When In South Africa…

..do as the South Africans do?!
South Africans eat Mopane worms; therefore I tried Mopane worms. I am pretty proud of my worm eating abilities. For a girl who can barely handle eating a garden tomato because the taste and texture weird's her out, this was a pretty big achievement. My neighbor was even proud of me. 

Lots of wormy love,
Kelly 

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Having Light .... Pass It On!

A few months ago I was more than privileged to be able to travel to the country of Lesotho. For those of you who do not know, Lesotho it is a landlocked country, completely enclosed by South Africa. My YAGM group and I spent time hiking through a small rural village, learning about schools, the countries history, culture and the poverty that has stricken this small country.

While I was mesmerized by the beauty surrounding me and the time spent with the locals, I was also feeling a great sense of pride. I left the country feeling so proud of my friends and professors at Wittenberg University who have given up weeks of their summers and winter breaks to make a difference in the communities here.  I am so encouraged by their passions for Lesotho and pray that this passion to serve continues, both in and out of this beautiful country.

Peace!

Kelly

Tiger Up Witt!

The Big Mac

It would be a big fat lie if I said that my time in South Africa has  been all smiles and rainbows. I, like most people who are thousands of miles from home, get homesick. I thought that I was pretty good at hiding this emotion from the people here , but about a month and a half into my stay it was very apparent - even to strangers.  
Due to the schools being closed, I had a week off of work.  This amount of down time was not very good and it made my head spin like a ferris wheel.  The honeymoon phase was really wearing off and I was craving something “homey”. This feeling built up and built up all the week thru to Sunday when I felt the waterworks starting. 
My host rotates churches every week and she decided to change up her rotation to a church that she said  I would really enjoy.  In my head I thought to myself, “if it is under 5 hours long, I will enjoy it!”.   I know, I know, it was a bratty thing to think.  As soon as we walked into the service I started to cry. It was in English and it had a worship band - two things I had not encountered since I arrived here in SA.  As we were leaving, I over heard a man talking to my host sister. He said to her,
“You should take her to McDonalds. She looks homesick and they have those in her country!”
I laughed at his comment and realized that it was probably the week’s worth tears that were now on my face that clued him into my homesickness. I am pretty confident that I had tears in my eyes the whole service.  They were tears of joy,  for I was able to get a little piece of home, thousands of miles away. Now, I probably will never go back to that church and may not experience another service here in English again, but I am very thankful for my host realizing what I needed that day and allowing me to experience it.

Peace,
Kelly

PS  This occurred at beginning of my journey, I thought it was pretty funny and fit into my journal of grateful moments...No worries, I am doing very well.:)

Spiders and Bats and Lizards…oh my!

Growing up with Bob Mack as a father has given me a great appreciation for the natural world around me. Much of my childhood was spent following animal tracks, catching snakes in the forest, and saving injured birds, bunnies and turtles. It wasn’t until recently that I realized that this love for nature has its boundaries and this specific boundary is my front door. I love nature in the outdoors, but when it creeps past the cement that acts as a barrier between my bed and the grass outside I will protect my territory

In the past few months I have had some fun roommates, and not of the human kind. These roomies include spiders the size of tarantulas, lizards, beetles, and bats. Part of me is convinced that God is playing a little joke on my cries of loneliness.  As much of a nuisance as these creepy crawlers have been, they have definitely provided many stories, some of which I would like to share with you.

Spiders and Beetles: Lets just say that I find so many in my house dead and alive that I tend to just kick them under the couch and just sweep them out at the end of the week!

