Good times, Great People, Gorgeous Place

Oh the adventure of getting where I am sitting is even more exciting than last time! Katie, Mark, Cassandra, and I woke up early to walk the 20 minute walk to catch the taxi at the rock pile. Well, one taxi went by- it was full. We sat and waited (and laughed and danced a little) for another hour before we heard a van in the distance that we were hoping was a taxi-it was! We got up, brushed the dust off and were ready to hop on! Oh, wait, it was full. Out of frustration and a little bit of laughter at the situation, we decided to begin to take the journey head on and walk. We had been walking for just under and hour when a small army of children began to follow us, ask us questions, and tell us how beautiful we are for another thirty minutes or so. What a funny picture that must have been! We then realized that our ambitions of being proactive in walking to the town of Moehles Hoek were too high of a goal. I asked the man of our group, Mark the bodyguard, if we were allowed to ask the next little white pick up that drove by if they would drive us into town. He gave me his permission. About ten minutes later one came driving up! We hopped in the back with the other four Besotho men and were on our 30 minute drive down the mountain. To our understanding, it is illegal to have white people in the back of trucks, so we were expecting to be dropped of once we got into city limits. There are usually police waiting there to check the cars for random and pointless things-but no! Not this time. Score! Every time we came to a hill, with the harsh winding smacking us and the cold rain pelting our faces, we were nervous that there would be a checkpoint- but no. Not a single one! It was totally God's favour that we made it all the way here with out any run-ins with the law. Praise him for that.

These last two weeks spent with my host family have been quite wonderful. There was a Father (which is something that is not common around here), a mother, Mapei 22, Dineo 19, Itumeleng 16, Ntsebeng 12, Makhakhe 8, and Keneuoe 5, as well as Thabang, a 17 year old cousin of the family that has lived there nearly his whole life. The culture of the people of Lesotho is unique. Compared to (which I do not like to do, for the record) Mozambique, these people have so much. I was almost a little shocked when I learned of some of the conveniences that they have. But then I began to think about my life..and my house.. oy was I humbled. The house I stayed in had three different areas, rooms if you will. One area was where they (my mother and three sisters) kept all of their kitchen supplies and did much of the cooking and where a few of them would sleep. Another area was where my parents and the rest of the family would sleep and store the majority of their belongings.Then there was the room where Kaity (the girl on my team that I was paired with because there are almost twice as many of us than there are resident students) and I slept along with the table that we ate most of our meals at. The two of us did almost everything together, including sharing the twin bed, the family's only bed. We ate well. Close to five meals every day. Each meal consisted of a large portion of rice, homemade bread, or pappa (which is pretty much just a stiff starch of a food-I will most a picture later). They would often times pair that with some type of cooked greens or maybe scrambled eggs. We had a very simple diet, but it really was delicious food.
We got to help Mapei a little on his fields. I wish we could have done more work, but because of the lack of manure and the ground being too hard to dig, we were kind of at a stand-still. However, we still learned a lot and even got to help his family plant other gardens. The gardens in his "front yard" were beautiful. I know that where ever it is that I live next- I WILL have a garden like that- and I WILL plant God's way. In addition to the gardens, the had a few different stable areas to hold their dozen cattle, twenty sheep, and few chickens. They also had a few ducks waddling around. Funny story-it started out with five..but oh wait. I got to help SLAUGHTER one!!!! So now they have four. Ohhh was it nasty. Ducks have a lot of feathers. A lot. Mr. Quackers sure did taste good though! It was a huge honor that they chose to do that for us during our stay. I also milked a cow for the first time. Yup. Yes I did. And it was awesome. I did good. It was weird that there was a huge sore on its side that was right in front of my face-but I tried to ignore that and focus on the utters. That was on my bucket list though-I am pretty excited I got to cross it off- in Africa!
While we were with him we also did a lot of walking and hiking. Seeing God's creativity in his creation blows my mind every single day, almost every single hour. The Kingdom of Lesotho is absolutely gorgeous- like nothing I have ever seen. I even got to see dinosaur footprints! I also got to go fishing for a whole day. What an adventure. I didn't catch anything- but the experience and the company made it well worth it.
There are many, many stories I could write about for hours, but unfortunately my time in the internet cafe is about to expire. I guess I will just have to sit down and tell you them in person. I can't wait! I have pictures. Lots of pictures.
God is good. So good.
Pray for the path he has in front of me though, please. There are some great things he has laid in front of me, and I want to go where he wants me to be! I just don't know what that is yet. 

