gently & tenderly wash children's feet
• hearing about the children laying hands on one of the missionaries to pray for her headache to go away
• talking with a hotel employee as I sat outside drinking coffee & reading my Bible one morning
• going on a home-visit where all of the logs holding up the corners of the house were completely missing the bottom 2 feet of the log, and wondering to myself how the house was staying up
• seeing random flowers & signs of life in fields that looked full of dead grass & weeds
• seeing kids play soccer barefoot, stopping every so often to pull a 2 inch long thorn out of their foot
  

Not In Kansas Anymore

I had big plans and ambitions to blog almost every day while we were in Africa...but obviously that didn't happen. It shouldn't have surprised me that we didn't have internet access after the first two days...after all, TIA (This is Africa). So I will spend the next several days catching you up on blogs I would have posted from Swaziland...had I had internet!

Whenever people ask me for a word to describe myself I have a hard time, but one of my teammates used one this past week that I thought fit well...adaptable. God has wired me to be pretty flexible and adapt to various situations, and for that I am thankful. But even so, whenever I enter a different setting, I have to redefine "normal" and remind myself that I'm "not in Kansas anymore!" Here are a few examples of that different kind of normal in Swaziland, things that made me take a second look or think twice...
- everyone calls you "sisi" (sister) even if they haven't ever met you
- when a cell phone rings, it's not surprising to turn and see someone in traditional tribal clothing pull their phone out of a hidden spot and start talking on it
- many people in Swaziland who have facebook on their phones don't have indoor plumbing and may have never used a toilet or shower in their lives
- when you see men walking cows in the road, it's not as unusual as the fact that they are possibly taking them to pay a bride's father her "bola" (dowry - 17 cows for first and last born daughters, 13 cows for the rest)
- in cultures where people drive on the left side of the road, they walk on the left side of the sidewalk, use the left door, walk up the left staircase, etc.
- it's not surprising for women of all ages, and even men, to have hot flashes because it is so hot!
- visitors often walk around a car once before getting in...because they have forgotten which side of the van the door is on
- when ordering water, you have to specify between tap, still bottled, and sparkling bottled...with or without ice
- it's not uncommon for a 2 lane road to often be driven on as if it has 5 lanes
- chips are fries, crisps are chips, and ketchup is tomato sauce
- it's not uncommon to see a huge baboon on the side of the road as you are driving

There are just a few to give you a glimpse into the last two weeks of my life...much more on Swaziland to come over the next several days!