Bat: I am convinced that if I had a hidden camera in my house I could make money off of the ridiculous videos that they would produce. I really wish that I had a camera rolling on a specific Monday night. I was sitting on the couch writing letters when I heard a bit of a ruckus in the kitchen. I hear noises quite frequently and I wasn’t in the mood to investigate what may have been going on it there. About 3 minutes later this black blob came swooping in front of me on the couch. It flew into the wall and continued to do it over and over -smacking itself senseless. This is what I was hearing  in between my screams as I covered myself with a blanket and rocked myself in the fetal position. I had a quick flash of The Office episode where Meredith gets rabies from a bat and I found myself spending a few minutes talking to myself to build up the courage to leave. I quickly got up and ran to my neighbor’s house to see if she could help me.
We walked into my house and the first thing she grabbed was a broom. This tiny little 40-year-old woman just started swinging at this bat. Naturally the bat defensively started to fly all over the room. I hid in a corner covered in a blanket, laughing and peering out to see what was going on. This went on for about 20 minutes until she looked at me and said “Lets get the Raid. Let’s make it drunk!” Next thing I knew, the two of us were hysterically laughing as she is spraying Raid at this bat flying around the room. - Long story short, after quite a while the bat finally fell to the ground and we swept it out the door. My animal loving heart was frightened we killed this confused bat, but thankfully once it got outside it flew away. I haven’t had another bat yet (knock on wood), but I still need to patch up the hole in my kitchen ceiling where the bat crept in.

Lizards: I found a couple of these geckos in m my house and unfortunately am not 100 % positive that they have left. Let’s hope that they will not climb into my mouth like the scene in Parent Trap!
I pray that all of you are having bug and critter free homes these days!
Blessings,
Kelly

Appalachia Service Project

 *This one goes out to all of my ASP friends.*

 It’s been mentioned before, but I tend to have an abundance of thinking time here.  Mostly my nights are spent reading, writing and  reflecting on my day, my future plans and the things that make me happy.  Guess what?  Appalachia and my memories of ASP (Appalachia Service Projects) are usually on the top of my “happy thoughts” list. It wasn’t until recently that I realized how many times a day I am reminded of my time at ASP.  Below is a list that I have compiled of the many similarities between my time in South Africa - specifically Masealama.
1.) Morning Mountain Mist. To some, the dark foggy mornings can be a bummer, but for me it brings me back to doing early morning hardware runs. I find myself sometimes singing “And the sun comes up about 10 in the morning…” , because much like Harlan County, Masealama doesn’t see the sun on most days until about 10 am.

2.) Bulk Ordering. The former OpCo (Operations Coordinator) in me was so happy when it came to grocery shopping the second month I was here. In October I didn’t spend nearly as much on groceries as I did in September. Why you ask? Bulk ordering/buying. Thank you Mr. Craig Griffie.
3.) Cows and Dirt Roads. Pretty self explanatory.

4.) Bats. I feel like there are a pretty good amount of staffers that have their own bat stories. I don’t have one from ASP, but my SAfrica bat experience has been pretty epic. (In future entry)
5.) Feeding the Masses. Everyday it is my job to help distribute and feed 80 little children. This is about just as chaotic as feeding 80 hungry volunteers.

6.) Showering? Lets just say I should probably bathe more often than I do. I am pretty sure that the addition of “every staffer must take 2 showers a week” to the staff contract was because of me and my first summer on staff. Thanks to my summers on ASP staff I learned some pretty nifty ways of cleaning up.
6.) Talking to Laura Kelly. Some miraculous thing happened when I moved here. I started communicating with Laura Kelly more frequently than I have since we both slept next to each other on the science room floor of Chapmanville Middle School.
7.) Relationship Ministry. I realize the idea of accompaniment is much like how we describe ASP's ministry.  ASP is " a relationship ministry with construction on the side”.  I see my time with YAGM as an extremely similar concept - with my work in the creche and youth on side.

While there are many similarities - a few of the differences would include: no blue monster, lots of sleep and being alone instead of always having 3 other hooligans to stay up to absurd hours of the night with. I try to look past these differences and savor the similarities that bring me back to one of my favorite places with some of my favorite people!

I miss all of you and I pray that you are doing well!

Peace, love and the Porch,

Kelly