A Glimpse at God's Way

After a twenty minute walk to a taxi station made up of a small pile of rocks, a forty minute wait, a forty-five minute taxi ride, and a ten minute walk, I am finally here in an internet cafe and able to write a few thoughts down! This first week here in the Kingdom of Lesotho has been absolutely incredible. The scenery is completely breathtaking. I really, really, really have missed the mountains of Colorado, so the mountains here are a sweet thing to be surrounded by. I cannot wait to post pictures of this part of His Creation that has swept me off of my feet. The partners that we are involved with here are just as awesome. We are working alongside a group of people that are striving to change Africa's way of farming community by community, country by country. The idea of plowing has been instilled in the hearts and minds of the people here. However, this method is tearing the land apart. It has increased the terrible problem of erosion in the area. I will be able to go into further detail about specifics of how and why later, but there a much better way of farming has been discovered- Farming God's Way. This consists of three main components: Don't plow, crop rotation, and covering 100% of the land with mulch. The University of Tennessee is one of the partners in Growing Nation's (the name of our partnering organization) hope to scientifically prove how this method is drastically better than what the Basotho (pronounced Ba-soo-too, the natives of the country of Lesotho) have been taught for hundreds of years. We have been studying the facts and the method itself and it is beyond obvious how farming this way can improve all of life for not only Lesotho, but Africa as a continent. It is an unbelievable honor to be included in the work the Lord has begun in this place.
This week was a really nice week of work as well. As a team, we have been helping build a home for a couple partnered with Growing Nations that is assisting us in our itinerary for our time here. There has been a lot of digging, but I have had the amazing opportunity to put my Hilton Engineering skills to work and help with the plumbing, paneling, and eventually tiling of the house! It is so fun to see the way that God puts pieces of the puzzle together with out us even having an idea.
These next two weeks, however, are going to look a little different. Growing Nations has started a resident student program. Young adults from the community enroll in a year long program that teaches them exactly what it means and what it takes to farm God's way. This includes them staying at the property that we have been staying at for weeks at a time, and then going back out to their communities and villages to teach them this method. Well now, we get to go with them! I have been assigned a host brother; his name is Mapei (pronounced Ma-bay). We will be living in a community called Majakaneng. He is shy, but has begun to warm up to my silly sense of humor and ability to laugh at almost every situation. He is the oldest of seven kids! He has three brothers, and three sisters. I am so excited to meet them! I will be assisting him in fertilizing and planting seed and learning how to live life like a Basotho!
I am so in love with this place and in love with the work that God has set out before me.
Pray for good rain, we need it here!

There's Only 1 Race: The Human Race.

Sooo..I had to say good bye to my family in Mozambique. Not “I will see you next week,” or, “I will see you soon,” or even, “I will see you in the next couple of years!” No, I had to say good bye. It was hard. It felt so strange. I have been living with these wonderful people for nearly six weeks then it felt like all of a sudden it was over and done with. Before I had to, however, I had a really sweet moment with my [host] mom. Prior to traveling into Mozambique, we had a day of shopping in a mall just outside of Johannesburg and as a team, we chose to purchase a pair of tennis shoes for each one of our host moms and then reveal the gift during our last week with them. I figured it was a thoughtful and nice idea, but it didn’t mean much to me at that time. Man- it started kicking in when I started to get closer and closer with my family. My mom and her six children chair approximately 4 pairs of flip flops. One of my brothers has an old, ripped pair of white sneakers only to wear with his school uniform but other than that, those are the only shoes they own. It makes me feel a little ridiculous thinking of how many pairs of shoes I have waiting to be worn in my closet back home. For the most part, they walk around bare foot- unless it is the hottest part of the day-between 12:00 and 3:00 in the afternoon-when the sand is hot enough to give my feet blisters, or if they need to walk somewhere to fetch water, go to the market, or visit a friend or neighbor’s home. (I have tried to walk barefoot when they do, and only wear shoes when they do, so my radical Chaco tan lines have realllly faded). The concept of giving my mom a pair of shoes- specially sized and chosen for her- is such a huge change in what they are used to. It’s hard to describe how special that moment was when I got to crouch down, loosen the laces, and slip them onto her feet. With a big grin on her face, she said she would go to the market the next day. Bernadette, our community partner, made the all of the mother’s biscuits with jam, which they never get the opportunity to eat something as extravagant as that, and cups of cold juice- such a treat when all you drink is well water that is as hot as the day is. I felt so small but so full of joy when I got to sit next to her for the last time and look at the black and purple sneakers I bought just for her while she slowly consumed the rare delicacies. Right before we hugged one last time, she took the tennis shoes off because, as she said, she didn’t want to get them dirty on the walk home! She loved them! She was so happy- so proud.

