February
19, 2011 TMSC,
Kenya - Day 6 – Saturday
I woke up
this morning and needed to pee so badly! Luckily, Amanda did, too. By the
position of the moon we figured it to be about 6am. We were really mad bc we
wanted to sleep in! there were 3 reasons that we wanted that sleep…1- it was
Saturday, 2- sleep is the only thing that makes the hunger ‘go away,’ and 3-
the later we slept in, the shorter our hunger filled day would be! We laid back
down and woke back up at about 10am. We thought that by sleeping in that the
day would go by faster…boy were we wrong! The day dragged on and on! We had our
breakfast tea and then I pressed on with the reading program. It was only a few
hours until lunch – our only solid meal. I felt every minute until it was
lunchtime. The feeling of hunger is now mixed with nausea. I’m so hungry that I
feel sick – all the time. The ugali, yet again, was just something temporary to
stop the pangs. I almost feel worse after eating bc my body just wants more.
It’s really frustrating. During ‘lunch’ we decided that we needed another bath.
Every time we lift our arms we almost pass out :/ it’s pretty bad. We set some
water outside to let it warm in the sun. we ran out of kerosene again so we
decided to go get it before we bathed. We went to the shack up the road, first
– no one was there. Then we went to another place and they were closed. We
ended up having to go all the way to the corner to get our kerosene. For
whatever reason, I decided to bring all of our money for the week…I’m glad I
did! We ended up buying 2 mangos while we were there!
As we
were buying the mangos, a well dressed man approached us. He asked us where our
shoes were! Our reply was, ‘You see those kids over there without shoes? If
they don’t have them, why should we?’ He looked STUNNED and then offered to buy
US shoes! We told him that if he really wanted to do that for us, that he
should just buy them for the children instead. It was a pretty powerful moment.
Later
down the road we met another man. He approached us and inquired about our
lamps. He said he had never seen one before. He was also a very well dressed man.
He asked us what they were for and how they worked. It was a big moment for us
bc we really got to be the ‘poor’ people. It was exciting, even if just for a
moment, to get to share our new world with someone else. At that moment, we
truly were ‘the least of these’ to this man!
The walk
home was a lot harder than the walk there. The sun was SO hot and today it made
the ground extra hot! My feet felt like they were walking over hot coals. Now,
they feel extremely sunburned on the bottoms :/ It’s not a good feeling when
you have ¾ of a mile left to walk! When we arrived back at Tumaini we were told
that we were going to get water. That’s not exactly what I wanted to do, but we
had to. We carried as well as motivated the kids today. They weren’t really feeling
it either…but they are so strong and so beautiful!
When we
got back it was way past bath time and we were GROSS! The water wasn’t quite
warm enough, but it felt so good after being so hot. As soon as we were clean
it was back to work on the books until dinner time. I love the tea here….even
after a week of nothing but tea and ugali…I still love it. It’s soothing to my
hungry belly and it tastes really good, too. But, the love affair doesn’t last
long :/ About an hour after drinking it I’m hungry again. I’m getting pretty
tired of going to be hungry….but who am I to complain? It’s only been 6 days.
Devo time
with the girls tonight was great. We talked about how God can turn our trials
into good things that will glorify Him. This Challenge is a prime example of
that. Our trials this week will be turned into awareness that WILL glorify Him!
I know that our pains of this week will be used. I thank God for our trials and
for what He will use them for! He is so much bigger than anything we can
imagine and I know that He is in control! Praise God! Bwana Asifiwe!
Day 6 Complete
No comments:
Post a Comment