This blog can do no justice to the 4 weeks I had experienced at my service site here in Africa, but I shall try to write about it anyway. I have started and already completed my service sites, a three and a half week program that is part of my community engagement class. I was placed in a community center called Riv’ Life (River of Life) with 7 other girls here in Africa with me. I was blessed with an amazing team of wonderful women, and we all became very close over the days spent together.
In our weeks at Riv’ Life, we experienced a lot and were able to serve and engage with the community in many different ways. We spent some mornings in the township of Cinderella Park, where we met various families. Many that we met were HIV positive and shared their lives and stories with us; stories that I could never imagine claiming as my own. We also spent time at a women’s HIV support group every Tuesday and Friday, where we met some very fun and incredible women. There we learned to crochet (even though they did most of the work and laughed at ours), learned some Zulu dancing, and explored their community. We also brought them some food that our American culture is used to (cheese quesadillas, guacamole, and rice crispy treats) and they served us some cultural food as well. One of the worst experiences I have had here in Africa has been the day they entered the room with hot bowls full of some hot gritty potato stuff (seriously the best way I can describe it) with some cow intestines and stomach lining on top. As they would call the meal, it was the “insides of cow”, and it was horrible! The other girls and I sat around for 20 minutes slowly taking bites and feeling sick at the very sight of the meal. We honestly felt like we were going to be sick if we ate it. While it is a much longer story, I ended up piling over half (very sneakily) into a bag I had while none of the ladies were watching me. It saved me from a week of stomach aches.
We also spent a majority of time with the children at the community center. We saw them every afternoon. Some days me and the group felt tired and frustrated. We dealt with more snot and getting peed on and kids whining and crying then I ever have before. However, behind those harder days, I saw something more serious and sad and wonderful all at once happening. I saw the way life is in a way I have never experienced it before. I saw this in my days with the women and in the communities as well. I witnessed how older kids would walk miles to Riv’ Life for a single meal after school, and how many of the children we held and came to love over the weeks have no food for lunch, have scabies and stages of HIV, and that not every child I held and played with will even grow up to see their adulthood. It is heartbreaking, and I know it must be breaking the heart of God as well. But I also saw how full of joy and how happy people can be with the little they are given. The people in these communities were so thankful for the gift of life and for another day here on earth. They have such a deep faith and trust in God, and I have seen His presence and powers working in these people.
Service sites were enjoyable and probably the best thing this semester. There was laughter, painting, fun and inside jokes with my team. However, underneath all of that there was a feeling of hopelessness and sadness at the things that hurt the wonderful and innocent people in this world. Until now I had only read or seen movies that try and depict the horrors and tragedy that HIV and poverty can bring, but to actually make friends with the victims and to hold the babies it effects further opens my eyes shakes me to my core. I realize how privileged I am to have had such an easy and pain free life, and realize how spoiled I am to have had felt somehow “entitled” to it this past 20 years.
I am still processing the effects that only 4 weeks at Riv’ Life had on me, and probably will be for a long time to come. I know there are and will continue to be changes in myself and my life now, and that is one step closer to a purpose this experience might have been about. I’m not really sure where I see God in things sometimes, but there were certain days I look back on when I could have pointed and said “There He is. Right there.” Now I only need to figure out where I am supposed to go from here, and where God can be the one to see me and place me in the midst of all of this.
