I like dreaming big … I don’t want to miss anything. And when I’m visioning for my life, just in case my imagination might be limited, I often ask for my request to be fulfilled “beyond my wildest dreams.”
Africa was just that … all that I anticipated and so much more!
I had imagined the experience of “foreign teacher.” But being completely immersed in the Zulu culture and isolated from all things familiar brought a wealth of experience that I am still unpacking, waiting to see just how it will inform my life and work.
During the six weeks I spent in KwaZulu-Natal, I experienced:
• A tribal elder’s death and funeral rites
• Three separate occasions of young women begging me to bring them to the US
• Bird songs in the air night & day that kept me from feeling lonely
• A 15 year old girl’s self-induced abortion of a 5 month fetus
• Intentional starvation of children as a means of controlling their behavior
• The most incredible red dirt on earth
• The tragic death of a 7 year old boy struck by a car as he walked to school
• How 60% unemployment kills hope
• Using music to alter behavior in a heartbeat
• A village in terror when their school is struck by lightning
• Wild monkeys invading my living space
• Superstitions of the witchdoctors taking precedence over well established medical data
• Making a speech at a teacher’s conference on HIV/AIDS in rural schools
• Amazing hugs from hundreds of kids who are so hungry for love
• A proud 12 year old boy holding his new toothbrush over his head like a prized treasure
• Being asked to speak at a government workshop on child literacy
• The best and the worst of race relations
• 1st & 2nd graders voluntarily staying late after school to practice their letters & numbers
• Running for my life with tears in my eyes
I took in a LOT in six short weeks. Much of it I don’t even have words for yet.
I haven’t given up my passion for working with women and children. In fact, I understand the need to help in a much deeper way. And I am convinced that I got exactly what I asked for: an experience beyond my wildest dreams.
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