As my eyes are opened...

I know that I often write about my experiences and adventures here in Africa, and that in telling these stories I reveal that I am greatly enjoying myself... and I am!  But there is a part of my everyday life here that I have yet to find words for.   Every day I come face to face with extreme poverty.  I am surrounded by amazingly precious people who are in circumstances that I cannot imagine, yet I am here witnessing it.  I am a problem solver but I cannot solve poverty.  I also face every day my own affluence.  I also cannot solve this.  I am a student; I live off student loans and the love of those around me... but I am rich beyond measure.   Every Sunday we open our kitchen to anyone who is hungry.  We feed close to 2000 people lunch every Sunday.  This has been happening for years.  The first time that I was here in 2006, there was often riots on Sunday because the people were so afraid that there wouldn’t be enough food.  Now there is order and lines and hand washing, the people know that there will be enough food.  But today as I was helping to serve these precious people, I realized the beans that my hands were covered in are most likely the only source of protein that these people will eat for the whole week.  Today, as I did dishes and served food, my heart broke (again).  Oh how I wish I could provide for all these people.  What also touched my heart today was the joy that I witnessed in the people.  As I went into the masses of children to pick up dirty plates many of the kids would follow me laughing and playing... I could not have found all the empty plates without their help.  As I took that pile of plates I did not just leave it on the counter but took it right to the massive sinks and did the dishes... the smiles on the kitchen staffs faces could not be matched... I wash plates much slower than them!  Every day this culture and these people are impacting my life.  I hope and pray that I can love them well.  That is the reason that I am here, to love the one in front of me.  What does real life love look like in this kind of poverty?  

Well the day is ready to begin, I am sure it will bring with it new opportunities to love people.  I wish that I had the words to truly convey what I experience here.  Please continue to pray that I will have wisdom and strength to face each day.  Also please pray that the people that I interact with this week would experience God.  Thanks for reading my thoughts.

Blessings and Back Rubs

Candace

I am ALIVE... Really, really Alive

So, I think that it is about time that I updated this little blog thingy :)

Life has gotten busier now, it is so good but it leaves less time for blogging!  I don't really know what to blog today so I will just type and see what happens.  I only have 2 weeks left of my practicum which mean I have been here for three weeks!!  In one moment I feel like I have been here for years and at othe moments it feels like I arrived yesterday.  I have finally settled into a routine... of course the routine will change when students arrive and my job changes but for at least a week and a half, I have a routine.  Why is it that as humans, we so need routine??  The two strangest things about my routine are: a) I start my day before 6am! and 2) I have to clean my feet before bed every night... or my blue sheets turn a reddish brown.  The best part of my routine is the starbucks coffee that I brought with me!!

The missionaries have really embraced my presence and that feels really good.  I am now to the point that I am wondering if I really need that last year of school or if I could just stay here forever...

Even as I typed that I could HEAR my Aunt looking at me... no worries, I will be home the day before school starts!

Well, I know that I am rambleing, I just wanted to check in and let you all know that I am doing very well.  The bed bugs are GONE, praise God!  I had a quick tummy bug but it is gone and I am washing my hands like I have OCD!  I slowly learning more portuguese... pray I pick it up quicker, sentences would be good.

Well, Love and hugs and back rubs

I will let you know when something unordinary happens!!

Candace

A Poem of sorts and a story

I wish death on your head

     Oh, bugs in my bed

You’re not welcome on my skin

     Neither you nor your kin

Because of the itch

     My Mattress I did ditch

Poison I did liberally spray

     Under my net you can no longer play

Oh how I wish death on your head

     Oh, gross little bugs in my bed!!!

So I have been dealing with critters in my mattress... I look like I have chicken pox!  I have now switched my matress, sprayed my new one and washed my sheets.  I still needed to spray the bed frame because they can hide in the cricks!!  So I headed over to the clinic to see if they had more (you can't get the right spray in Canada, so I didn't bring any).  It was after hours but the back door was open so I knew that I could walk in.  I poked my head in and saw no one so I walked into the next room... still no one.  Then I heard a little voice "Who is here?"  I checked the other room and saw no one... I could tell where the voice was comng from!  I answered "It's Candace"... then the nurse said "I am in here, come in"... the only room left to check was the medication room, so I tried the handle.  I opened the door to find the nurse and another missionary checking their email and facebook in the only air conditioned room!

It made me laugh that they would check email with the drugs... but ac is ac and I would do the same!!

I have now sprayed my entire bed and put cream on all my itchy spots.  I am worried that Cheeky has bed bugs so she is not allowed in my bed anymore!!

Blessings on all who read about my little life in the dirt

Sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite

Candace

Kitchens and Bathrooms

I think that I have the best practicum placement ever!!   I don’t think my instructors would have let me come if they knew how much fun I would have!!  There is a missionary here who is an RN from Canada and she has agreed to be my preceptor.   She works with Public Health which means that the community as a whole is her ‘patient’.  Right now she is in charge of the kitchen which is cool because she is changing the diet to include fruit and milk and eggs.  I have the pleasure of helping her acquire all the goods for the kitchen which includes food for 250 widows and those in extreme poverty that is given out every month.  At home we would phone in an order to some food company or we would go to costco... but not in Africa!!!  We get in a truck and drive all over town, down roads that cannot qualify as roads or even allies, we find the product barter the price and then load thousands of pounds into the truck... if they first place doesn’t have enough we drive somewhere else to get the rest... AND that was just the first thing on the list!!!

When my nurse got here she found a major problem... a gazillion people come to the center and there was only 4 latrines, or squatty potties, AND they were mostly full!!  Once she spotted the problem she became the construction nurse and hired a team to start building new, fancy, permanent latrines.  They are vented in such a way that the flies can’t get out the potty hole (because it should be covered) so they fly up a large pipe toward the light... they can’t get out the metal grate so they die and fall back into the latrine... this should greatly minimize cholera and other gastro bugs!!

Because the kitchen and latrines have been two of the major projects that my nurse has worked on, my job will be to teach many small groups of people (400-500 people total).  The first session I get to teach about why we wash our hands, not just because Mama Linda said so!!  The second session I get to teach about Latrine etiquette!

So that is a bit about my responsibilities and what I will be doing for the next month!!

Blessings on you head

Candace J