I, along with the rest of the team, have made it a vital priority not to give things to the people we meet in the communities we live in. Giving is not a bad thing-it is a wonderful thing; I have just experienced that in this exact situation. But what I have to offer is far better than whatever it is the people are asking for-God’s love and His love through me; that is why I am here on this trip. Not to see how many hundreds of people I can convert or to give money where I think that it is needed. Often times when I think money or objects are needed, they might not be. We as Westerners believe when something is broken- it must be fixed, or when something isn’t as productive and efficient as possible- we have to make it better! But that is not the case! Life isn’t lived like that here. It is lived from a completely different perspective and world view. And it works. If we try to come in and push or give our ways of thinking on these people- it does them no good to allow them to learn and grow and thrive on their own. Like the wonderful saying, “If you give a man a fish, he will eat for a day. But if you teach a man to fish, he will eat for life.” Not only do these thoughts go along with giving, but they go along with teaching. My way isn’t always the best way. Even though doing something a certain way may work perfectly in the United States that does not mean it will work best for the people and environments here. It is been a continuous struggle seeing the little that the people I have been surrounded by live with and what seems to be ineffectiveness or lack of efficiency in their work. If I could just give them this, or give them that, if I could just buy them a whole new wardrobe so they don’t have to wear the same thing week after week, if I could show them that if they fetched water this way, or walked this path back home-it would save time, or if I could just sponsor their food portions for a week..a month..a year-their life would be better, right? Well, it could be in some ways. No doubt about that. I know they would be happy- who wouldn’t? But by doing these things, it continues to build the wall higher..and higher..and higher. I am talking about the wall between white and black. In their (the ‘poor’ African’s) mind, there is an undeniable stigma between races. This is something I did not prepare myself for coming into this trip. In the Western World, we have Racism- there is no denying that. But Racism here is like nothing I have ever seen before. To try to put the severity of this issue into a few paragraphs is asking too much, I could continue on for quite some time. Here is one example: they think that because we are white that God will hear us when we pray, bless us when we ask, and just plain love; but because they are black God does not hear them when they pray, He does not bless them, and He does not love them. They believe lies like that with their entire being. It breaks my heart. They think that since I am white I am pretty and because they are black they are ugly..hideous. Are you kidding me?! They are BEAUTIFUL. I even trained..haha..my littlest sister, Lucia (2), to scream, “Bonita!!” after every time I said her name. She got the hang of it..and even started yelling it after I would say our other sisters’ names, or after saying Mama. (Bonita=beautiful). I think they finally got the idea with how gorgeous I think they all are. Again, I don’t want anyone to think I am saying that giving is a bad thing- I am just saying that sometimes, the wrong help can do a lot more damage than good. So when I got to build up my mom solely with our friendship and love, and then got to bless her with a gift- it was a beautiful thing. It wasn’t that I just handed her something I thought she needed, I caringly laced her up in a gift I gave her because I love and respected her. That pair of shoes is now more important to her than it would have been if some white stranger tossed ‘em to her with a smile and a thumbs up. Some people have asked why we are staying with host families. We have been given the opportunity of a life time and so have the families. The message of a white person living on this Mozambiquen’s level  communicates with each individual as well as the community as a whole that they have meaning in life. This then allows the wall I hate with a passion to begin to crumble. It has been an incredibly powerful honor to be a part of that. I thank God for placing me in this battle between lies and truth.

I fell in love with my family and with our community partner, Bernadette’s, heart along with the work of reconciliation that she has accomplished and continues to accomplish in Macuba. Mozambique is the true, deep, real Africa- and I cannot say enough how much I loved it.

For the past few days our team has been resting at our Community Leader’s home just outside of Johannesburg in Centurion. It has been a huge blessing to just relax a bit, and really just hang out. It feels as though we were tired and in need of a refresh- and our time here has been exactly that. It has also been quite interesting going from life in a hut in Mozambique to staying in a more modernized city. Believe it or not, I got hit with a bit of culture shock. During one of the stops at a gas station on our bus ride from Maputu to Joburg, we had the wonderful opportunity of stopping for a bathroom break. It was strange for me to sit on a toilet instead of squat in the sand, it was strange that I didn’t have to use one of the rolls of toilet paper I have been carrying around with me the last month and a half, it was strange that there was a sink with running water to wash my hands in-soap dispenser and all, of course the automatic air-dryer for my hands caught me off guard, but especially the closing and locking door for privacy. It didn’t bother me since those are all such nice things to have, but each and every one of those details stuck out to me like they never have before. Oy-what is it gonna be like when I get back home?? I’ll make sure to write things like that down and post some of them on here. J

Here we go.. the last leg of our trip. Is this real? It doesn’t feel like it. I ask that question nearly every single day. Its crazy! I love it! We leave this morning for a six or so hour bus ride to Lesotho (seems like a blink of an eye after our 68+hr bus ride to Macuba). I am not quite sure the details of what is in store for us, but I know it includes learning about farming God’s way and partnering with people in the community to assist them with the work in the fields! It’s going to be a completely different experience than the Rez, Vredendal, or Macuba- and I can’t wait to see what the Lord has in store. My understanding is that us girls can only wear our skirts-I can honestly say I never pictured myself farming in a skirt-wahoo! Ima do work.

Loving, missing, and praying LOTS.

In Mark 9:23, Jesus states, “Everything is possible for him who believes.”  

Mama with her new tennis shoes!

My infamously favorite cashew tree standing strong next to my house.

Casa de Banjo -> Gas station bathroom.

My mom helping set up the mosquito net..from previous blog!

3/4 sisters. Lucia (2), Vitoria (9), Inacia (4), and I eating some mangas!

Bonita Lucia!