Finding Baby Moses

Wednesday March 26, 2014

            It has come to my knowledge that today has quite the significance. If I return home as scheduled, I have exactly one month left in South Africa. This puts me in something I’d like to call emotional purgatory. That sounds a little too severe; let’s go with emotional confusion instead. I have enjoyed South Africa and the quirks hidden within the Eastern Cape, however, I miss my friends and family back on the home front too. Although, my mother is seriously thinking of visiting me if by some miracle I am able to extend my stay. Yippee!

            The last couple of days have presented a colorful patchwork of events. For Bible Club, we taught about the story of baby Moses. To illustrate this story, we actually had a baby Moses that we hid around CATCH for the children to find. I walked up to the groups of children, holding little black baby Moses. They all giggled and I would explain (with the help of a translator) the game and then disappear to hide baby Moses somewhere. When I returned, the children would disperse in search of sweet baby Moses. They searched and searched until one proud little face would come running toward us holding baby Moses in the air like a golden metal. These children find excitement in the simplest things. They teach me to be patient and soak up each moment in life. When I know that I’m in charge of something, I can tend to get very wrapped up in the planning. Stressful planning. God forbid something not pan out right. Why not allow life to develop more like one of my artist books? It’s easy. With each embellishment that I add, I have an image I’m trying to achieve. Things don’t usually go as planned. I put glued the paper on upside down, or accidentally rip a corner off. These are just grand opportunities for new avenues of creativity! How great would it be to apply artist book guidelines to all the areas of my life? Planning and arranging suddenly appear less threatening and more peaceful. Treaty signed.

            To accompany my new artist book lifestyle, I got the hurr to compliment its inspiration. I finally did it; I got my hurr braided with fiber added. This process took 6.5 hours! The woman that braided my hair is from Zimbabwe originally, but lives in South Africa now. I went to her house and became part of her family while she braided away. She shared a lot about Zimbabwean culture and fed me a delicious meal along with it. Their house is quaint; therefore, the whole family shares one room. Her husband and two kids were with us the whole night. They asked about African American accents and if yellow taxis really swarm the streets in America. I explained that not all of America is like New York, which is what they see on TV. They told me about Zimbabwe, which is the “Breadbasket of Africa”. They actually eat vegetables there!! Tonight, I Skyped with two of my most common chatters and then packed for a road trip starting 8am sharp tomorrow morning! We are going on quite the trip, which includes an event that absolutely terrifies me to death, but I cannot be so close to the opportunity and not take it. Hopefully I can sleep!

Goodnight!

xoxo.