Silly Sally

The other day I did a stupid thing.

It was Friday night, I’d just had a lovely African dinner with the Beecks, our guard Andre, and Asedi- a Malawian friend who has been involved with Global Interaction for years. It was 8pm and I was ready for bed. 

Buuuut it was 8pm on a Friday night. 

Every part of me is ingrained to stay up late on a Friday night, and there was no way I was going to let this be any different… So instead of watching some tv show or good movie, I decided to put on a slideshow of my friends on my laptop….with emotion evoking music. Silly Sally…. I spent about two hours watching my beautiful friends and family’s faces flash on my screen- new friends I’ve made here, and many friends from home. If you ever want to feel lonely, sad and at the same time incredibly blessed, definitely do this…. 

Reflecting on this time i spent makes me feel a bit selfish for having a pity party...Actually, really selfish. I wasted a whole night upset and feeling alone when i'm actually so lucky to have friends and family supporting me...and i get to see you all again one day soon (really soon if my visa doesn't work out :S)  I so love my friends and I’m so grateful to have an amazing bunch of people around me (both in Perth and here in Moz). I'm so very blessed God has brought me here and is continuing to give me the strength to face each day. I feel doubly blessed to be able to get to know the people on this team better. They've become dear friends to me and i'm grateful for the time spent with them.

I’m having a blast here. It’s a challenging experience and full on at times, but to be in the presence of these people on this team and to be learning so much daily from them and from God in this capacity is such a rewarding thing. It’s cool. Seriously. I feel so out of my depth, so lacking in everything and seriously silly at times but I think that’s ok. It’s good to be out of your comfort zone. I would recommend this very much… I really would!

One example of being out of my comfort zone just happened earlier today. I was walking home through the village and saw about 20 girls dancing and playing outside a Church. They saw me and getting caught up in the enthusiasm I decided to join them in their dancing. They thought it was the funniest thing ever – a little, not completely coordinated white girl trying to keep up with these energetic young girls! I love dancing, it was nice to be able to communicate with these girls when we don’t speak the same language! It did get a bit full on though, when they decided the dancing wasn’t as fun as playing with my ‘long’ hair. Somehow I ended up in the middle of these girls (there now seemed to be double the number at least) they were pulling on my hair, touching my skin…it got a bit intense… don’t get me wrong, I LOVE being the centre of attention… it was just a …different experience… Eventually I worked my way out of the group and continued on my walk home.. T.I.A. Next time, I’ll tie my hair up.

One thing I’ve been learning here is … how to cook! I’m nowhere near awesome yet…but luckily the people around me are great cooks! I’ve joked that I have cooking lessons with Hannah every weekend… She always seems to be teaching me new things in the kitchen. Yesterday we even baked an apple pie…from scratch!!!!! No tins or pre mixes for us! (although the helpful hints from Heather probably helped dramatically..) I’ve come some way since my cocoa powder biscuit incident in the first few weeks I was here. (That’s for you Cam- it had to get a mention at some point!) Who knew cocoa powder isn't the same as drinking chocolate? And incase you're wondering, putting more cocoa then the recipe calls for will not make the final product more chocolatey and yummy...what it will do is make it feel like you have just eaten a pile of bitter sand. Yep. the things you learn in Africa.

Thanks for reading and supporting! I’m very grateful to you all!!

The epic Apple Pie 

Cooking dinner