parents, you should be proud!

Hey there!

I have to say to all parents who are reading this that you should be incredibly proud of your kids. I am so impressed, amused, and inspired by every one of them. They are stepping out of their comfort zones, taking on challenges, working hard, dealing with more "time stress" than I ever expected for Africa, relating well, sharing and processing their experiences, thinking through things in neat ways, and making me laugh. It's really great getting to share this experience with all of them and I feel so blessed to be here.

My big Africa moment today was needing to "rescue" Pam from a bug the size of a small mouse that was crawling on her shoulder in the kitchen. This was the kind of Africa-sized bug that I have always been afraid of. I only let out a few shrieks disturbing everyone's dinner as I flicked it off of her with a towel. Ack!

I'm not much of a blogger and people have put things much more profoundly than I can, but I can say that it really is a great experience to be here. Mwandi is much more beautiful than I expected with the tropical plants and the Zambezi views. I've really enjoyed working with the teachers and getting them set up on the laptops and am proud to be a member of "Nerds without Borders". The presentation of the laptops at the school was an amazing moment--surreal, humbling, and inspiring. The children are adorable and seem to love "Ring around the Rosey" and other games we've been able to come up with. It's been so fun playing with the kids--if you pick one up you immediately have the rest of the group reaching up their arms saying "Ni Na" ("Me too.) They seem to soak up any attention we give them. I've enjoyed trying to pick up on the native language, Losi, and people are so excited when you speak to them in that language. (I've been surprised that there has been as much of a language gap as there is here. I was thinking that English was more what they spoke here with only some people speaking more Losi. Even though adults all speak English, the kids we encounter use Losi and the younger the child the less likely they will speak English). The work of the mission is far-reaching and inspiring and it is exciting to be an encouragement and a tangible support. I'd love for us to figure out ways we can continue to partner with them!

Thank you so much for your prayers. I do have a sense of being upheld in them: Team dynamics are great, everyone has stayed healthy, we're having meaningful team time and I think we are providing encouragement, inspiration and support for people here while at the same time we are learning a lot!!

One of the challenges is definitely exhaustion so I'm going to sign off here so I can try to get some sleep tonight. (You should hear the amazing night and morning noises around here).

Hope all is well! Comments to this blog really are great in feeling like we are all together in this trip so keep them coming. (We definitely had a lot of team members blogging tonight, mostly of their own free will... :-) )

Blessings,
Cindy

p.s. Sara and Doug -did you ever get your answer about Hippo House? It is just the name of the house that we're doing work on--don't think there's any particular significance to its name...