by Amy Straub
In the airport now about to board our plane for the journey home. What a time it has been. I have had once in a lifetime kinds of experiences. I can now say that have been feet apart from a lion on a beautiful plain and heard its roar in the dark of night. I have shopped at beautiful markets filled with handmade items to bring home to my loved ones. I have visited the most amazing African wine farm at sunset. I have gathered seashells from the Indian Ocean. So for all of this I am grateful. These are the moments when I got to experience South Africa as a tourist that I will surely not forget.
I recognize fully, however that those are the moments that are a product of my privilege. And I have also now seen poverty the likes of which I have never observed. Housing communities and situations that will be engrained in my mind for the rest of my days. I have met and played with child after child who has lost his/her parents. This stuff was hard. Really, really hard in a way that I do not have words for. At first it felt like ok, so there is the fun stuff, then there is hard stuff. I’ve got this. A little blend and back and forth and that will get me through emotionally.
BUT, come to find out, the true once in a lifetime experiences, the true joys, were the ones embedded in all that I originally perceived as so sad. It was inside the bungalows, tattered and torn, but filled with the love of caregivers, so scarce in resources, yet committed to raising children that are not even necessarily their own. It was in the dancing and singing of the children of mosaic praising God for their life and what they DO have. It was watching the teachers and leaders hugging and kissing children of their program as though they are their own. The “boots on the ground” people that were all around me. Everywhere I turned! People committed to the children of this world so far beyond what I have ever observed. I have seen the literal interpretation of “it takes a village”. This is not just a saying. It is real. And it works. This partnership of loving families in a community with the support of organizations like Mosaic and Ma’s of Wellington made it clear for me to see.
I am coming home different. Yes, I have new ideas for preschool and The Well thanks to the good people of South Africa. I have new vision. My heart feels too big for my chest right now- with joy AND hurt. My brain feels muddled and exhaustion is at its peak. I am not the same person because of what I have seen and I am good with that.
BUT, come to find out, the true once in a lifetime experiences, the true joys, were the ones embedded in all that I originally perceived as so sad. It was inside the bungalows, tattered and torn, but filled with the love of caregivers, so scarce in resources, yet committed to raising children that are not even necessarily their own. It was in the dancing and singing of the children of mosaic praising God for their life and what they DO have. It was watching the teachers and leaders hugging and kissing children of their program as though they are their own. The “boots on the ground” people that were all around me. Everywhere I turned! People committed to the children of this world so far beyond what I have ever observed. I have seen the literal interpretation of “it takes a village”. This is not just a saying. It is real. And it works. This partnership of loving families in a community with the support of organizations like Mosaic and Ma’s of Wellington made it clear for me to see.
I am coming home different. Yes, I have new ideas for preschool and The Well thanks to the good people of South Africa. I have new vision. My heart feels too big for my chest right now- with joy AND hurt. My brain feels muddled and exhaustion is at its peak. I am not the same person because of what I have seen and I am good with that.
No comments:
Post a Comment