thoughts on a rainy day

After I published my last post, I sat down in the little internet cafe that we were in and began to journal because I felt like I had not really gotten anything off my chest by writing online. As I began to pour my heart out to God on paper. I became overwhelmed at the feeling of loneliness I was having in a city of 1 almost 2 million people. I felt so selfish because I wanted to be able to serve the people I was meeting but at times all I could think about was my own pain. I praise God that He has renewed my spirit and yesterday and today have been such a blessing.

Every Mon, Wed, and Fri we take a poda poda (public transportation in the form of cramming as many people as possible in to an poorly ventilated van-good times) into Freetown (we're living in an area called Murry Town about 20 minute drive on a good day). There we walk to Lighthouse a ministry of WMF in which we disciple, tutor and love on about 17 young men and women. WMF helps them get a job, save money, tutors and best of all we get to spend a lot of time with them. Yesterday I was talking with Teneh. She taught me a rhyme that went along with a clapping game. Learning this rhyme was hard because most of it was in Krio which I have a hard time understanding. We laughed so much as I attempted to learn this simple childrens rhyme. It was about looking for something in a mommy and in a daddy and then I went to England and found a stone...yeah, I dont' really know. But the laughter and time shared between Teneh and I was beautiful. It really lifted my spirits.

The encouraging comments an e-mails I have recieved since I have been here have been a huge blessing. I want to thank each of you who has taken the time to do that. Hearing from home makes home feel not so far away. Even still there are moments where it feels like I'm not really in Sierra Leone. Dinner is often one of those times. A couple of nights ago, we decided that we wanted to make fried rice. Jeremy had said he'd seen it made so we though we'd give it a chance. Little did we know what he meant by that is he had gone to Beni Hanna's (spelling?) once and seen the professional chefs there do it. To make a long, very humorous story short. It came out mush with bits of egg, cucumber (why? b/c we found some in the kitchen) and onion. It was hillariously bad. There was a local man over meeting with someone and we offered him some and he just laughed as tasted it. That was the reaction of all who put their life on the line to try our pathetic attempt at Chinese food. Mind you, Faye is Chinese and she would have done a fine job, yet we decied to do this on our own. It was hillarious. If I ever figure out how to put pics on the internet, I'll show you what it looked like. We have some more practicing to do before we cook for out host family. I figure if we're in Sierra Leone and we can't even cook rice (which is practically eatten at every meal) we probably shouldn't try to impress our hosts yet. :)

We (Faye, Katie, Jeremy, Ericand I) went to a museum today and it was very informative. Perhaps not accurate but informative. Our guide was very funny because he kept having to read the little plaques before he could explain the artifact that we were looking at-he didn't really see it as odd but we got a good laugh out of it. At one point we were looking at a picture of the first President of SL and Faye asked if he is regarded as a good man. He said he didn't know because he wasn't alive then. Then, we were looking at this large rock that the first Dutch people to land on SL had carved their names in and we asked if it was the original rock. He said yes, as he chipped away at the plaster. It was too funny. I had a hard time not laughing in front of him at times.

Everyday I have to choose how that day is going to be for me. At times feelings of depression want to control my day but I have to fight it and choose joy. I am not nervouse about my depression here because I know that God wants me here. Not just my body but my mind, heart and spirit. I need to be present. I am humbled to report that God has answered my prayers so quickly. It is my job now to make the most of this and really step out in faith knowing that regardless of the height that I step off from God is taller.

If I had to leave a prayer request today I would ask that you pray that as I am given opportunities to step out I would without hesitation. God bless,

Haley Kate