Update from Lauren
Hey yo! Update #3!!! I guess I’m getting better at this lol. Figures, it takes three weeks to teach Loho how to blog right. Okay exciting stuff first!
—> I have two Siswati names
1)Mbali (mmm-bah-lee):: it means flower
2)Tibuyile (tee-boy-ee-lay):: it means to return or “I will return soon”
—> some of our danced a traditional Swazi dance with some girls from the local school (the gogo teaching it loved the dance moves we had) =)
—> Teresa and I got my hair braided this morning!!! (side note:: owie) mama you’ll be thrilled 😉
—> I got a chance to play doctor on a little girls foot that had gotten super duper infected.
–> Christine shut the power off in our house just so we could see the stars outside
–>we watched Prince Caspian….on the ceiling
—> we colored amazing pictures and decorated powerful verses…and now they’re on the walls of our home =)
—> we lined our staircase with mattresses….and rolled down it like a slide. (EPIC)
—> Every Sunday I’ve been excited to go to church….and to tithe….and to sing…and dance. (you might find that a small feat but what if I mentioned that the entire service runs anywhere from 3-4 hours long?)
Okay so after my breaking moment with Ngabisa and her family I guess you could say I thought about home a lot. But its gotten better. It’s so easy to embrace the culture here…they are just so colorful and friendly. It really is amazing to see a nation ravaged by AID’s and poverty, hold on to hope with everything they have. My heart breaks more and more for them everyday, they are drowning in suffering of every measure and yet they give with all they have and try to make sure their appearance is a happy, go-lucky, welcome to Swaziland. It blows my mind.
This being our last week has been really hard on some of the people we’ve grown with. Especially the kids at the Care Point, even though I got a few addresses there were tears shed and hearts broken. It breaks you…slowly…but it does. And you don’t realize it until you remember your leaving in 4 days. And these kids who have nothing, made you their everything. As much as you might want to stay or take them with you…you can’t. You can only take the memories, pictures and videos.
God has taught me so much. About value, love, respect, sacrifice, and true heartbreak.
I’ve been saying a prayer for everyone back home. I love and miss you all and can’t wait to see your smiling faces (Katie, thank you for putting my return on your calendar. I feel pretty important. By the by I had a dream Luca died and came back to life. But I’ll explain that when I get home)<—speaking of getting home….momma if you could get a hold of Tonya or Doyle and give them my flight info on how I’m getting from Atlanta to Midway or wherever that would be awesome…either by commenting on this or commenting on this. =)
Loves and kisses
Loho
